Ruben Wills

Life and career

Born in Southeast Queens and raised in the South Jamaica Houses, Wills attended Public School 40 and Thomas Edison High School. He and his wife, Marcia, are members of the St. Albans Congregational Church.

In 2003, 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. Wills has also worked for the SEIU Local 1199 Union. Prior to working in government, Wills made his living operating a contracting company doing renovations for commercial and residential properties.

New York City Council

After losing the 2009 primary to Thomas White, Jr., Wills won the council seat the next year, after White died. He won re-election in 2011 to complete the term, and again for his own full term in 2013. Wills would eventually rename several streets in his district in honor of the late Thomas White, Jr., thanks to the help of his surviving family.

As Council Member, Ruben has mobilized his community behind several initiatives including removing sex offenders from a new homeless shelter near an elementary school, opposing the establishment of a homeless drop-in center near a high school, organizing a town hall to discuss body cameras on police officers, and stopping a juvenile prison from being constructed in South Ozone Park

In 2013, Wills went homeless to raise awareness of the plight of homeless individuals in his community. Wills pumped gas for tips and slept in parks for a two days period, relying on soup kitchens to stay feed. The week long experiment was cut short after Wills reportedly developed pneumonia and was temporarily hospitalized when the experience became hazardous to his health. Wills would later site this experience as his motivation to push Mayor Michael Bloomberg to expand rental subsidies stripped from the city budget in 2011.

Criminal charges

In March 2011, Wills responded to two arrest warrants for incidents that occurred over a decade earlier. The first warrant was issued in 1998 for an incident that occurred in 1996. In November 2011, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief. Wills admitted to stealing items and damaging property in an incident that he called a business dispute. The conviction resulted in no jail time or probation, but Wills had to pay restitution totaling $3,000 and perform 3 days of community service.

The second warrant was for not appearing on scheduled court date in 2002 for an arrest in Nassau County dating back to 2000. The charge was for operating an unlicensed construction business, also a misdemeanor.

On May 7, 2014, Wills was arrested as part of a corruption investigation. The charges included multiple counts of fraud and grand larceny in connection with more than $30,000 in public funds that went missing from a charity he ran.

On February 2, 2015 he was arrested again and charged with five felony counts of failing to disclose financial dealings on five separate disclosure reports filed with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board between 2012 and 2014.

The resolution of the cases from 2014 and 2015 has been delayed because Wills' lawyer was removed from the latter case due to a potential conflict of interest, and because of Wills' ongoing medical problems. Since his indictment in May 2014, Wills has also missed nearly half of his City Council meetings and hearings.

On July 20, 2017 a jury found Ruben Wills guilty on five of six counts against him in his corruption trial.

Wills argued that the vast majority of his charges stem from the office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman who is an opponent of the Southeast Queens Democratic community, who largely endorsed his primary opponent, future-Congresswoman Kathleen Rice, in the 2010 Democratic Primary for New York State Attorney General. Wills has repeatedly called for a special prosecutor to help develop an impartial prosecution.