NEW YORK, NY November 10, 2007 —Former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik is vowing to fight the sixteen felony charges unsealed Friday. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein reports.

REPORTER: Standing in a drizzling rain before a line of dozens of reporters outside the federal court house in White Plains, Bernard Kerik said he was prepared for battle.

KERIK: It's an extremely difficult time for me and my family. My life has been marked by challenge."

It was a stunning fall for the man who was once in charge of 40,000 police officers. Kerik was charged with shaking down a company suspected of mob ties for money for apartment renovations, accepting hundreds of thousand of dollars in rent for another apartment beginning when he was police commissioner, then failing to report any of this on his income taxes.

Kerik was also charged with inducing witnesses to change their testimony to law enforcement agents and lying on eight occasions to the White House while being considered to head the federal department of homeland security.

For WNYC, I'm Andrea Bernstein