NEW YORK, NY September 28, 2005 —Clarence Norman, the head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party and the state assembly’s deputy speaker, has been convicted of violating election law and falsifying records. WNYC’s Fred Mogul has more.

The 11-term Assemblyman from Crown Heights was found guilty of three felonies and a misdemeanor and could get up to four years in prison at his November sentencing. Norman was charged with accepting more than 10-thousand dollars from a single donor in 2000 and 2002. The state limits for candidates are just more than $3,000 per donor per election.

Norman blamed book-keeping errors for the improper amounts, but Brooklyn Deputy District Attorney Michael Vecchione argued that he knowingly violated election law and tried to conceal what he had done. Norman still faces three more indictments accusing him of using the judicial nominating system to steer contracts to favored consultants, accepting thousands of dollars in reimbursements from the Assembly for expenses that had already been paid, and depositing a check for his re-election committee into his personal bank account.