Myerson Report a Personal Wound, Koch Says

NEW YORK —  When Edward I. Koch first ran for mayor in 1977, former Miss America Bess Myerson was constantly at his side, campaigning with him. On election night, they celebrated the mayor’s victory with a photogenic kiss.

In the midst of her own unsuccessful Democratic Senate campaign in 1980, Myerson attended the Queens County Democratic Dinner where she met contractor Carl Capasso, a much younger man, and the kisses were not just for the benefit of photographers. They soon became regular companions.

On Thursday, Koch reacted to the release of an investigator’s report he had commissioned, which concluded that Myerson, while cultural affairs commissioner in his administration, schemed to lower Capasso’s alimony by hiring the daughter of the judge handling the divorce case. The report, which had been been kept secret since the mayor got it two months ago, led to Myerson’s resignation in April.

“She hurt me personally as well as politically,” Koch told a City Hall news conference. “It’s like a fresh wound.”

Plagued by Scandals

Details of Myerson’s alleged misconduct were another blow to the mayor’s administration, which has been plagued by scandals. Among those officials who have resigned and had to be replaced amid allegations of corruption were the city’s transportation commissioner, taxi commissioner and the former president of the city’s hospital system.

In addition, Victor Botnick, a longtime Koch adviser, was forced to resign after having lied about his academic credentials. Patrick McGinley quit as investigations commissioner after questions about the disability claim of a city worker who was injured while installing an air conditioner in McGinley’s home.

Koch’s friend Donald Manes, the borough president of Queens, committed suicide in March, 1986. Two weeks after his death, Manes was named in an indictment charging that he, Bronx Democratic leader Stanley Friedman and two top officials of New York City’s Parking Violations Bureau used the bureau to sell contracts and political connections. Friedman was sentenced in April to 12 years in federal prison.

None of the allegations have personally involved the mayor. But he has clearly been put on the defensive by the actions of some of his commissioners--most notably Myerson.

Koch called the charges against Myerson, his close friend, “dishonorable and deplorable.” He refused, however, to repudiate the friendship, describing Myerson on Thursday as a “strong but alone woman who is in deep trouble.”

Has National Reputation

The friendship between the mayor and Myerson, 62, whose rise began when she was named Miss America in 1945, dates back to the days when Koch was a congressman from Manhattan’s affluent Silk Stocking District. Myerson, as consumer affairs commissioner in the administration of then-Mayor John V. Lindsay, had become a municipal star, who gained a national reputation as a consumer advocate.

Myerson, already known by millions for her parts as mistress of ceremonies on the television program “The Big Payoff” and as a panelist on “I’ve Got a Secret,” proved to be a hard-working administrator who eventually was pictured on the cover of Life magazine.

Before most politicians realized Koch’s potential to be mayor, Myerson pleaded his cause in public and in private. She became his campaign chairman and was very popular in joint appearances with Koch.

In 1975, Alex Rose, then boss of New York’s Liberal Party, had prevailed on her to run for the Senate. She declined.

Myerson’s eventual Senate campaign in 1980 was a disaster. She started as the front-runner and lost the Democratic primary. Before running, she had been warned privately by political consultants that her popularity might not be translated into votes. In the midst of one such private meeting with Myerson present, Koch made his attitude clear: “She is a friend and I will stand behind her,” he said.

But standing by Myerson was more difficult Thursday, after the 74-page report of former federal Judge Harold Tyler, who investigated Myerson for the mayor. Koch commissioned the report after he learned Myerson had refused to testify before a federal grand jury investigating Capasso for tax fraud. Capasso has pleaded guilty to income tax evasion and has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Koch Withholds Report

The report was withheld by Koch on the advice of Tyler and U.S. Atty. Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is conducting a continuing federal investigation. But after sections appeared in the Village Voice, it was officially made public Wednesday.

In his report, Tyler charged that Myerson abused her public office by influencing Judge Hortense Gabel, who was handling Capasso’s divorce case. She hired Gabel’s daughter as a special assistant in August, 1983. Two weeks later, Gabel cut Capasso’s weekly alimony payments from $1,500 to $500 and Myerson sent the judge flowers.

According to the report, Herbert Rickman, an adviser to Koch, told Myerson he was “shocked at the appearance of impropriety” when he learned she had hired the judge’s daughter.

According to Rickman, Myerson replied that City Hall had given her permission. Rickman said he did not pass on his misgivings to the mayor.