Disgraced pol dies
Crooked former Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio — who famously predicted he wouldn’t survive a six-year prison sentence for influence peddling — died yesterday after serving less than a year.
Seminerio — who used to boast that he was John Gotti’s assemblyman — died in a North Carolina federal-prison hospital surrounded by his family.
Seminerio, 75, died of natural causes, said Denise Simmons, a spokeswoman at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex.
The feds charged the conservative Democrat with taking $1 million in sham “consulting fees” from various entities, including hospitals and a school, doing business with the state to lobby for their programs.
But the portly pol — who represented his southern Queens district for 30 years in the state Legislature — pleaded guilty to just a single count of fraud.
At his sentencing last year, the ailing Seminerio — who was obese and had diabetes — told the judge, “I’m 74 years old. How much time do I have left?”
Still, the gregarious old-school pol adjusted well to prison, said his son-in-law Kevin Culley.
“He took it in stride. He made friends there. He made the best of it,” Culley said.
The family is upset that Seminerio won’t get a chance to clear his name. He was appealing his conviction based on the same Supreme Court ruling that ex-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno used to overturn his fraud conviction.
