Criminal Justice

Then-New York City Council Member Eric Ulrich, announces renovations at Woodhaven Library on September 22, 2021. John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit

If you wear glasses and have dark hair, that is enough to garner the nickname, ‘Waldo,’ if you are friends with Michael Mazzio and Joseph Livreri – owners of a trucking company and pizza shop, respectively, and co-defendants on trial with former New York City Council Member Eric “Waldo” Ulrich.

That and more was revealed during the second day of Ulrich’s corruption trial where Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution team played various phone calls they had recorded through wiretaps of Ulrich and various associates that unveiled some new insights into Ulrich’s conversations with former Mayor Eric Adams and other officials.

That included Ulrich’s November 2021 phone call with Livreri detailing an urgent task that Adams’ chief adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin asked him to do for the then-mayor-elect. 

“Ingrid just called me, and we have to take care of something like ASAP … So they want tonight for a carting company to go to the campaign office to throw out a lot of stuff that they need to throw out … Nobody’s there tonight and they might be there tomorrow,” Ulrich said to Livreri as he enlisted his help. “She’s gonna text me right now. I’m gonna get it there by the time X, Y and Z and get rid of this stuff.”

When asked outside the courtroom after the trial concluded for the day what the items that were carted away were, Ulrich claimed it was simply trash from the annual Somos conference in Puerto Rico and other innocuous junk.

Ulrich also referenced concerns Adams shared regarding having to be “more careful with the circle,” now that he had won the mayoral election. 

Even more wiretapped calls Ulrich made are expected to be introduced as evidence on Wednesday.