Sheldon Silver’s long-suffering wife, Rosa, is appealing for leniency for her corrupt husband, revealing in a letter to the judge who will sentence him next month that the former Assembly speaker has prostate cancer.
“I am not sure what I can say to Your Honor except that my husband is a good man,” Rosa Silver wrote, noting that her husband — who federal authorities revealed last week carried on Albany affairs with a former assemblywoman and a top lobbyist — was diagnosed after the government started its case against him.
“It terrifies me that his father and brother both died from the same kind of cancer Shelly was diagnosed with,” she said. “I am afraid he will be sick and, even worse, alone.”
His lawyers noted, “Mr. Silver was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. On April 30, 2015, shortly after the Government instituted this case, Mr. Silver underwent a biopsy that confirmed the disease. Throughout 2015, Mr. Silver underwent a series of radiation treatments, including a stereotactic high-dose radiation treatment.
“While Mr. Silver’s prostate cancer is currently in remission, he faces severe potential side effects of his cancer treatment, including bladder and other internal organ damage.” Because “there is definitely a recognized risk of the cancer returning,” Silver “needs to be monitored closely” for the next five years, the lawyers wrote.
Silver’s father, Nathan, died of complications from prostate cancer at the age of 80 and his brother Joseph died of prostate cancer at the age of 70, the lawyers noted.
In his own letter to Judge Valerie Caproni, Silver for the first time offered an apology for his betrayal of the public trust in a massive kickback scheme that netted him millions.
“I failed the people of New York. There is no question about it,” Silver wrote in a short, four-paragraph letter to the judge, who will sentence him on May 3.
“What I have done has hurt the Assembly, and New York and my constituents terribly, and I regret that more than I can possibly express,” Silver said in the letter, which begged the judge to consider his good deeds when deciding his jail term.
It’s a far cry from Silver’s previous claims that he would be vindicated in the political corruption case, which could put him behind bars for at least 15 years.
“As I will continue to do everyday, I apologize to the court, the people of the state of New York (particularly my constituents and my former colleagues), and most of all, my loving family that has stood beside me, always,” Silver wrote.
Manhattan prosecutors, meanwhile, said Silver’s crimes were so “egregious” that?he should be given a jail term greater than any New York state legislator who has ever been sent to prison.
“Silver’s offenses indisputably were among the most serious of public corruption crimes in New York and elsewhere,” the feds wrote in their letter to the judge.
“In light of the egregiousness of Silver’s conduct and the need for deterrence, the court should sentence the defendant to a term of imprisonment substantially in excess of the 10 years recommended by the Probation Office and greater than any sentence imposed on other New York State legislators convicted of public corruption offenses,” they wrote.
If the feds get their way, the fallen power broker will be facing at least 15 years behind bars as ex-Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. received 14 years last year — the highest so far for a New York state legislator.
The government also wants Silver to forfeit “all of his crime proceeds,” which they calculate at $5.2 million, and pay a fine of at least $1 million.
Prosecutors also dismissed concerns about Silver’s cancer, saying his “health concerns can be handled effectively by the Bureau of Prisons, which routinely deals with such issues.”
Silver, 72, long one of the Empire State’s most powerful and feared politicians, is seeking leniency due in part to his advanced age and failing health, including the prostate cancer. Silver’s lawyers, in a separate filing Wednesday, also cited his “lifetime of achievements” and good works, including his advocacy on behalf of women.
But the feds argued that Silver’s character is in question even beyond his crimes, citing the favors he gave to women “with whom he had extramarital relationships.”
One of the women, whom The Post has identified as Janele Hyer-Spencer, received an $84,000 job with the state Education Department, sources have told The Post.
The other woman, who The Post has learned was lobbyist Patricia Lynch, received “preferential private access” to the powerful pol, prosecutors said.
Silver was found guilty in November of extortion and money-laundering after a jury found that he had traded political favors for more than a decade to enrich himself with millions in bribes and kickbacks.
He was found guilty, among other things, of using his position as speaker of the New York Assembly to get real estate developers to send their business to a law firm that was, in turn, paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Silver, who gets more than $70,000 per year in a pension paid for by New York taxpayers, is disputing the amount of his ill-gotten gains.