Live coverage from the trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack as opening arguments begin today.

TRENTON -- The federal corruption trial for Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack began this morning with opening arguments.

Mack, who has repeatedly said he is innocent, is indicted on six bribery and extortion counts, all linked to a parking garage project run by informants for the FBI. Mack was also charged with mail fraud for allegedly using the U.S. Mail to send the letter lowering the purchase price of the parking garage lot, which was a condition of the bribe, according to the indictment.

Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni, a supporter of Mack and a former co-defendant in the case, pleaded guilty to his role in the bribery scheme last month. In a story today, he detailed how his relationship with the mayor unfolded and how he reached the decision to plead guilty.

The trial is expected to take several weeks.

Times of Trenton reporter Jenna Pizzi is providing live coverage of the trial through her Twitter account @JennaPizzi :

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With a guilty plea in a federal courtroom last month, Joseph Giorgianni came out of the underworld he says has been his home for five decades.

TRENTON — Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni’s career in corruption — a life in which silence bought power — is over.

With a guilty plea in a federal courtroom last month, he came out of the underworld he says has been his home for five decades.

Giorgianni admitted handing $8,000 cash directly to Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, a close friend he supported for years and finally saw elected mayor in 2010.

In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview Giorgianni provided to The Times this week, Giorgianni said he has conflicted feelings about his testimony.

He said he wants to help federal prosecutors put away Mack, who Giorgianni said is guilty of trying to use his office to get cash. But the rules Giorgianni has lived by for 64 years dictate that he should not break his code of silence.

“’Cause I never had evil in my heart,” Giorgianni said. “And I feel like I’m hurting Tony’s kids with what I did. There was always reasonable doubt, and I took that away.”

Whether Giorgianni will be called to testify as the trial against Mack and his brother Ralphiel gets underway today in the federal courthouse just a block from City Hall remains to be seen.

And he said he has more to offer authorities should they ask for his help.

He said the roots of corruption in Trenton spread far beyond the bribery and corruption case that will be put before jurors today in the Clarkson S. Fisher Building & U.S. Courthouse. Money has flowed through Giorgianni for years — as a fundraiser, bundler, buffer, and most notably, as a bagman, he said.

“Now, I’m squealing,” Giorgianni said he said during the interview at his Ewing house, where he remains under house arrest with an electronic monitoring bracelet on his wrist. “And that kills me. I betrayed something I lived by my whole life. It’s not easy. ... That’s all I ever had.”

Before his guilty plea, Giorgianni tried to convince a federal judge he is not mentally fit to stand trial. Psychological evaluations deemed him competent, but also determined he is prone to make grandiose statements about himself.

A week after Giorgianni admitted he directly handed Mayor Mack $8,000 in cash as payment for a parking garage project that turned out to be an FBI sting, signs with “JoJo” and the image of rat were posted at his steak shop and home.

“You know I never wanted to be no bagman,” Giorgianni said. “Because the messenger always gets killed. But I absolutely wanted to be the bagman for Tony because I was broke.”

‘What you were born to do’

Giorgianni played a large role in Mack’s successful campaign for mayor in 2010, and after the vote Mack indicated he had power.

“When he got elected, he said, ‘Well, we own it now,’” Giorgianni said. “It’s wide open.”

During the hard, lean years after Mack was dismissed from his city job, lost the 2006 election to former Mayor Doug Palmer, then lost his county freeholder seat in a primary, he counted on Giorgianni to keep him financially afloat. Giorgianni and Trenton Central High teacher Dr. Jack Washington spent thousands of dollars on Mack’s taxes, mortgage and bills — deliveries that formed the basis for the “Uncle Remus” code word Giorgianni said in his guilty plea “always meant cash.”

That relationship, where Giorgianni supplied cash to Mack, continued in office, Giorgianni said.

“I was always the buffer ... as far as, (when) anybody talked to him, set up meetings,” Giorgianni said. “But it became money once he became mayor. That’s when the true buffer came out.”

During one face-to-face meeting at JoJo’s Steak House after Mack became mayor, he angrily demanded Giorgianni use all his underworld connections to find him money, Giorgianni said.

“He said, ‘Reach down, reach down, and do what you were born to,’” Giorgianni said, mimicking a clawing motion he said Mack made at the time.

Some of the deals Giorgianni helped orchestrate have been disclosed by federal prosecutors, like the alleged attempt to get brothers Isam and Nedal Abuhumoud to pass cash to Mack in exchange for stopping enforcement work by a city inspector.

“That’s what I told Nedal, ‘You get $10,000, you get to bail out the mayor,’” Giorgianni said. Ultimately, Nedal Abuhumoud was “hemming and hawing” and never gave any money, Giorgianni said.

