By AUSTIN FENNER
June 11, 2008
Two carpenters-union officials were found not guilty of accepting $50,000 in bribes yesterday, four years after a judge overturned their convictions for the crime.
Michael Forde, the executive secretary of the New York District Council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, and Martin Devereaux, a former business agent with the union, were exonerated after 90 minutes of deliberation in the retrial.
They were accused of taking the payoffs in 1998, but the 2004 convictions were tossed because jurors improperly discussed the case.
"I feel good. It's been 10 long years," Devereaux said.
