Pedro Espada Jr. (born October 20, 1953) is an American convicted felon and former politician. A Democrat, Espada served in the New York Senate. Espada was at the center of a June 2009 power struggle in the State Senate. He was one of two Democratic senators who voted to appoint Republican Dean Skelos as Majority Leader. After his return to the Democratic caucus on July 9, 2009, Espada was chosen as Senate Majority Leader; he is the first Hispanic to have held that post. Dogged by scandals, he was defeated by Gustavo Rivera in a September 2010 primary election. On December 14, 2010, Espada was indicted on six federal counts of embezzlement and theft; he was stripped of his leadership position in the State Senate the same day and left office in January 2011. Espada was convicted on federal corruption charges in May 2012 and was sentenced to five years in prison. Early life and career Espada was born in Coamo, Puerto Rico in 1953 and moved with his family to New York City at the age of five. His family settled in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, where he attended the New York City Public Schools. He attended Fordham University, and graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Espada subsequently took graduate level coursework at the Hunter College School of Social Work, received graduate training certificates from open enrollment programs at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and from the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and received certification in 1990 from the Real Estate Institute at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. In the late 1970s, Espada was a community organizer and educator in Harlem and the Lower East Side in Manhattan, and in the South Bronx. He established and served as president of the Comprehensive Community Development Corporation and was the executive director of the Soundview Health Center. Espada had become head of the tenant's association at Stevenson Commons and led the effort in 1978 to open what became the Soundview Health Center after the city's economic problems led to a decision to not establish a promised clinic in the complex. The empty building that was to have been the clinic was leased by the group and $50,000 in federal grants was obtained, with the first patient taken in October 1981. By 1992, Soundview was offering medical and preventive care