Carl Edward Heastie (; born September 25, 1967) is an American politician from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Heastie has served in the New York State Assembly since January 2001, and was elected

Speaker of the New York State Assembly The speaker of the New York State Assembly is the highest official in the New York State Assembly, customarily elected from the ranks of the majority party. As in most countries with a British heritage, the Speaker (politics), speaker presides o ...

on February 3, 2015.

Early life and education

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Heastie earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in Applied Mathematics and Statistics from

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system' ...

Suffolk County, New York Suffolk County () is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of New York. It is mainly located on the eastern end of Long Island, but also includes several smaller islands. According to the 2020 United States census, the county's populat ...

, and a M.B.A. in Finance from Baruch College in

Career

Before his election to the Assembly, Heastie worked as a budget analyst for the

New York City Comptroller The Office of Comptroller of New York City, a position established in 1801, is the chief financial officer and chief auditor of the city agencies and their performance and spending. The comptroller also reviews all city contracts, handles the ...

. Heastie has also worked as an adjunct professor at Monroe College.

New York State Assembly

Heastie was first elected to the New York State Assembly in 2000 and represents the 83rd District, which covers the

Williamsbridge Williamsbridge is a neighborhood geographically located in the north-central portion of the Bronx in New York City. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are East 222nd Street to the north, Boston Road to the east, East G ...

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

, Edenwald, Eastchester, and Baychester sections of the Northeast

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. Since joining the Assembly, Heastie became one of the lead negotiators for the construction of a new

K-8 school K8 or K-8 may refer to: * K-8 (Kansas highway), two highways in Kansas, one in northern Kansas, one in southern Kansas * K-8 school, a type of school that includes kindergarten and grades one through eight * AMD K8, the internal designation for the ...

in his district. He has also sponsored legislation to require mandatory reporting of alleged child abuse of students in New York City. He became Chair of the Assembly Labor Committee in 2013. Heastie became Chair of the Bronx Democratic Party in 2008, a post that he relinquished after becoming Assembly Speaker in 2015.

Speaker of New York State Assembly

In January 2015, Heastie's Assembly colleagues considered him a frontrunner to be elected Speaker, following the arrest of

Sheldon Silver Sheldon Silver (February 13, 1944 – January 24, 2022) was an American Democratic Party politician, attorney, and convicted felon from New York City who served as speaker of the New York State Assembly from 1994 to 2015. A native of Manhattan's ...

on federal corruption charges led by U.S. Attorney

Preet Bharara Preetinder Singh Bharara (; born October 13, 1968) is an Indian-born American lawyer, author, podcaster and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He is curren ...

. On February 2, Assembly Democrats voted unanimously for Heastie to become the new Speaker. The full Assembly elected him Speaker of the Assembly the next day. Heastie is the first African-American to serve the position. One of his first New York City appearances after becoming speaker was at Al Sharpton's rally in Harlem, where he told the crowd, "This is a tremendous opportunity for our community, for the first time, to have one of us sit at the table," and added "All of you are going to be sitting at that table with me for the first time". In April 2015, it was reported that, contrary to a judge's instructions, Heastie had neglected to sell a home that his mother, Helene Heastie, according to

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...

s bought with money

embezzle Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a typ ...

d from a nonprofit charity. After his mother's death, Heastie ceased attempts to sell the home, having been advised by his lawyer that he was no longer obligated to do so, and later sold it for a profit of $200,000. An independent forfeiture law expert consulted by the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' agreed, explaining that the judge's order was "probably legally unenforceable without a formal forfeiture agreement," which prosecutors had not obtained. In addition, prosecutors did not follow the judge's instructions to file a civil judgement against Heastie's mother. When asked in 2015 why no civil judgement was sought, the District Attorney's office was unable to explain why this routine filing had not occurred. In 2015, Heastie's office issued a statement about the incident, saying that "the lessons imparted to the speaker eastie.. included owning up to mistakes and taking responsibility."

Personal life

Heastie has a daughter from a previous marriage.

References

External links

New York State Assembly Member Website
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Heastie, Carl 1967 births 2016 United States presidential electors 2020 United States presidential electors 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century American politicians African-American state legislators in New York (state) Baruch College alumni Living people Politicians from the Bronx Speakers of the New York State Assembly Democratic Party members of the New York State Assembly Stony Brook University alumni