Wednesday, June 17, 2015

And The More Corrupt County of New Jersey is: Passaic County



Incidences of unlawful acts committed by Wayne Township, Passaic County Employees
The unlawful acts of Wayne Township employees are also evidenced by the number of illegal activities committed by its employees over the years. 
For example, in September 2009, the former Township Attorney Mark J. Semeraro was arrested and charged with violating a restraining order.  He then was forced to resign from his position.
In September 2011, Jerry Bello resigned from the Wayne township Environmental Commission after it was discovered that he had been appointed to the board despite his criminal record.  Bello had been convicted in 1994 of extorting $2,000 from a small-business owner who applied for a loan from Paterson’s Economic Development Corporation.  Bello’s wife, Nadine Bello in fact was serving on the Municipal Council, the very entity that was aware that the Township Assessor over-assesses the properties. Nadine Bello never indicated that her husband was a convicted felon.  Mayor Vergano was aware or should have been aware of the felony convictions of Bello and he, in fact, re-appointed Bello to the Environmental Commission.
In 2007, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice begun its investigation of Wayne Township, New Jersey. Wayne Township had delayed a mosque's building permits for several years, and then tried to use its eminent domain power to seize the land to leave it undeveloped. The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in 2007 filed a brief with the federal district court arguing that RLUIPA applied to the case. The court agreed, leading to a settlement between the mosque and the township.
Paul C. Cavaliere Jr., a former township attorney,  who in 1994 was sentenced to six months in jail, pleaded guilty to federal bribery and tax-evasion charges in one of New Jersey's worst cases of municipal corruption. The once-prominent lawyer was one of six onetime officials and four developers to be implicated in Messercola's scheme to extract illegal payoffs for development approvals. Cavaliere admitted helping former Mayor Louis V. Messercola disguise a $273,000 bribe as a real estate commission, keeping part of the bribe but giving Messercola the largest share.
Federal agents arrested Messercola in June 1988. The former mayor pleaded guilty to extorting $50,000 from a developer and was sentenced to 33 months in prison, then was sentenced to an additional 15 months upon admitting to his role in the $273,000 bribe scheme.

Ex-Council Candidate Arraigned on Theft Charge

Arlene Marchese and another woman allegedly stole more than $200K in insurance payments.
A one-time candidate for local office pleaded not guilty to theft in State Superior Court Monday, NorthJersey.com reported.
Arlene Marchese, 34, and Karen Wright, 42, of Wyckoff, were arraigned on charges they diverted more than $200,000 in insurance payments into their own private accounts. They were originally charged Sept. 26, the website reported.
Marchese was a Democratic candidate in 2011 for the 2nd Ward council seat. Wayne Democratic Chairman Ray Egatz replaced her for unspecified reasons.
Marchese’s phone number was not listed.
Both women face up to 10 years in state prison if convicted on the charges, NorthJersey.com reported. They are scheduled to return before Judge Gooden Brown for a status conference Feb. 4.

