A New York City councilman who was already charged this month in a plot to rig the city’s mayoral race can now say bad has gone to worse after his second young office mistress was exposed Monday.
41-year-old Dan Halloran, a married conservative Republican from Queens and America’s first openly religious pagan elected to office, was led from his home April 2 by FBI agents as a young woman stood by, covering her face.
It has now been revealed in a New York Post report that woman is his former intern, 23-year-old Denise Batista. Batista has since given up the gig but still held the position when she and the councilman first began their relationship.
‘The council takes sexual harassment and discrimination very seriously,’ Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s spokesman Jamie McShane told the Post.
‘Speaker Quinn will immediately refer [this] to the council’s Standards and Ethics Committee.’
And Batista isn’t the only young staffer with whom Halloran has been accused of spending extracurricular time.
After his corruption charges this month, the Post reported that between 2010-2011, Halloran had an affair with his former deputy chief of staff Meaghan Mapes.
Princely: Halloran, center, is the country's first openly religious pagan elected to such a high-profile office and serves as 'First Atheling' or prince, of his sect
First affair? The New York Post reported in April on Halloran's (left) alleged affair with former staffer, then 21-year-old Meaghan Mapes (right) in 2010
While then 21-year-old Mapes was a student at St. Johns College, her roommate told the Post, Halloran would sneak in through a side door and sleep over ‘about twice a week.’
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‘He’s not attractive,’ said the roommate. ‘He was constantly around. It was really annoying. Thank God he never came out with his shirt off.’
By early 2011, Halloran would be locked in divorce proceedings with wife Cynthia.
But philandering might be one of Halloran’s more mundane habits.
Born into a typical Irish Catholic family, it was reported during his initial run for city council that Halloran had converted to Paganism in the 1980s.
Arrested: Seen here leaving a New York courthouse, Halloran was arrested April 2 by the FBI on charges he tried to bribe election officials
Halloran is prince, or ‘First Atheling,’ of a group he formed in 2002 with the official name ‘New Normannii Reik of Theodish Belief’ according to a 2009 Village Voice piece, published after Halloran won the Queens District 19 seat.
That’s at least the third of his Pagan tribal affiliations. Halloran left his previous tribe, itself a splinter group of his first, to start the ‘Normanii Reik.’
Nick Ritter, an affiliate from Halloran’s first tribe, told the Post April 6 that Halloran once received corporal punishment for an undisclosed act against a female ‘thrall,’ or underling.
‘He was given a choice,’ Ritter said. ‘He was going to leave Theodism or stay and pay the piper.’
Paying the piper, it turned out, was a public flogging. Halloran was allegedly stripped, tied to a tree, and struck with a belt 11 times.
Powerful: Halloran, 41, front center, converted from Catholicism to Paganism in the 1980s and has risen in the religions ranks since
Halloran’s arrest, along with that of State Senator Malcolm Smith, came after charges the two men were trying to bribe state officials with thousands of dollars to allow Smith, a Democrat, to run for New York City mayor on the Republican ticket. The change of party was likely an attempt to give Smith an advantage in a field of five other democrats.
Halloran allegedly told one of his cronies, 'Money is what greases the wheels. Good, bad or indifferent. That's politics. It's all about how much, and that's our politicians in New York. They're all like that. You can't do anything without the f---ing .'
Smith and Halloran have both pled not guilty to the bribery charges.
Meanwhile, Halloran has yet to deny his affair with Batista and, according to the Post, has even posted pictures of her to Facebook, where he’s changed his relationship from ‘It’s complicated’ to ‘In a relationship.’
As recently as Friday, the two were seen riding together in Halloran’s Jaguar.
Halloran has indicated no intention to resign from city council. If convicted on the bribery charge, he could face up to 45 years in prison
Accused: It has been a long month for Halloran, who was charged with helping New York state senator Malcolm Smith rig the mayoral election