Judge Dismisses 180 Tax Counts Against Leona

A state judge today dismissed nearly all of a 188-count state tax fraud indictment against hotel queen Leona Helmsley, saying the charges constituted double jeopardy because of her federal tax conviction.

Helmsley, 70, was not satisfied, saying all the criminal charges should have been dismissed by State Supreme Court Justice John Bradley.

“They’re after my hide because I’m Leona Helmsley,” she told reporters as she left the courthouse with her legal entourage and headed for a black stretch limousine.

All eight counts are the same--offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree. Each has a maximum penalty of four years in prison.

Helmsley has already been sentenced to four years in prison for her federal conviction last summer. A jury found that she cheated the government out of millions of dollars in taxes by disguising renovations to her Greenwich, Conn., mansion as business expenses of the hotel empire she runs with her husband, Harry.

Bradley dismissed 180 counts in the 188-count state indictment, nearly all of which stem from activities at Dunnellen Hall, the 26-acre estate.

He said a double-jeopardy situation was created by the joint state-federal investigations, in which many of the same witnesses were presented to state and federal grand juries.

The eight counts Bradley left intact concern a condominium in North Hills, N.Y., and the Park Lane Hotel in New York City.

Bradley rejected Helmsley’s arguments that all charges should be dropped in “the interest of justice.”

“It has long been a concern of the public that white-collar criminals not be coddled by the criminal justice system,” Bradley wrote.

Helmsley’s federal sentence is stayed pending appeal. Her lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, is confident that she will not spend a day in jail.