John A. Lynch Jr.

On Tuesday, John A. Lynch Jr., one of the most powerful political leaders in New Jersey in recent decades, will approach the bench of U.S. District Court Judge Stanley R. Chesler at the federal courthouse and learn the consequences of his criminal activity.

Instead of giving orders, the 68-year-old resident of New Brunswick will likely be ordered to serve time in a federal prison.  If the judge follows sentencing guidelines, Lynch will serve between 33 and 41 months at a facility designated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

What must he be thinking?

"You're walking into a dark room blindfolded.  You have nothing to draw upon," said Gerald J. Luongo, a former member of the state Assembly who served 11 months at a federal prison camp in Elgin, Fla., beginning in 2002.

The best advice for a man entering the federal prison system:  "You can't have an attitude," said Luongo, a former high school principal and mayor of Washington Township who found himself taking orders — being told when to rise, when to eat, when to turn lights out.

Lynch and his wife Deborah had planned to move into a new home in Lawrenceville.  Instead that house is being prepared for sale, and Lynch will soon be assigned a bed at a nearby federal prison.

A most likely scenario is that he will be given a date, sometime after the holidays, to surrender to custody.

"We try to look for the appropriate level of security, within 500 miles of residency," said Felicia Ponce, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons.

Chesler can rule outside the sentencing guidelines.  He can go above 41 months, below 33 months, or give Lynch a sentence that does not include prison at all.

Edwin Stier, former head of the state Division of Criminal Justice and former chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey, said the latter is unlikely.

"I think he has zero chance of avoiding prison time," said Stier.

According to Stier, the exception would be if Lynch were terminally ill, which is apparently not the case, or if he is a cooperating witness, an informant who agrees to take the stand against another defendant.

Life-changing moment

"Let's face it.  His world has changed," said Alan Marcus, a friend who has seen Lynch several times since he entered his guilty plea Sept. 15.  "I'm worried about his physical health."

Lynch was hospitalized after entering his guilty plea, and rumors spread in wide circles that he attempted to take his own life — rumors his closest friends deny in the strongest possible language.

"It is one of those tragic, but unfortunately common, incidents in New Jersey public life," said Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker.  "The tragic aspect is he is a man of tremendous ability, who's very smart but suffered a fatal lack of judgment.  He had much to give, but his public career ends in disgrace."

Someone as powerful as Lynch going to prison "hurts the institution of government," said state Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex.  "No one knows how wrong it was more than Mr. Lynch does."

Strong political roots

Lynch, whose great-great-grandfather, Patrick Corrigan, emigrated from Ireland to New Brunswick in 1840 and helped construct the city's first sewer system, graduated from St. Peter's High School.

The 5-foot-7-inch Lynch was the sixth man on the 1955-56 basketball team that advanced to the state finals. "He was a good schoolboy athlete, a tough Irish kid. If you lined your team up against his team, he would be the last one to quit," said David Harris, a community activist in New Brunswick.

Lynch would take a career path that mirrored his father, John A. Lynch Sr. Both father and son served as mayor of New Brunswick, state senator and state Senate president.

After the younger Lynch graduated from the College of the Holy Cross and Georgetown Law School, he returned to New Brunswick to practice law. He is the man given the most credit for the revival of the city.

Assemblyman Peter J. Barnes, D-Middlesex, recalled working there in the 1980s.

"At that time the quality of life in the city of New Brunswick was steadily declining, with businesses closing down and family movie theaters being replaced by pornographic shops. The city was in total decline," Barnes wrote, in a letter to Judge Chesler on Lynch's behalf.

"When one looks to the catalyst and the architect of this renaissance you would have to recognize the vision and foresight of John A. Lynch," Barnes added.

Many accomplishments

In his letter to the judge, former state Sen. John H. Dorsey said Lynch has a long list of accomplishments in the Senate.

"I could go on cataloging the many things that John Lynch did for the state of New Jersey, such as providing affordable housing, promoting science and technology and making health care more affordable, but then this letter would turn into multi-page treatise," Dorsey wrote.

