WHITE PLAINS – Former Mount Vernon City Corporation Counsel Lawrence Porcari has been found guilty by a jury of abusing his position as a public official by engaging in a scheme to defraud the city’s Board of Water Supply of $365,000 to pay the personal legal expenses of the former Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas and a public relations firm.
A Westchester County jury found Porcari guilty of corrupting the government, grand larceny, defrauding the government, and four counts of offering a false instrument for filing.
According to testimony and evidence at trial, Porcari misappropriated funds from the City of Mount Vernon Board of Water Supply to pay law firms for the personal defense of former Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas in criminal proceedings, as well as a public relations firm hired at the time of Thomas’ arrest in March 2018.
Porcari is scheduled to be sentenced in March 2020.
