With a corruption indictment announced last week, U.S. Sen.
Bob Menendez became the latest in a long line of New Jersey's top elected
officials to be hit by scandal or corruption accusations.
The Democrat denies doing anything illegal.
Here's a rundown of some of the biggest and the most recent political
scandals, corruption charges and resignations to affect a state where
politicians have less than pristine images.
1804: Vice President Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, who
had served as the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury and whose face is
still on the $10 bill, have a duel in Weehawken. It kills Hamilton. Burr, a New Jersey native, is indicted on a
murder charge but he was never tried.
Early 1980s: U.S. Sen. Harrison "Pete" Williams,
U.S. Rep. Frank Thompson and Camden Mayor Angelo Errichetti, also a member of
the state Assembly, are all among the officials convicted in the
"Abscam" case, which involved accepting bribes from pretend Arab
sheiks.
1984: Michael Matthews, the first mayor of Atlantic City
elected by the city's voters, loses the seat in a recall election and pleads
guilty to extortion. He served more than five years in prison.
1996: 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.
1994: 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.
2000: Camden Mayor Milton Milan is convicted of a wide range
of acts of corruption, including taking payoffs from the mob, using city
contractors to do free work on his home, laundering money from a drug dealer,
using vehicles supplied for free by a towing contractor, using campaign money
for a trip to Puerto Rico and selling a stolen computer. He served nearly six
years in prison.
2002: With just five weeks to go before Election Day, Sen.
Robert Torricelli, a Democrat, quits his re-election effort in light of an
admonishment from the Senate's ethics committee, which investigated allegations
that he had accepted gifts from a campaign contributor. He has not been charged
with any crimes.
2004: Gov. Jim McGreevey announces that he is a "gay
American," had had an affair with a male staff member and would be
resigning from office. He was not charged with any crimes.
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.
2008: Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James, a Democrat who also
served in the state Senate, is convicted of steering a city land deal to a
woman who was his girlfriend at the time. He served 18 months in federal
prison. The same year, state Sen. Wayne Bryant is convicted in a separate
corruption trial of taking "low-show" public jobs to pad his
government pension.
2009: In the case known as "Bid Rig," the biggest
single corruption case in state history, 46 political, business and religious
leaders are arrested. Ultimately, 34 of them plead guilty, four are convicted
by jurors, two are found not guilty and one dies before trial.
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.
2012: 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.
2014: Federal authorities announce they are investigating
whether any laws were broken in lane closures near the George Washington
Bridge. An aide to Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, emailed a Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey official before they began, "Time for some
traffic problems in Fort Lee." A lawyer for Christie and a report from
state lawmakers did not find any wrongdoing by Christie. It's not clear when
the criminal investigation will be complete.
2014: U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, under investigated by the House
Ethics Committee for using campaign money for a series of trips, resigns to
take a job with a law firm. He has not been charged with any crimes.
2014: Trenton Mayor Tony Mack is convicted of accepting
bribes in a phony land deal. He is serving a nearly five-year sentence in
federal prison.