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After more than five years of legal battles, the two shook hands Wednesday in front of City Hall as Amicone apologized for slandering the Westchester Guardian publisher and Manhattan strip club owner in 2007.
“I sincerely and deeply apologize on my behalf and behalf of my administration for causing so much hurt to Mr. Zherka and his family,” Amicone said, reading from a prepared letter.
The public apology was part of a settlement agreement approved less than 24 hours earlier by Yonkers City Council. As part of the deal, the city will also pay Zherka $100,000 in damages and Amicone, who was defended by city-funded lawyers, will not be financially liable.
The settlement stems from comments Amicone is said to have made at a 2007 Republican campaign event. According to court papers, Amicone called Zherka, whose weekly newspaper had printed critical articles of the mayor, a “convicted drug dealer,” an “Albanian mobster” and “thug.” The former mayor is also alleged to have said that Zherka planned to open “drug dens” and “strip clubs” throughout the city if Amicone lost his re-election bid.
Zherka said Wednesday the comments have haunted him and his family ever since.
“It really put a damper on my relationship with my kids and everywhere I went I was called a criminal and a mobster and a drug dealer,” he said. “All because we exercised free speech. We wrote editorials which some people weren’t happy with and I was attacked for it.”
The settlement was the second agreement the city has reached with Zherka as a result of Amicone’s actions. The first, in 2011, came after a separate 2007 incident in which Amicone allegedly ordered city workers to confiscate Westchester Guardian news racks and police to ticket distributors of the newspaper after articles critical of the mayor appeared in print.
The city eventually settled a suit filed by Westchester Guardian employees and readers for $393,000.
On Wednesday, Amicone said his brief apology came from the heart.
“This should never have happened,” he said. “I’m glad that we can now bring this to closure and I’m glad that he can now go back and say the mayor, on behalf of the city, apologized for anything that was said that hurt him or hurt his family because that’s the kind of thing that should never be done.”
As for the settlement money, for which taxpayers will again foot the bill, a pair of City Council members had called on Zherka to donate the money to a city-based charity or to city coffers.
Zherka, however, said it had already been established the money would go into a trust fund for his eight children.
“I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to,” he said, responding to the council members’ request.
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