GERMANO

F. James Germano, the legendary politician from North Greenbush was arrested in Vero Beach, Florida for soliciting sex from who police are saying is a pre-teen boy and his mother.

According to the arrest report the juvenile was waiting for the school bus when the 83-year-old Germano pulled up in his black Cadillac and attempted to solicit him for sex. The boy called his mother who came to the bus stop and Germano was still there. The mom grabbed her kid and started walking away when Germano propositioned her too.

Of course Germano denied the allegations, saying he was at McDonalds and then Panera Bread when the alleged incident occurred. I can only imagine how that conversation went.

He stands charged with the felony of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution and the misdemeanors of soliciting for prostitution and two counts of stalking since he followed the boy and his mom as they tried to walk away.

The arrest report is attached so I won’t go into the gory details. Read it on your own if you want. Amazing really.

Germano Arrest

Those who have been around for a while know Germano as the longtime Democratic Party chairman in North Greenbush who while running that party his good buddy Dom Panichi was running the town GOP. And together they had the minor party lines too. In other words he ran everything, political or otherwise, in the town.

Some of his quotes are legendary. While he was trying to take over the Democratic Party Committee back in the 1990s after Ed McDonough resigned there was a battle on the floor and one person called him a thug. He stood up and said: “You call me a thug again and I’m going to break their F***ing knees.” Then, as the coup was forming, one person said the Democratic Party is not a banana republic.” To which Germano asked something like “Are you calling me an ape?”

That was before my time, but I was around when he got jammed up with the whole Henry Zwack scandal. It was alleged Germano offered the Conservative Party line to Zwack in exchange for his grandson getting another crack at the physical agility aspect of the Civil Service exam he needed to pass in order to become a police officer. He, Zwack and three of Zwack’s top aides were on trial at the same time and it was quite the show. A jury found all five not guilty but it was still quite the show.

Germano didn’t testify, regrettably, but I remember standing on the courthouse steps and him being none too happy with something I wrote and he was telling me we were “gumbas” and as such “should stick together. I’m writing it a lot nicer than he was saying it and I remember him screaming so loud and getting so close that he was literally spitting in my face. Then his attorney, Tom Neidle came over and ushered him away.

Another time, and I can’t even remember what I wrote about him, but through an intermediary, he revoked my phone privileges. I don’t think I talked to him since.