Crime and the black politician: Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. has been convicted of extortion and soliciting bribes by a federal jury and was immediately sent to jail

The corrupt Brooklyn black Democrat closed his eyes and held his head with both hands as the jury foreman pronounced him guilty of all 21 counts in the indictment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Capers then told the judge that Boyland, 43, broke the law even while on trial. FBI agents surveilled him driving in Brooklyn and Manhattan recently despite the suspensions of his license, registration and auto insurance. “I have a concern about Mr. Boyland claiming to be one place when he is actually in another,” U.S. District Judge Sandra Townes said before revoking his $100,000 bail. There’s no doubt where federal inmate No. 18913-076 is now. He faces up to 30 years in prison. The disgraced political scion emptied his pockets for U.S. marshals and left the courtroom without turning back to look at his heartbroken father, former Assemblyman William Boyland Sr., or his mother, who attended every day of the month-long trial. The Boyland political dynasty — in which family members were known as the “Black Kennedys of Brownsville” and a main thoroughfare in the neighborhood was named after Jr.’s late uncle Thomas Boyland, who had held the same assembly seat — has been tarnished. The four-term black assemblyman in Brooklyn's 55th District, represented some of the poorest constituents in New York City and referred to his political office as the family “hardware store” handed down to him by his father and uncle. Boyland fancied himself a Mafia don, and beat a separate corruption rap in 2011. In 2013, he chose to turn down a plea deal worked out by his lawyers. But he wasn’t the Teflon Don after all. The feds had amassed a mountain of evidence on audio and video tape in a sting operation that initially targeted another Brooklyn councilman. FBI agents posed seeking his favors in the Brooklyn Democrat's impoverished community. Boyland brazenly sought payoffs from undercover FBI agents posing as shady businessmen proposing shady real estate schemes in the assemblyman's district. During the 10-month probe, Boyland pocketed more than $14,000 in bribes and demanded a $250,000 payoff in exchange for securing government approvals for the undercover agents. Boyland’s chief of staff, Ry-Ann Hermon, pleaded guilty and testified against about the bribery schemes and how her former boss looted for political purposes from a nonprofit for the elderly. Boyland was also convicted of stealing more than $70,000 in per diem by falsely claiming that he was in Albany when he was actually in New York City and Istanbul, Turkey.