Israel Ruiz Jr. (born July 10, 1943) is an American attorney and politician from

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who served as a member of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan com ...

and

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs. The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...

Early life and education

He was born on July 10, 1943, in Cabo Rojo,

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

in 1968, and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in 1972.

Career

He was a member of the

from 1975 to 1989, sitting in the 181st, 182nd, 183rd, 184th, 185th, 186th, 187th and

188th New York State Legislature The 188th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 4, 1989, to December 31, 1990, during the seventh and eighth years of Mario Cuomo's governorship, in Albany. Backgr ...

s. In 1985, he ran in the Democratic primary for President of the New York City Council, but was defeated by

Andrew Stein Andrew Stein (born Andrew J. Finkelstein; March 4, 1945) is an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician who served on the New York City Council and was its last president, and as Manhattan Borough President. Early life St ...

, coming in third among six candidates. On August 23, 1988, Ruiz was indicted for

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

and

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

. He was accused of funneling part of the money received from the State by a non-profit organization into his own pockets, and of lying to a bank while asking for a personal loan. On November 8, he was re-elected to the State Senate. His trial began on January 19, 1989, in the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a United States district court, federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York (state), New York ...

. On February 3, 1989, he was convicted of filing a false loan application statement, but was acquitted of the perjury charges. Controversy arose again whether the conviction would vacate the State Senate seat automatically, or whether the seat would be vacated only after sentencing, or not at all. State law expressly states that the seat is vacated upon conviction for a felony. Previously it was assumed that the seat would be vacated automatically only in case of conviction in a State court, but would be vacated in case of conviction in a federal court only at sentencing. Also, the crime of which Ruiz was convicted is classified under federal law as a

felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...

, but under State law only as a

misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than adm ...

. On February 10, Attorney General

Robert Abrams Robert Abrams (born July 4, 1938) is an American attorney and politician. He served as the attorney general of New York from 1979 to 1993 and was the Democratic nominee for the 1992 United States Senate election in New York. Early life and educ ...

ruled that Ruiz's seat was vacant and ordered to withhold the payment of Ruiz's State Senate salary. Abrams cited a decision of October 1988 by the

New York Court of Appeals The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...

which ruled that any federal felony conviction also automatically vacates a seat in the State Legislature. Nevertheless, Ruiz hung on to his seat, but refrained from voting in the Senate. On May 10, Ruiz was sentenced by Judge Peter K. Leisure to six months in jail. On May 26, Temporary President of the State Senate

Ralph J. Marino Ralph John Marino (January 2, 1928 – April 6, 2002) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was Temporary President of the New York State Senate from 1989 to 1994. Life Marino was born on January 2, 1928, in Rochester, New Y ...

announced that he would file a statement with Governor

Mario Cuomo Mario Matthew Cuomo (, ; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo previously served as t ...

that the seat formerly occupied by Ruiz was now vacant. On June 9, Governor Cuomo called a special election to fill the vacancy. Ruiz tried to run in the Democratic primary for his former seat, but was barred by the

New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division The Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court of the State of New York are the intermediate appellate courts in New York State. There are four Appellate Divisions, one in each of the state's four Judicial Departments (e.g., the full title of the ...

, ruling that an expelled member may not run for the same term in office again. On August 31, the Appellate Division's decision was upheld by the Court of Appeals. In 1991, Ruiz entered the Democratic primary for the 14th district of the

. Soon after the election, Ruiz was believed to have narrowly defeated Sandra Ramos-Alamo, but two weeks later, on September 25, the official result was announced: Ruiz was defeated with a margin of 23 votes by Ramos-Alamo On October 8, the primary election was voided, and a new election was ordered. On October 22, Ruiz defeated Ramos-Alamo,''Finally, 2 Win Council Races In 2 Primaries''
in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' on October 23, 1989 and in November was elected to the City Council. He remained in the City Council until 1997. In September 1997, Ruiz challenged the incumbent Borough President of the Bronx

Fernando Ferrer Fernando James Ferrer (born April 30, 1950) is an American politician who was the borough president of The Bronx from 1987 to 2001. Ferrer was a candidate for mayor of New York City in 1997 and 2001 and was the Democratic Party nominee for may ...

in the Democratic primary, but was defeated.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruiz, Israel Jr. 1943 births Living people American politicians of Puerto Rican descent Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in New York (state) Columbia Law School alumni People from Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico Democratic Party New York (state) state senators New York City Council members Hispanic and Latino American New York City Council members Queens College, City University of New York alumni New York (state) politicians convicted of crimes Politicians from the Bronx