Post: Yonkers Council Member says Bender pushed him to change vote in Ridge Hill case

In Kruger crony leaned on me for vote: pol, the New York Post continues chipping away at the relationship between developer Forest City Ratner and scandal-plagued state Senator Carl Kruger, again looking at the Ridge Hill case in Yonkers.

The Post reports:

An Atlantic Yards executive whose cozy relationship with state Sen. Carl Kruger was revealed in a new criminal complaint against the Brooklyn politician also personally lobbied a Yonkers councilman hours before a controversial vote that led to bribery charges.

Yonkers Council Majority Leader John Murtagh Jr. said Forest City Ratner exec Bruce Bender leaned on him in 2006 to change his vote opposing a controversial Forest City development at a meeting set up hours before the council vote by ex-city Republican Party chairman Zehy Jereis.

Murtagh said Jereis warned him that "[Councilwoman] Sandy [Annabi] is going to vote 'yes,' so this is going to pass and it would help me politically if I vote in favor of it also."

Murtagh said he refused.

The reward in Ridge Hill

And this time, unlike in an article earlier this week, the Post completes the story, explaining that Jereis got a consulting job from Forest City in an apparent reward, even as the developer and its staff evaded any charges.