Counsel for the former town attorney for Oyster Bay, who is the target of a legal malpractice suit the town filed last week seeking to claw back his salary, said his client is being unfairly targeted for testifying against his ex-boss in a corruption case.

The lawyer for Leonard Genova, who testified in the criminal trial against former town supervisor John Venditto, also said that he would seek to add Venditto and other officials to the case as defendants in the suit, in which the town is seeking $840,000—which is equal to six years of Genova's salary plus punitive damages—claiming that Genova cost the town millions in legal fees to fight claims arising from loan guarantees to a political donor who pleaded guilty to bribing Oyster Bay officials.

Venditto and former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano were charged in 2016 with taking kickbacks from Long Island restaurateur Harendra Singh who allegedly gave a “no-show” job to Mangano's wife, Linda Mangano.

Venditto was tried alongside the Manganos; in May, Venditto was acquitted on 27 counts and U.S. District Judge Joan Azrack of the Eastern District of New York declared a mistrial for the charges against the Manganos because of a deadlocked jury.

The Manganos are set to be retried in October.  

In the lawsuit against Genova, Town Attorney Joseph Nocella argued that, under Genova's watch, Singh hatched a plan with Frederick Mei, a deputy town attorney that caused the town to incur millions in legal fees.

Singh, who was the town concessionaire, used his obligations to improve town facilities to secure $20 million in loans, the suit stated.

In March, Genova reached a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding charges that concealing his deals with Singh may have hurt the town's finances.

Genova not only failed to detect the conspiracy between Singh and Mei, Nocella alleged, but he also admitted to taking bribes from Singh and committed acts of “incompetence, malpractice, malfeasance and gross negligence.”

“That the guarantees were the product of fraud should have been obvious to anyone with even a cursory understanding of how municipalities work, particularly because such guarantees violate the New York state Constitution's express prohibition against using public money to guarantee the repayment of private debt,” the suit stated.

Singh and Mei ended up pleading guilty to federal charges, but the town was left “embroiled in a legal and investigative morass,” wrapped up in litigation that included fighting off suits from the SEC and Singh's creditors.

But Nicholas Gravante Jr., a Boies Schiller Flexner partner representing Genova, said that if anyone should get a share of the blame for any damages to the town's finances, it should be Venditto. The lawsuit against Genova is “unnecessarily punitive and politically motivated,” Gravante said, and is intended as a signal to others that there's a “price to be paid” for cooperating with federal prosecutors.

“The allegations are based purely on Mr. Genova's testimony at the Mangano trial, Gravante said. “Mr Genova intends to aggressively defend the action, which seeks damages that dramatically overstate the harm, if any, that his conduct caused the town of Oyster Bay.”