Unlawful Activities by Passaic County Sheriff Employees
In May 2012, Passaic County Sheriff’s Officer Rafael “Rae” Galan was indicted Tuesday on charges that he threatened a former colleague who had accused him of corruption.
Last year, The Star-Ledger published Galan’s name and photo in a three-part series about the widespread use of anabolic steroids in law enforcement. The newspaper found he was one of 248 officers and firefighters who obtained steroids, human growth hormone and other drugs with the aid of a crooked Jersey City physician, Joseph Colao.
The newspaper’s figure was based on records from a single mail-order pharmacy in Brooklyn. Colao, who died in 2007, is believed to have prescribed the drugs to hundreds of other officers and firefighters through pharmacies in New Jersey.
While anabolic steroids are legal with a valid prescription, The Star-Ledger found Colao routinely prescribed them when they were not medically necessary. Moreover, the officers used their government benefits to pay for the drugs, costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
In 2010, a records clerk at the county jail who is the former president of the clerical union at the Passaic County Sheriff's Department was arrested for stealing more than $23,000 in union funds, according to a report on NorthJersey.com. Valerie Jacalone, 53, of Passaic was taken into custody after reporting to work Tuesday at the county jail. She served as union president from July 2008 to July 2010 and is the daughter of Victor Jacalone, the former police chief for the City of Passaic, according to the report
Sheriff's Officer From Wayne, NJ Accused of Sex Abuse of Girls
In October 2012, Thomas Ingham charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. A long-serving Essex County Sheriff’s Officer from Wayne was charged Thursday with sexually abusing two juvenile girls, NorthJersey.com reported. Thomas Ingham, 48, an Essex County sheriff’s officer, was charged with sexually assaulting one girl and endangering the welfare of another. The girls reported the allegations to Wayne Police July 19, the website reported.
FREEHOLD, October 12, 2012 A central New Jersey police detective will give up his job after admitting that he requested sexual favors from a woman he had arrested late last year.
According to reports 33-year-old Philip Emanuele, a Brick Township resident who served with the Eatontown police force for the past eight years, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of criminal coercion and tampering with physical evidence.
Besides forfeiting his job, Emanuele is expected to get a probationary sentence when he's sentenced later this year. In return for his plea, Monmouth County prosecutors dropped two counts of official misconduct and one count of sexual assault.
Emanuele, a married father of two, sought the favors from the woman, who is in her 20s, after arresting her on a theft charge in December.
N.J. undersheriff who used county-owned generator for personal use resigns
GREEN — A Sussex County sheriff’s officer resigned this week after he was caught using a county-owned generator to provide power to his house, Sheriff Mike Strada said today.
Undersheriff George DeOld lost power at his home on Hibler Road in Green Township during Hurricane Sandy and had another sheriff’s officer deliver one of two emergency generators owned by the sheriff’s office to his home on Friday morning, Strada said.
A resident noticed the generator being delivered and sheriff’s officers recovered it from DeOld’s home a short time later, Strada said.
"It was an unfortunate incident and he has taken responsibility for his actions. He made the right choice by resigning," he said.
By using the county-owned generator for his personal use, DeOld violated an internal office regulation. Criminal charges will not be filed, Strada said. He declined to identify the officer who delivered the generator to DeOld’s home.
DeOld, who joined the sheriff’s office last year, was one of three undersheriffs in the 135-member office, serving as administrative undersheriff. He earned $97,000 annually.
He was a member of the Paterson Police Department from 1971 and 1998 and was later employed by the state Department of Treasury and the state Department of Community Affairs. In addition to his salary from the sheriff’s office, DeOld was collecting a $66,000 annual state pension from his previous positions.
Strada said the resignation would not affect DeOld’s pension status.
"It was wrong and he admitted it," the sheriff said, declining further comment.
A call to the county prosecutor’s office was not immediately returned.
A woman who answered the phone at DeOld’s home said "no comment" and immediately hung up.
A woman who answered the phone at DeOld’s home said “no comment” and immediately hung up the phone.

