Halloran wins OK to drive for dive class

With his political career underwater because of a federal corruption indictment, disgraced Queens City Councilman Daniel Halloran is spending time on one of his favorite pastimes -- scuba diving.

Halloran, a Republican who still represents the Whitestone and Douglaston sections of Queens until the end of the year, recently received permission from the federal judge hearing his case to travel out of the area to Pennsylvania to take dive-certification classes, court records show.

Halloran, 41, had had classes scheduled last month and will have more sessions the weekend of June 15-16, defense attorney Dennis J. Ring said in a recent letter to Judge Kenneth Karas.

"He has been interested in that for some time," Halloran spokesman Kevin Ryan said Wednesday.

Bail restrictions in the corruption case confine Halloran to the areas of the southern and eastern federal districts in New York, so he needed court permission to drive through the federal districts covering New Jersey and part of Pennsylvania. Karas granted Halloran's request for a bail modification to travel to the diving course.

Ring didn't return telephone calls seeking comment.

Halloran was indicted in April on charges he conspired with state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D, WF-Jamaica) and others to arrange bribes for city Republican leaders so Smith could run on the GOP line in the New York City mayoral primary.

Halloran also was accused of accepting more than $18,000 in bribes for agreeing to steer up to $80,000 in council discretionary funds to what was really a shell company run by an undercover FBI agent and cooperating witness Moses Stern of Rockland County.