Ex-NY police chief jailed after judge revokes bail

Former New York police chief Bernard Kerik was jailed Tuesday after a federal judge revoked his bail ahead of a corruption trial, court sources said.

In a hearing in White Plains, New York, Judge Stephen Robinson said he was revoking the 500,000-dollar bail granted Kerik, 54, who led the police under the previous administration of then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Kerik abused confidential evidence in the case, Robert Hadad, spokesman for the district attorney's office, told AFP.

"The government made a motion to revoke his bail. After a three-and-a-half hour hearing, the judge agreed to revoke the bail in order for him be sent to jail," Hadad said.

The former police chief faces 142 years in jail and fines of almost five million dollars if convicted on all the charges.

Kerik is accused of secretly accepting more than 250,000 dollars in renovations to his apartment from a construction firm with suspected mafia ties while he was Corrections Department commissioner under Giuliani.

Kerik, who pleaded guilty in a state court last year to accepting the work, is also accused of not declaring a total of 236,000 dollars in rent he received on an luxury apartment in New York's posh Upper East Side.

Other payments allegedly not declared include a total of 100,000 dollars received from a software company and a book publisher.

He is also accused of making false statements at the time he was being considered as head of the US Department of Homeland Security in 2004.

His trial was scheduled for October 26.

Kerik, who once served as Giuliani's chauffeur and bodyguard, rose through the ranks of the police department to become police commissioner, enjoying hero status in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

He went on to help train Iraq's fledgling police force after the US-led invasion in 2003.