The trial for former Queens City Councilmember Eric Ulrich, who is accused of taking over $150,000 in bribes while he served as a local lawmaker and as the city’s building’s commissioner under Mayor Eric Adams, officially began on Monday.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office presented its opening arguments and initial witnesses for its case against Ulrich, who served as commissioner of the Department of Buildings from May 2022 to November 2022. Prosecutors said they will be presenting a trove of evidence in the coming weeks that will include wiretapped phone conversations, email exchanges and financial records they say will prove Ulrich was a “compromised politician” who regularly took bribes from a small group of Queens business owners in exchange for political favors.

One of the men Ulrich allegedly took bribes from is his co-defendant, Michael Mazzio. Prosecutors claim Mazzio paid the former councilmember nearly $10,000 in Mets season tickets in exchange for resolving licensing issues with Mazzio’s company, Mike’s Heavy Duty Towing.

The two men are defending themselves without a jury – both Ulrich and Mazzio requested a non-jury trial. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel Conviser granted the request and will ultimately decide whether Ulrich and Mazzio are guilty.

Opening arguments were heard on the 13th floor of New York City Criminal Court in Manhattan to a packed audience, which included Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who observed the court proceedings from the back row.

The prosecution, led by Assistant District Attorney Guy Tardanico, painted a picture of addiction and flagrant corruption that allegedly led Ulrich to take over $150,000 in bribes in return for using his position within the Adams administration to call in various favors from city officials.

“For these defendants, public office was nothing more than an opportunity for personal gain,” Tardanico said. “Public power, private gain, and betrayal of the people's trust.”

Tardanico claimed that Ulrich had longstanding gambling problems that often left him completely broke, despite a six-figure government salary – a claim that Ulrich’s attorneys conceded was true. Ulrich effectively lived paycheck to paycheck, Tardanico said, and spent over half his salary on weekly visits to Resorts World casino in Queens.

To fuel his gambling addiction, prosecutors alleged Ulrich regularly took money from a small network of Queens business owners referred to as the Aldo’s group, who frequently met inside Aldo’s Pizzeria, which is located a little more than a mile away from Resorts World.

The group included Mazzio, as well as brothers Joseph and Anthony Livreri, who owned several businesses that Ulrich allegedly assisted in return for cash gifts.

Payments to Ulrich ranged from hundreds to thousands of dollars. In exchange, prosecutors said Ulrich allegedly used his influence to delay a bidding process for a sanitation program, expedite building inspections and push for Mazzio’s daughter to receive an analyst position with the Department of Correction.

Prosecutors also claimed that while he was a councilmember, Ulrich regularly gambled and lost money to Joseph Livreri, who operated an illegal casino inside the 89th Street Café in Ozone Park. Joseph Livreri, who pleaded guilty to bribery charges last month, allegedly loaned thousands of dollars to Ulrich during this time, and later pressured Ulrich to get him a government position within the Adams administration.

All of the payments Ulrich received, Tardanico alleged, were directly deposited into his personal accounts without disclosure to the Conflicts of Interest Board.

“The evidence will show that these defendants saw an opportunity to use each other to benefit themselves, without regard to anyone not in their inner circle,” Tardanico said.

Tardanico asked for a guilty verdict on all counts.