Officials' details
unveiled in bribery
By TOM BALDWIN, thnt
Online, September 9, 2007
TRENTON, NJ — The Rev. Alfred
Steele — one of two state assemblymen accused of taking bribes in an FBI sting —
invoked the children of his city, Paterson, to nourish his rascal behavior.
Steele's colleague and co-accused, Assemblyman Mims Hackett Jr., tapped no such
endearing cause. Hackett was direct, if more cautious. It was just
about the money.
This is the picture that emerges from the official criminal complaints the FBI
and federal prosecutors presented a federal judge last Thursday, as Hackett,
Steele and nine other current and former public officials sat morosely, cuffed
at the wrists and ankles, after being collared in an FBI sweep that morning.
The two lawmakers were the highest-ranking targets in the sweep, besmirching
once again New Jersey's much-maligned reputation. Hackett is also mayor of
Orange. Steele is pastor at Seminary Baptist Church in Paterson and was a
Passaic County undersheriff — until five or so hours after his arrest, when he
was forced to resign.
Beyond the headlines lies the banter of the moment, the very words on which the
case is constructed — a window into the sort of people New Jersey taxpayers have
so often trusted to mind their affairs.
The FBI said Steele's voyage into taking bribes began on breezy March 14, 2007.
Seated in a Newark restaurant, he leaned across a table and heard how an
insurance brokerage outlet sought to win business with Paterson's schools and
other city agencies.
Steele, says the FBI, agreed the brokerage would pay Steele $5,000 to make
introductions to key Paterson officials and 15 percent of whatever gross revenue
the firm secured. Steele went so far as to say he would employ his
"personal touch" in making "it happen" for the insurance company.
Unbeknownst to Steele, the brokerage was a masquerade, run by two cooperating
witnesses and an undercover FBI agent.
Long known in the Statehouse for his graciousness, Steele departed from the
meeting by thanking all hands for "bringing him on board," the FBI said.
Then came a raw Monday, April 2, when Steele settled into another Newark
restaurant with a Paterson education official and his new friends, the fake
"insurance executives.' They pitched their wares.
Steele, the FBI says, "actively supported the presentation by, among other
things, describing the insurance products as a "nice piece,' and stressing
particularly that children benefited."
Once the school official had departed, Steele is said to have slipped into the
car of one of the "insurance men' and pocketed $5,000 in cash, saying of the
departed luncheon guest, "I have a great relationship with him," and together
"they could "do some business' and "work right into the county."'
Other meetings followed. On May 16, in Steele's legislative office in
Paterson, he allegedly took $1,500. On May 24, at a restaurant in Orange,
the FBI says that Steele boasted he expected to have "Paterson ... locked up,"
then asked whether the payment was cash before accepting another $1,500 from his
dining partners.
July 9 — in a car in a Newark hotel garage, where one "insurance partner' told
Steele that if he could make introductions to key Newark city and schools
officials, "We're talking about a major pay day for everybody." That
prompted Steele to allegedly reply of a contact there, "He can do it. ... Those
pieces can work," then take $1,500.
The agency said there came to be a meeting in a sports bar July 24, and another
Aug. 2 in a car in Passaic, where Steele told an "insurance partner' he had OK'd
some finer points, to clear a deal, with state Education Commissioner Lucille
Davy. Her spokesman Friday denied that ever happened.
Cash in the amount of $1,500 changed hands at that meeting, where Steele bragged
about securing the Paterson school contract, "We gonna do that. That piece
(winning a contract for Paterson schools) is gonna be done," the FBI says.
It added that Steele got $3,000 while sitting in a car on a Clifton street on
Aug. 13, and another $1,500 in cash Aug. 20 in a car parked in Elizabeth.
Seventeen days later, he was arrested.
Hackett appears to have first met with the "insurance men" May 24 at a
restaurant in Orange, where Hackett is mayor — at a meeting arranged by Steele,
in order for the fake company to pursue business in Orange.
Right away, the FBI said Hackett made plain that money slipped his way had to be
handled privately and only between Hackett and one of the "insurance men,'
always the same man.
Hackett was allegedly offered $5,000 up front and $25,000 once Orange — one of
the state's most distressed communities — handed its insurance business to the
brokerage. Asked if that arrangement worked for him, the FBI said Hackett
replied, "Oh yeah."
At his July 9 meeting in Newark, Steele vouched for Hackett, according to the
FBI: "Mims is cool. I can reach out to Mims and say, "Hey, have a
follow-up meeting and I really appreciate it.' He's gonna do it."
On Aug. 14, after a meeting in Orange City Hall, the parties retired to a
restaurant for lunch, after which Hackett, nearby City Hall, was said by the FBI
to have accepted $5,000 inside a sales brochure trumpeting the insurance
brokerage.
The sting began in May 2006 with the Pleasantville Board of Education, then took
its surprising trip north when the school board officials from Atlantic County
referred the FBI to other public officials they said would also accept bribes,
the FBI alleges.
"They then took federal law enforcement, unwittingly, on a corruption tour of
New Jersey to take us to other corrupt officials, almost as if there is a
corrupt public official underground in this state," said U.S. Attorney
Christopher J. Christie.
In addition to the lawmakers, the mayor of Passaic, one sitting councilman and
one former councilman from that city and the chief of staff to Newark's council
president were arrested, all after similar conversations, the FBI alleges.
"Don't worry about it. I'll help you out," Passaic Mayor Samuel "Sammy"
Rivera is quoted as growling to the "insurance men" when they sought contracts
requiring the OK of the seven-member City Council. "I can get four votes
easy, easy, easy."
Later, after accepting cash, in remarks to a Passaic official who questioned
using the new brokerage, Rivera is quoted as saying, "I make the (expletive)
decision. And the council. And believe me, I've got the four
(expletive) votes on the council. So let's stop (expletive), and let's get
this thing rolling."
Steele, Hackett, Rivera, the lot of them, rolled right into the processing
center at the federal courthouse in Trenton.
"I thought I could no longer be surprised by a combination of brazenness,
arrogance and stupidity, but the people elected in this state continue to defy
description," said Christie.
Contributing: Jonathan Tamari
tbaldwi@gannett.com
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