NY Gov. Paterson (right), who raised state taxes by $8 billion last month, just cost state taxpayers $300,000 more.
The state has secretly settled an embarrassing federalracial-discrimination lawsuit, The Post has learned. The suit accusedPaterson, back when he was Senate minority leader in 2003, of firing awhite Senate photographer in order to replace him with anAfrican-American.
The lawsuit had been scheduled to go to trial in federal courtMonday in Syracuse, with Paterson, the state’s first black governor, asa key witness. The case was settled earlier in the week, although a fewglitches delayed the final deal until yesterday, legislative sourcessaid.
The settlement ends a civil-rights action first filed in 2005 byJoseph Maioriello, 56, of Schenectady, a 26-year Senate employee whooriginally sought $1.5 million.
He was fired from his $34,000-a-year job as a photographer twoyears earlier and replaced by a black employee, El-Wise Noisette. Theshakeup happened after Paterson ousted then-Sen. Martin Connor(D-Brooklyn) as the minority leader.
Connor was expected to testify that Maioriello was a good photographer.
While neither Paterson nor the state admitted that Maioriello was avictim of racial discrimination, the size of the settlement means “thatthe state wouldn’t have made out very well if it had gone to trial,”said a source close to the lawsuit.
“If nothing wrong happened, why is the state paying out this kind of money?” the source asked.
Maioriello’s lawyer, Anne-Jo Pennock McTague of Albany, told ThePost that her client was “satisfied with the amount and the fact of asettlement.”
Paterson was expected to be one of Maioriello’s star witnesses infederal court if the case had gone to trial, a lawyer close to the casesaid.
The settlement was initially delayed when Senate Majority LeaderMalcolm Smith (D-Queens), Paterson’s successor and a fellowAfrican-American, refused to give his approval.
Smith had veto power over the settlement since the suit was filedagainst the Senate. He was in the awkward position of eitherauthorizing a large payment for alleged reverse discrimination orholding out for a trial, which would have forced Paterson to testifyunder oath.
Austin Shafran, a spokesman for Smith, said he delayed the final settlement to determine if the cost “was acceptable.”
Smith was represented by lawyers from the office of state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, which had no comment.
In the lawsuit, Maioriello claimed he was told by John McPadden,then Paterson’s chief of staff, that he was being fired because anumber of minority senators wanted to replace him with “a minorityphotographer, a black photographer.”
He said he was also told, “You got to remember who Sen. Paterson is. Sen. Paterson is black.”
Paterson, who is legally blind, claimed in a sworn deposition thathe didn’t see well enough to have fired Maioriello because of his race.
A spokesman for Paterson later said the comment was “a quip, a joke.”
Paterson and McPadden denied the race-bias claim.