STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Controversial “trial-by-combat” lawyer Richard Luthmann is currently serving a four-year federal prison term for his role in a scrap-metal fraud scheme.
Whether Luthmann will also be convicted on unrelated state charges accusing him of creating fake Facebook pages in candidates’ names to try to influence political races remains to be seen.
Luthmann’s criminal case in state Supreme Court, St. George, has been adjourned to June 8.
A conference had been scheduled for Monday.
Courts have been rescheduling their dockets since mid-March in a bid to limit the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Most cases have been pushed back to May, June and beyond.
In November 2018, Luthmann was arraigned on a 17-count indictment accusing him of multiple felony charges of falsifying business records and identity theft. The charges stemmed from his alleged activities on Facebook.
It was believed the be the first case of its kind in New York.
He was also charged with criminal impersonation, election law violations, stalking and falsely reporting an incident to the NYPD.
Special prosecutor Eric Nelson alleges Luthmann, 40, set up Facebook pages impersonating former Republican Assembly candidate Janine Materna and Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore).
Luthmann also created a bogus Facebook page impersonating John Gulino, the Staten Island Democratic Party chairman at the time, Nelson said.
The election law violation charges stem from alleged attempts to affect the results of two primaries - Materna’s race against Ronald Castorina for the Republican candidacy for the South Shore Assembly seat in September of 2016 and Rose’s race against Kamillah Hanks in September of 2017 for the Democratic candidacy for the North Shore City Council seat.
Castorina and Rose won those contests and went on to win the general election.
The stalking charge pertains to the Materna page, which allegedly prompted threats against her from other individuals on social media, said Nelson.
Luthmann was also accused of falsifying e-mails pertaining to District Attorney Michael E. McMahon’s campaign in 2015.
Nelson said the charge of falsely reporting an incident to police stems from a report Luthmann allegedly filed claiming his computers were “trespassed.”
However, it was determined that was not the case and Luthmann had made false statement to a detective, said Nelson.
Luthmann, who was based in Castleton Corners, has denied the charges.
If convicted at trial of any of the felony counts, he could be sentenced to up to four years in state prison.
Plea negotiations have been underway between Nelson and Luthmann’s attorneys, Arthur Aidala and Mario Romano, for some time.
Should Luthmann admit guilt, his state sentence could run either concurrently or consecutively to his federal sentence.
Luthmann was sentenced in the federal case last September.
He had previously pleaded guilty in March 2019 to one count each of wire fraud conspiracy and extortion conspiracy.
In admitting guilt, Luthmann said he was “representing a company that was ripping off Chinese people and companies in the scrap-metal business.”
He arranged for junk material to be shipped to overseas clients who had actually contracted to receive valuable scrap metals.
He also was involved in an extortion plot.
Luthmann had already spent 28 months behind bars pending the disposition of the federal case when he was sentenced in September.
Besides prison time, Luthmann was ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution and forfeit $130,000.
Known for his penchant for bowties, round eyeglasses and battling with local Democratic party leaders, Luthmann earned notoriety in the summer of 2015 by challenging foes in two lawsuits to a trial by combat.
No blood was spilled, fortunately, as the cases were settled the next year.
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