The government’s star witness in Joe Percoco’s corruption trial would rather face the music than spend another day at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Disgraced former lobbyist and Gov. Cuomo associate Todd Howe has asked a Manhattan federal judge to sentence him as soon as Aug. 16 in hopes that he will be sprung from “the poor conditions at the MCC,” according to a letter filed by his lawyer Thursday.
Howe made the request despite knowing that the feds could recommend he do hard time for violating his cooperation agreement.
The feds jailed Howe after it emerged during ex-Cuomo aide Percoco’s trial in February that he tried to skip out on a $600 bill at the Waldorf Astoria hotel.
If Howe is sentenced to additional prison time, he could then request to be transferred out of MCC. He faces as much as 130 years after pleading guilty to eight counts including bribery.
Howe’s lawyer, Richard Morvillo, asked for an August sentencing date after learning the feds dropped plans to call Howe as a witness in an upcoming trial alleging massive bid-rigging in Cuomo’s Buffalo Billions economic development project.