Lynch's power waned in 1991, when the Democrats lost control of the Legislature, as voters reacted negatively to Gov. James Florio's tax increases.

Following an election Lynch called "a blowout," he believed it was time to enter "the real world" and begin developing business interests, he said in an interview with the Home News Tribune.

In 1993, he and developer Jack Westlake created a consultant company called Alma Limited, though Westlake had 100 percent ownership. Were his name associated with Alma, Lynch said, "I would become the story, as opposed to the project."

The two then established Executive Continental to act as a subcontractor working for Alma, with Westlake and Lynch equally sharing ownership. Lynch explained his role would be to help developers as a "choreographer."

Among the companies he would help was the Dallenbach Sand Co., which was planning an expansion of its work in South Brunswick. Lynch wrote letters to the state Department of Environmental Protection on behalf of the project.

The writing of the letters did not violate the law. Seeking payment for the writing did.

"We walked away from the project," said Harold Herbert, president of the sand company. He told the Home News Tribune his company paid Alma $38,000 for its services. Herbert said he considered the $38,000 well spent, since it allowed the company to avoid costly mistakes.

In a presentence statement to the court, Lynch acknowledged his wrongdoing: "I foolishly and wrongly authored two letters, on my Senate stationery, voicing support for this project . . . Thereafter Mr. Westlake and Alma used those letters to press the sand company for payments, portions of which I received."

In a sentencing memorandum to Chesler, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie wrote, "In accepting the money from the sand company in exchange for exercising official action in favor of the sand company, defendant Lynch was selling the influence and authority he had accumulated as a result of his many years as a state senator from Middlesex County and former mayor of New Brunswick."

The use of the U.S. mail system violated federal law.

Lynch also acknowledged filing a false federal income-tax return in 1999, failing to report $150,000 in income, his portion of the sale or property.

Onetime power broker

Lynch left public office in 2001, but not before taking credit for the election of Gov. James E. McGreevey. Lynch took McGreevey under his wing when the two served in the Legislature; he was impressed with McGreevey's work ethic.

In 1997, Lynch was co-chairman of McGreevey's campaign, when McGreevey challenged incumbent Gov. Christie Whitman.

"I'm very energized by the McGreevey candidacy, and I'm going to do everything in our power to ensure that he's the next governor," he told the Home News Tribune at the time.

"There is no one in state politics closer to the new governor, James McGreevey, than Lynch. Many political pundits credit Lynch for the making of the governor," the Web site declared.

Lynch, who declined to run again in 2001, would rue the day. He and McGreevey had a falling out, and Lynch called McGreevey's truncated term as governor "the worst 34 months of my political life."

Far worse would be admitting his guilt in federal court in September.

Is there life after federal prison?

Luongo, who was 63 years old when he was sent to federal prison, allowed that he was respected by inmates.

"It wasn't like I was some street hood, some punk," said Luongo, who helped 25 inmates earn their GED while in custody, played the organ at religious services, and was trusted enough to leave the federal prison camp to run errands.

Life after prison

Luongo now works with disadvantaged youths in Florida.

"It is very difficult to come back from disgrace," said Rutgers' Ross Baker. "It's one thing to be defeated (in an election). It's another thing to be indicted and convicted."

Though comebacks from federal prison are rare, Baker noted that politicians and the media still seek advice from former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, D-Ill., after he served 15 months in federal prison for his role in the Congressional post office scandal in 1994.

"I don't think there's a reason John should be in jail," said Alan Marcus, suggesting Lynch could contribute to society as a teacher. "John Lynch. Martha Stewart. There's no reason these people should be in prison.

"John has been and still is a dynamic person; people will remember him for what he has done for us," said former New Brunswick Police Director Michael Beltranena. "He's a survivor. He'll overcome this somehow."

Contributing: Staff writer Ken Serrano

Rick Malwitz: (732) 565-7291; Rmalwitz@thnt.com