This morning’s Alex Zdan piece in the Trenton Times is a useful reminder that, in all the hoopla about the upcoming Federal trial of the Current Indicted and Arraigned Occupant of Trenton’s Mayor’s office, his alleged Bagman Brother and supposed Wise Guy Wannabe pal and campaign contributor, there are other investigations into our municipal mayhem underway on the state and county levels.
This space has been saying for months that focusing the spotlight on the IO’s alleged Federal crimes should not lead us to forget or excuse all of the multiple things that he has done that are stupid, incompetent and wrong, but legal. Mr. Zdan’s piece should similarly remind us that Tony Mack, Ralphiel Mack and JoJo Giorgianni are probably not the only individuals who have engaged in criminal activities over the course of the last 2 1/2 years.
There have been simply too many outrageous and serious incidents over the course of the current Administration to have been perpetrated by only those three men. We have seen multiple scandals, with city bidding and contracting for services as varied as Information Technology services; renovation and furnishing the zombie branch library Learning Centers; and bundled sales of dozens of city-owned properties for dozens of dollars.
We have read stories of no-show employees, paid handsome salaries, with no defined duties or even specified hours. Others falsified timecards and padded their paychecks with overtime they should not be eligible for. Some employees have apparently lied about their resident status in order to receive their appointed jobs. Others have civil service job titles in one department doing very different personal or propaganda work in other agencies and departments in violation of the work on paper they were hired to do.
All of these people stole from the people of this City and this State as surely as the three Indicted Ones are accused of doing. All of them should not be allowed to get away with it.
Several significant civil lawsuits are working their way through the legal system, alleging serious misbehavior that surely verges into the criminal realm. One suit by Trenton Water Works employees Edmund Johnson and Timothy London describes treatment they endured under an entirely corrupt environment during and after the time of the IO’s half-brother – and now convicted felon – Stanley “Muscles” Davis. Although Davis and his co-defendants were convicted and imprisoned for their crimes. London and Johnson’s suit contains serious allegations of a public utility still the source of a great deal of crime and corruption at high levels. It wasn’t just Muscles responsible for it all.
Similarly, a civil lawsuit by former Recreation Department employee Maria Richardson alleges all kinds of shenanigans in that cesspool: missing cash receipts and city property, improper hiring of unqualified employees, and more.
I could go on, and on., but I trust I’ve provided enough examples for you. There’s been a lot of smoke over the last two years coming from City Hall and other city buildings. More smoke than could have come from fires started by only three men. In this Administration, the rot started at the head, but it is certainly spread all throughout our city’s government.
It would be a travesty of justice if more of those assholes are not held accountable.
I do hope that today’s Times article provides evidence that investigations are still ongoing and developing against more people than those three now being called to account. I do hope that the state Attorney General’s office and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office are not, as County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini hinted, “just sit[ting] back,” letting the Feds do all the heavy lifting.
There are still several other guilty parties out there that haven’t been charged yet. I hope that their day of reckoning is coming, too.
And soon.
wishing you/all a merry xmas. another great article.
i read that the Mack defense are planning to ask for 6 more months for the trial to begin its currently scheduled for Feb, Evidently they need this time to “study” the evidence against them, I guess they think the FBI just made it up and that they were not the ones recorded, via video.
is there anyway to contact the prosecutor to speed up( not delay) this trial, 6 month of this tick bleeding the city is just despicable.
peace
You are one racist fool. Aren’t you the mentally handicapped guy?
Hey “Ed Smith” – care to say what you think is “racist” in what I write? Otherwise, try to avoid cheap shots under cover of anonymity; it’s kind of chickenshit, ya know?
Kevin, i can see why you limit response time, as far as racism, i am just as critical of hamilton’s mayor and expect him to get several years of jail time. however i dont live in hamilton, i live in trenton. jail is the ultimate home of criminals, although the mayor still hasnt had his day in court, i would think that he would be anxious to clear his name, since he claims he is innocent. he alone knows all the facts, so why does he need 6 more months?
maybe “ed smith” knows?
ed w, I imagine the 6-month delay – which was only mentioned by Mack’s lawyer in passing to a reporter; I don’t think it has been formally requested in a motion to the judge – is pretty standard for a defense. Delay, delay, delay, in the hope of finding (or perhaps creating) a favorable narrative out of the hours of video and audio recordings, and printed transcripts.
I know that with enough editing, one can make any conversation or series or conversations look and sound entirely different from what another person can make it look like. So the defense attorney may anticipate that the prosecution may present the evidence to show that the three defendants took bribes, and present a rebuttal narrative to make the same set of facts look like he was passing along a gift to the widows and orphans fund. A defense has to create reasonable doubt in the minds of at least one juror in order to get things to go their way.
Or some such. That kind of creation takes some time. Six months’ worth? I don’t know. If Mack’s attorney does file a motion for delay, he will have to make a compelling argument to the judge. Will he be successful? I can’t say.
I do believe this is the attorney’s first federal criminal trial. Whatever experience he may have and whatever instincts he may possess about what he can do and get approved in a state court may not be transferable to US District Court. Who knows? I certainly don’t.
As to whether there’s any way to contact the prosecutor: I highly doubt it. A member of the public probably has no standing in a federal court to make that kind of request.
Agree with Kevin here re: the delay tactic – if your client is innocent or not, unless it is glaring clear, this is SOP. Not only is it more time to come up with an effective strategy for the defense, it also works by attrition to move away from public outrage and the impact it has (which it really does). However, the Feds work on a much longer time frame than local outfits do – so all this really would do is keep Tony on payroll long enough to pay his lawyers.
To “Ed Smith” – please stop it. Just stop. Ugh… the stupid, it burns…
Kevin (and those that are interested) – this is Tony’s attorney’s site & info: http://www.davisfirmllc.com/ (not sure if you allow links, Kevin – apologies if not)
To the young attorney’s credit, he seems to have pedigree (HUN school, GW), but he’s only been an acting lawyer for 7 years (the first few I’m sure was just paperwork). Still young and fresh faced. I wonder if this kind of high profile case is really a shot at recognition – for him, it would be quite the win. However, Tony isn’t Ray Buckley and the McMartin Preschool hysteria where innocent people were on the business end of a witch hunt…