1. Ruben W Wills was born on August 9,1971 and is a former member of the New York City Council, serving the 28th district from 2011 until he was convicted of a felony in August 2017.
16 Facts About Ruben Wills
1. 2.
Ruben Wills was raised in the South Jamaica Houses and attended Public School 40 and Thomas Edison High School.
3.
In 2003, Ruben Wills served as the special assistant to City Council Member Leroy Comrie, and later he served as chief of staff to State Senator Shirley Huntley.
4.
Ruben Wills then won re-election in 2011 to complete the term, and again for his own full term in 2013.
5.
Ruben Wills renamed a street in his district in honor of White, thanks to the help of his surviving family.
6.
In 2013, Ruben Wills went homeless to raise awareness of the plight of homeless individuals in his community.
7.
Ruben Wills pumped gas for tips and slept in parks, relying on soup kitchens to stay fed.
8.
The week long experiment was cut short after Ruben Wills reportedly developed pneumonia and was temporarily hospitalized when the experience became hazardous to his health.
9.
Ruben Wills later cited this experience as his motivation to push Mayor Michael Bloomberg to expand rental subsidies stripped from the city budget in 2011.
10.
In March 2011, Ruben Wills responded to two arrest warrants for incidents that occurred over a decade earlier.
11.
The conviction resulted in no jail time or probation, but Ruben Wills had to pay restitution totaling $3,000 and perform 3 days of community service.
12.
On May 7,2014, Ruben Wills was arrested as part of a corruption investigation.
13.
The resolution of the cases from 2014 and 2015 was delayed because Ruben Wills' lawyer was removed from the latter case due to a potential conflict of interest, and because of Ruben Wills' ongoing medical problems.
14.
Ruben Wills argued that the vast majority of his charges stemmed from the office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is an opponent of the Southeast Queens Democratic community and largely endorsed his primary opponent, future-Congresswoman Kathleen Rice, in the 2010 Democratic primary for New York State Attorney General.
15.
Ruben Wills repeatedly called for a special prosecutor to help develop an impartial prosecution.
16.
Ruben Wills has appealed his conviction and has not yet been sentenced, but was not on the ballot for re-election to his own seat in the primary.