Another NJ Politician Sentenced for Corruption

From the Star Ledger:

A "crass, immature" Passaic ex-councilman was sentenced yesterday to more than six years in federal prison for accepting $44,500 in bribes for himself and other onetime city officials.

Every time I see one of these articles, I am struck by the sheer audacity of the corruption. It is often in plain sight and the citizens keep re-electing these people who do not act in their interests. And more shocking is that the charges are NEVER leveled by New Jersey prosecutors. They are always Federal investigations.

His undoing was an FBI investigation that led to indictments of 11 New Jersey public officials, including convictions for mentor and Mayor Sammy Rivera; Passaic Councilman Marcellus Jackson; Paterson schools trustee Chauncey Brown III, and Democratic Assemblymen Alfred E. Steele of Paterson and Mims Hackett Jr. of Orange.

In a separate trial yesterday, also before Thompson, a fourth Passaic official became a casualty of that investigation: Councilman Gerardo Fernandez was convicted of perjury for lying to a grand jury reviewing evidence of corruption.

"Clearly, for a significant portion of the City Council, corruption was just part of doing business," acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra Jr. said in a statement. "We can only hope that all of these convictions in Passaic will have the desired deterrent effect and give the public hope that their other current representatives are honest and working in their best interests."

Of course, I guess we can expect these to end with the election of Barack Obama. New Jersey corrupt Democrat politicians can breathe a sigh of relieve with AG Holder in charge as he is only interested in prosecuting Republicans for political purposes.
At least we can hope that we get rid of Corzine and let Christie take over and put teeth back into prosecutions at the state level.

---