Bernard Kerik — the city’s former top cop and prisons chief who was once nominated to be secretary of homeland security — yesterday landed in the slammer himself.
The disgraced ex-police commissioner tried to taint the jury pool for his corruption trial by leaking confidential information, an incensed judge said.
Kerik is accused of sharing sensitive court documents with a lawyer pal who then leaked the information to a newspaper and several blogs.
“I have a serious concern and believe there is probable cause to believe that Mr. Kerik, given his own devices, will deliberately obstruct justice in this matter,” US District Judge Stephen Robinson said in the White Plains courtroom as he revoked Kerik’s $500,000 bail.
“My fear, however, is that he has a toxic combination of self-minded focus and arrogance. And I fear that that confidence leads him to believe that the ends justify the means, that the rules that apply to all don’t necessarily apply to him in the same way.
“He sees the court’s rulings as an inconvenience, something to be ignored, an obstacle to be circumvented.”
The contents of the documents were not detailed.
The ashen-faced Kerik, who is facing corruption, conspiracy and tax-fraud charges, slowly emptied his pockets, removed his purple tie and took off several gold necklaces and a ring.
He then hung his head and slowly walked out of court, accompanied by a federal marshal. He was not cuffed.
Kerik’s lawyer, Barry Berke, had asked for a 48-hour stay of the judge’s decision to jail his client but was denied. He said he will appeal.
Robinson said Kerik violated a protective order by sharing the confidential documents with Anthony Modafferi, a New Jersey lawyer who is running Kerik’s legal defense fund.
Robinson said Modafferi then gave the documents to the Washington Times, which did not publish the information.
Although Kerik’s lawyers maintain that Modafferi is providing legitimate legal advice, the judge refused to recognize him as part of Kerik’s legal team and said he is not privy to the sealed information.
Modafferi could not be reached for comment.
Jury selection in Kerik’s explosive case is scheduled to begin next week. He is being tried on charges that after President George W. Bush nominated him to the Cabinet in 2004, he lied to the White House about allegations that he had traded city contracts for apartment renovations.
Kerik was whisked from the White Plains courthouse in an unmarked van with tinted windows and lights on the roof.
He was taken to the Westchester County jail in Valhalla, where he was put in a segregated part of the facility, said Victoria Hochman, a county spokeswoman.
He could be moved to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a federal Bureau of Prisons center a block away from Police Headquarters in lower Manhattan.
The center is also blocks away from the Manhattan Detention Complex, where Kerik served as the city’s corrections commissioner before Mayor Rudy Giuliani tapped him for police commish. The unit was actually named for Kerik until 2006.
Kerik’s national stature soared after the 9/11 attacks, which put him at Giuliani’s side when the Twin Towers collapsed.
Last month, Robinson barred Kerik’s defense team from bringing up the terrorist attack during the trial, saying it was “irrelevant” to the case.