Kerik Pleads Guilty, Loses Jail NamesakeOops. Last week Bernard Kerik, Bush’s onetime nominee for DHS chief, pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge. Instead of facing felony bribery charges, Kerik drew a Get Out of Jail for a $165,000 Fine card.
That saved Kerik from the fate of serving time in the city where he used to head up the Department of Corrections. And where, no kidding, there’s a jail named after him.* Or was.
Apparently city officials didn’t appreciate the irony of a jail being named after an admitted criminal. So on Sunday, they took his name down. Now the downtown complex, which everybody in New York knows as The Tombs (pictured below with Kerik in front), has been restored to its prior anonymity. It’s the Manhattan Detention Complex once again.
*For those of you curious as to whether Kerik was ever actually in danger of serving time in the jail named after him — the answer is no. Kerik was prosecuted in the Bronx, not Manhattan.
