Former NY Police Commissioner Kerik Jailed For Revealing Sealed Information Before Trial

October 21, 2009 7:15 a.m. EST

White Plains, NY (AHN) - Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was jailed on Tuesday after he was found to have attempted to influence potential jurors by revealing confidential information for his trial to a legal defense fund. His trial on charges of conspiracy and tax fraud begins next week.

According to the New York Times, Kerik's $500,000 bail was revoked after a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Robinson, who accepted prosecutors' arguments that the former police chief had tried to influence his trial by disclosing sealed documents.

The 54-year-old Kerik was indicted in 2007 for failing to disclose $255,000 in renovations to his Riverdale, New York apartment by contractors who had sought to do business with the city when he was police commissioner in 1999 and 2000. Concurrently commissioner of corrections at the time, Kerik had also spoken to city regulators on behalf of the contractor, "taking steps to convince them that the contractors were free of mob ties" and should be given city permits, prosecutors say.

Kerik is also accused of not reporting $236,000 in rent payments for a Manhattan apartment, and of taking $80,000 in false charitable deductions in his tax filings.

In May, he was indicted for lying to White House officials while he was being vetted for Secretary of Homeland Security in 2004.

When he was being vetted for the post of Homeland Security secretary, Kerik had told White House officials that he had, as police commissioner, no financial dealings with the contractors who renovated his home. He also lied in an email he sent to the White House about the renovations.

Kerik was police commissioner during 9/11 and served as Interim Minister of Interior of Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq under the Bush administration. He faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 on each of the two false statement charges, and 142 years and $4.7 million in fines for the corruption charges.