The embattled old guard of the Brooklyn Dems defied a court order to install their new leader \u2014 who has been accused of deed theft and palled around with a judge who was forced to resign after being slapped with criminal charges, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn party brass celebrated late Sunday night after the handpicked successor of embattled outgoing chairwoman Rodneyse Bichotte-Hermelyn<\/a> \u2014 Nikki Lucas, an assemblywoman from the 60th district \u2014 was voted as the next chair of the Kings County Democratic Party.<\/p>\n That\u2019s despite a judge\u2019s order, spurring a flurry of legal filings by a rival group of Dems attempting to remake party leadership.<\/p>\n Brooklyn Assemblywoman Nikki Lucas was named in a 2021 suit, charging that she was part of an improper transfer of a church. New York State Assembly<\/p>\n A state Supreme Court justice tried to put the kibosh early last week on electing new leadership while the ongoing legal brouhaha between the party and a reform wing of the party duke it out over who truly holds the reins of the largest Democratic County organizations in the country.<\/p>\n The judge is expected to rule in the coming weeks on whether any of Bichotte-Hermelyn\u2019s long-shot political maneuvering and crowning of Lucas as her successor will stand.<\/p>\n But The Post uncovered that the new party chair \u2014 at least for now \u2014 was one of eight people named in a 2021 deed theft suit, claiming that the $3.4 million-valued Southern Baptist Church in East New York was transferred for free, according to court records.<\/p>\n Lucas was repped by former judge Ed King, the then-lawyer who was charged by the feds in May in an alleged $5 million escrow sham<\/a>, records show.<\/p>\n The two\u2019s connection goes back years, with Lucas helping King get elected as judge. She was one of the few who King thanked during his victory speech in 2022, insiders recalled. <\/p>\n King was also listed on the deed, as well as the attorney for the purchasers of the property, the filings show.<\/p>\n A judge sided with the trustees of the church and reversed the sale before the case was frozen after one of the defendants died.\u00a0<\/p>\n Criminally charged ex-judge Ed King represented Nikki Lucas in the case accusing her and other defendants of deed theft relating to an East New York church. X\/@edking4judge<\/p>\n King is also accused of lying to investors about his inability to return $6.5 million wired to his bank account as part of their \u201cproof of liquidity\u201d and has only coughed up $1.5 million of the original funds as part of a separate federal criminal case, which forced him to step down last year. <\/p>\n Bichotte-Hermelyn announced last week that she would not seek reelection and would step down as party chair. <\/p>\n The longtime Brooklyn Dem had appeared to lose control of the Kings County Dems months prior after federal agents raided her house as part of an unknown probe.<\/p>\n