|
The New York Times
N.Y. / Region
Mayor and His Wife
Are Guilty
in Federal Extortion
Case in New Jersey
By JONATHAN MILLER,
nytimes.com on the Web, April 30, 2008
NEWARK — Once again the town
of Guttenberg — a dense sliver of a place where about 11,000 residents are
shoehorned into an area that measures only 4 blocks by 11 — has proved that it
is hardly immune to the infamous grip of Hudson County politics.
On Tuesday the mayor and his wife were found guilty of federal extortion and tax
charges in a trial that featured accusations that they received money from a bar
owner suspected of smuggling under-age girls and women into the country and
forcing them to work in bars. Witnesses in the case included a top aide to
Gov. Jon S. Corzine.
Both the mayor, David Delle Donna, who turned 50 on Tuesday, and his wife, Anna,
60, will probably face four to six years in prison and a $350,000 fine, said a
spokesman for the United States attorney for New Jersey, Christopher J.
Christie.
“We take no joy in the jury’s verdict,” Mr. Christie said in a statement, but
“the jury found that the defendants traded on their public positions.”
On Tuesday morning, the jury informed Judge Harold A. Ackerman of Federal
District Court that it had reached a unanimous verdict on three counts but was
deadlocked on the remaining two. The judge agreed with federal prosecutors
that it was too soon to declare a mistrial, and instructed the jurors to
continue their fifth day of deliberations. About an hour later they came
back with their decision.
While the jury convicted Mr. Delle Donna and his wife, a former member of the
town planning board, on three charges of conspiracy to commit extortion and
filing false tax returns, it rejected two mail fraud charges.
One of the prosecution’s key witnesses was Luisa Medrano, who owns several bars
in northern New Jersey, including one in Guttenberg that was raided by federal
officers in 2005. The authorities found Honduran girls — some as young as
14 — who had been smuggled into the area and forced to work off their transport
fees by dancing and drinking with customers.
Federal officials said that the Delle Donnas received $26,700 in cash and gifts
from Ms. Medrano, including gift cards for Macy’s, plastic surgery for Mrs.
Delle Donna and a Yorkshire terrier named Toby valued at $2,300. In
exchange for the gifts, prosecutors said, Ms. Medrano had gotten municipal
violations dismissed, favorable permits issued and a lighter suspension for a
liquor license violation.
However, lawyers for the Delle Donnas said the couple were unaware that the
women and young girls had been smuggled into the country, or even that they had
been working at the bar.
Although Ms. Medrano had been described by federal authorities as a “ringleader”
of the smuggling operation and faced a possible prison term of 250 years, she
pleaded guilty in 2006 to a lighter charge of harboring illegal aliens in
exchange for her testimony. She has not yet been sentenced.
The jury also convicted both Mr. and Mrs. Delle Donna of failure to report about
$25,000 in taxes from rental income in 2004 and 2005.
After the verdict was announced, Mr. Delle Donna grew angry when asked by this
reporter about Javier Inclán, a former friend whose testimony involved the mail
fraud charges, on which the couple were found not guilty. Mr. Inclán is a
deputy chief of staff to Governor Corzine and a former Guttenberg councilman.
He testified that as campaign treasurer for Mr. Delle Donna, he had once passed
him a sealed envelope that he believed held $3,000 from Ms. Medrano, but had not
reported the cash on campaign finance reports.
“The fact is he committed perjury on the stand,” said Mr. Delle Donna, who
denied accepting such an envelope.
“He’s a piece of garbage,” Mrs. Delle Donna said after the verdict was
delivered.
A spokeswoman for the governor, Lilo H. Stainton, dismissed the mayor’s
accusations. “This is a convicted felon who’s trying to blame someone
else,” she said.
Defense lawyers said they were stunned by the verdict. “At the end of the
day the jury disbelieved Javier Inclán but believed Luisa Medrano, and that is
certainly shocking to us,” said Ralph Lamparello, the lawyer for Mr. Delle
Donna, adding that he planned to appeal.
The five-week trial featured nearly two dozen witnesses, but none more
high-profile than Mr. Inclán. In grand jury testimony, Mr. Inclán agreed
with the judge that he had taken a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding
campaign cash — although after that testimony was read in court, he said he
could not recall saying such a thing.
When he testified that on one occasion in 2002 he handed a sealed envelope to
Mr. Delle Donna that he believed contained $3,000 in cash from Ms. Medrano —
$2,600 more than the legal limit — that never appeared in state campaign finance
records, Ms. Delle Donna’s lawyer, Brian J. Neary, asked him, “Why haven’t you
been indicted?”
The defense lawyers also accused him of pocketing the cash, which Mr. Inclán
denied.
Guttenberg, snuggled against the Hudson River and wedged between West New York
and North Bergen, is no stranger to municipal skulduggery.
In 2003, a former mayor, Peter LaVilla, pleaded guilty to misappropriating
campaign funds and using the money for a private brokerage account after an
investigation by the United States attorney’s office. In 2002, a
councilman accused of receiving illegal advances on his salary resigned,
although he was never formally charged. The same year, the town’s chief
financial officer pleaded guilty to misappropriation of funds.
For now, Mr. Delle Donna, who has been mayor since 2002 and earns a salary of
$6,700 a year, will remain the mayor, but will most likely be forced to resign
in the coming days based on his federal conviction. Sentencing for the
Delle Donnas is scheduled for September.
|
