Harding, a former president of the city Housing Development Corp.
under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, was indicted in March on charges of
conspiracy and fraud for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of
dollars from the agency.

He also was charged with two counts of child pornography after
investigators allegedly found photos and a movie on his computer.


If convicted, Russell Harding faces up to 45 years in prison.

From New York Newsday, 11/4/03:

Judge Delays Harding Trial

By Patricia Hurtado
Staff Writer

Just two weeks before he was to be tried on federal fraud charges,
Russell Harding, a former top housing-finance official in the Giuliani
administration, was arrested Monday after his doctors and court
officials became concerned he was a suicide risk.

After a brief hearing yesterday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan
postponed Harding's trial, which was set for Nov. 17, and ordered he
undergo a psychiatric evaluation by doctors at the Federal Medical
Center in Butner, N.C.

Harding, 39, who appeared in court unshaven, his hair askew and
wearing jeans and blue plaid shirt, did not speak.

While defense lawyer Gerald Shargel asked that Harding be sent to a
locked ward at Bellevue Hospital Center, Kaplan ordered the defendant
held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Outside court, Shargel said Harding's personal psychiatrist, Dr. Alan
Collins, alerted a court-appointed psychiatrist and court officials
Monday that Harding was "about to commit suicide."

Kaplan signed an emergency arrest warrant and Harding was taken into
custody at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Assistant Manhattan U.S. Attorney Deborah
Landis said.

__________________________________________________________

Tsk, tsk. Well what can one say.

Harry