Council of Churches Lobby Day. 3.10.2026

Описание: A real-life elevator pitch turned disrespectful

By JASON BEEFERMAN 03/12/2026 05:37 PM EDT

The Freedom Unshackled Coalition at the Albany Capitol.
Prison reform advocate Roni Minter recalls an elevator incident involving a staffer of Speaker Carl Heastie. | The Freedom Unshackled Coalition

HEASTIE STAFFER’S ‘DISRESPECT’:

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie reprimanded a staffer for suggesting to a prison reform advocate that people who don’t want to be abused behind bars shouldn’t have landed in jail in the first place.

The exchange in question took place during an elevator ride with Heastie, the staffer and the advocate.

“I did not expect one sentence on an elevator to reveal so much about the mindset surrounding criminal justice in this building,” Roni Minter, the founder of The Freedom Unshackled Coalition, wrote in a post recalling her three-floor elevator ride with Heastie and his aide, Marcus Salgado.

According to Minter, she was riding in the elevator Monday with Heastie and Salgado, the speaker’s executive assistant, when she tried to ask Heastie to advance a bill that would expand oversight into county jails, where Minter says many inmates face unchecked abuse.

As Heastie responded to Minter’s plea, his staffer interjected.

“It was only a two-second elevator ride, and as [Heastie] was getting ready to respond, his aide said, ‘Well, don’t go to jail then,’” said Minter. “I’m not gonna lie to you, I said, ‘What the fuck did you say?’ But as he said it, the elevator was opening.”

Minter, who was formerly incarcerated, recalled the incident in an impassioned speech Monday at the Capitol’s Million Dollar Staircase.

Heastie’s office acknowledged in an email that the incident occurred and noted that Salgado was reprimanded.

The speaker “spoke to him and told him what he said is wrong and inappropriate,” Michael Whyland, a spokesperson for Heastie, said of Salgado. “Marcus apologized to her.”

According to Minter, Salgado did attempt to apologize — but she found his bid for forgiveness unacceptable.

“Somebody must have got a hold of him and told him that he needed to come find me and apologize,” Minter said. “He came and found me but he did a couple of things wrong in finding me again … He touched my shoulder, which I don’t really too much care for people touching me. But then he addressed me as ‘Mama,’ like, ‘You know mama, I just want to apologize to you.’ You don’t know me, sir. You’re the executive assistant to the speaker.”

Minter was using a mobilized scooter at the time of the elevator incident. She also recalled how Salgado gave her “the smuggest, most disgusting look” after the incident when she entered Heastie’s office area behind the Assembly chambers to figure out his name.

“A hard pill to swallow is that the speaker heard him,” Minter said of Salgado’s remark.

Salgado is a frequent face around the Capitol and has been an aide to Heastie since at least 2014, when he was pictured next to the then-Assemblymember in a photo attached to a spring update to Heastie’s constituents.

More recently, Salgado was included on City & State’s “City & Date: New York political singles looking for love” list, which was meant to pair up single politicos in New York.

“I’m looking for kindness, loyalty, understanding — not looks or status. Sense of humor,” Salgado said on the list.

Playbook asked Heastie’s office if Salgado would like to comment on the incident himself but has not heard back.

“We’ve been fighting for these parole justice bills for quite some time, and we have legitimately had the co-sponsors and the numbers to pass the bill,” Minter said. “This makes so much sense right now as to maybe why these bills haven’t been moved through committee on the Assembly side, because it’s just how the speaker feels: ‘Don’t go to jail then.’”

— Jason Beeferman

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