Unlawful Activities by Other New Jersey Officials
Nicholas Bissell was the District Attorney in Somerset County New Jersey. On Friday, May 31, 1996, he was convicted on all 30 counts of his federal indictment, two of the counts involving official misconduct in relation to the forfeiture of property from James Giuffre.
The charges against Bissell included a wide variety of fraud, as well as professional misconduct and corruption and threatening to have cocaine planted in the car of man with whom he had an argument.
Bissell was also convicted on both counts of the official misconduct charges involving forfeiture victim James Giuffre. Bissell was convicted of committing perjury in the separate civil suit filed against him by Giuffre, and of ordering subordinates to destroy Giuffre's written request for a lawyer.
On November 13, Nicholas Bissell, former D.A. of Somerset County, N.J., was scheduled to be sentenced on 30-counts of his federal indictment, 3 of the counts growing out of his official corruption in the handling of James Giuffre's forfeiture case. His sentencing was postponed.
On Monday, November 18, 1996, Bissell removed his electronic ankle bracelet and became a fugitive from justice. Authorities conducted a nationwide man hunt, and tracked him down to a casino hotel room in Laughlin, Nevada. At around 1:30 on Tuesday, November 26, U.S. Marshalls surrounded the room and tried to persuade Bissell to surrender. Bissell put a gun in his mouth and shot himself to death.
Trenton of Mayor Corruption
In July 2012, FBI agents staged a middle-of-the-night raid Wednesday at the home of Trenton's mayor, whose administration of the state's impoverished capital city has been marked by accusations of cronyism and reckless spending. They also searched the home of his brother and a convicted sex offender who was one of his biggest early campaign donors. Later, the federal officials charged the Mayor and other accomplishes with a number of corruption crimes.
The mayor of neighboring Hamilton Township, New Jersey's largest suburb, also is the target of federal investigators. Mayor John Bencivengo, a Republican, pleaded not guilty in federal court last week to charges of extortion and money laundering.
In September 2012, the U.S. Attorney filed charges against the Trenton Mayor and several accomplishes for corruption.

Toms River School Corruption
In September 2012, Calling it the "worst case of public corruption he has ever seen," a federal judge sentenced the disgraced former superintendent of Toms River Regional, Michael J. Ritacco, to 135 months – just over 11 years – in prison.
"This is the worst case of public corruption I’ve ever seen," Pisano said. Other cases of public corruption are "nickels and dimes compared to this."
Pisano sentenced Ritacco to 135 months on the first count of an indictment, and 60 months on the 19th count. He ruled the sentences will run concurrently.
Ritacco pleaded guilty April 5, 2012 to two of the 27 charges he was facing, and admitted his role in years of corruption at the school district, where as much as $2.5 million in bribes were allegedly passed between Ritacco, insurance brokers and intermediaries.


New Jersey internal records document widespread racial profiling of black and Hispanic motorists

By Fred Mazelis
2 December 2000
The release of 91,000 pages of internal records by the state of New Jersey reveal that a systematic policy of searching cars driven by blacks or Hispanics has been carried out for at least a decade. The statistics show that minority drivers, making up 13 percent of state motorists, accounted for more than 80 percent of those stopped by state troopers.
The mountain of official records constitutes the most damning evidence of crude official racism, fostered or accepted by top state officials of both the Democratic and Republican parties. The state's chief law enforcement officials knew about racial profiling since at least 1989 but refused to admit it until a report was issued in April 1999.
The official records consist of everything from police training manuals to thousands of pages of individual traffic tickets issued by state troopers. They have been compiled in 185 binders as well as on 15 CD-ROMs, which are being distributed to interested parties at a cost of $1,000.
The state police officially prohibited racial profiling, but according to a 1999 memo from Deputy Attorney General Debra Stone, “racial profiling exists as part of the culture.” Stone reported that veteran troopers functioned as “coaches” in showing new troopers how to carry out racial profiling. “Trooper after trooper has testified that coaches taught them how to profile minorities,” Stone wrote. “The coaches also teach this to minority troopers.”
These practices stretched back more than a decade. A 1987 state police training memo listed the following descriptions to assist police in finding possible drug couriers: Colombian males, Hispanic males, a Hispanic male and a black male together, or a Hispanic male and female.
Among the documents released by the state attorney general's office were numerous bitter complaints from motorists who had been stopped and in many cases singled out for abuse and humiliation. State troopers themselves, if they were off duty and were black or Hispanic, were not immune from being pulled over for “DWB”—driving while black. One such officer, a state police sergeant, wrote that he had been stopped 40 times by state troopers while off duty. “There were times when I was the fourth vehicle in a line of five exceeding the speed limit,” he wrote. “I was the only one stopped. It doesn't take long to realize that you (the minority) are the choice of the day.”