Nedal Abuhumoud, who cofounded the junk car company Kaars Inc. with his brother Isam, vehemently denies the allegations by the government and Giorgianni.

“I never gave him (anything) or never will,” Nedal Abuhumoud said Monday.

Nedal Abuhumoud, who owns Acres Auto in Hamilton and tows for the township, denies that he or his brother Isam, who operates Kaars on Parker Avenue in Trenton, were approached for money. In open court Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Moran named the Abuhumouds as seeking cash, and the government is asking Judge Michael A. Shipp to allow the wiretap evidence that documents the alleged bribe attempt in May and June 2011.

Federal authorities said some city employees were targeted to give kickbacks in exchange for keeping their jobs with the Mack administration. A defense motion mentions wiretapped conversations about a list Giorgianni compiled.

Giorgianni said Garland Barber, then in the tree division, came to Giorgianni when Mack was pulling away as the mayoral front-runner in 2010. Desiring a promotion, Barber first gave two checks totaling $1,000, which was reported in Mack’s campaign account, then cash that was not. The $5,000 cash went to Mack directly, passed to Mack in the bedroom of Giorgianni’s home during a meeting there, Giorgianni said.

Barber said in a phone interview he supported Eric Jackson during the 2010 race, and it was “insane” he would give money for a job. Barber was ultimately demoted as a supervisor and currently works at the Sewer Utility.

Giorgianni said the $2,500 in cash found in Ralphiel Mack’s house when it was raided by FBI in July 2012 was for Mack, given to Ralphiel by Giorgianni inside the steak house with his longtime companion Mary Manfredo watching as a witness.

“When it was big money, I used to tell Tony, ‘Come direct,’” he said. “So I didn’t mind giving it to Ralphiel because I knew what the figures was.”

The relationship allowed Mack to distance himself from the corruption.

“I was always the buffer,” Giorgianni said. “I wanted the money to come to me, so I would know it goes to Tony.”

Giorgianni has a prison record — having been convicted in 1982 in connection with the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl inside JoJo’s Steak House, where he owns the building but his longtime girlfriend Mary Manfredo operates. In the guilty plea last month, he admitted distributing prescription painkillers from the steak shop, though denies he made any money off it. But he said being known for criminal activity helped keep him out of sight to engage in passing money.

Giorgianni said he used to comfort Mack by pledging his loyalty, backed by years of operating in the shadows.

“I said, ‘If you don’t see me on the witness stand you have nothing to worry about,’” Giorgianni said. “I guess he’s got to worry. But if they don’t put me on the witness stand I think maybe he has a shot.”

An introduction

Mack became Trenton’s recycling coordinator in 1991 and served for 13 years during the administration of former Mayor Doug Palmer. Palmer’s political support was essential to Mack’s election as a county freeholder in 1996.

Giorgianni said Palmer told him that Mack would run for mayor in 2006 and that Giorgianni should support his campaign to succeed him.

“He said, ‘Tony’s the guy, I want you to back him fully,’” Giorgianni said of Palmer. “‘As you would do for me.’”

Palmer denies the conversation ever happened.

“I never had that conversation at all,” Palmer said. “I vehemently deny that.”

Palmer changed his mind about running for another term, causing a deep split with Mack that led the duo to face off in the 2006 election. Palmer won another term and Mack found himself out of a job.

Giorgianni said he decided to stick with Mack in that messy political divorce.

In the winter of 2006, Harold Hall, a former city cop who is now the city’s public property director, approached Giorgianni to help out with the Mack for mayor campaign.

“I could have got out cheap, just a couple hundred and chased him,” Giorgianni said. “But I didn’t want to give any money to Harold Hall.”

“I said, ‘Oh no, this will not be done through you, Mr. Hall,’” he said. “‘Vacate the premises.’”

Giorgianni said he wanted to meet Mack personally. It was the first time he had sat down with Mack, he said.

“And this little guy came in, with a big long black trench coat, cashmere coat and I said, ‘You must be here to start the campaign,’” Giorgianni said. “(I gave him) $2,500. Cash. Next time I seen him we had a party, a little get together, I gave him $5,000.”

He always had big dreams for Mack, whose political future had looked bright before he lost to Palmer in a bruising, bitter race.

“I planned senator, governor — first black governor,” Giorgianni said.

When Mack won the next mayoral election in 2010, Giorgianni said he thought his bet had paid off.

The FBI launched its investigation of Mack in September 2010, just months after he took office. FBI agents enlisted the help of former local attorney Lemuel Blackburn and a northern New Jersey developer who sought help in an East State Street parking garage project on a city-owned lot. Blackburn, who has since died while the case was pending, recorded a conversation with Giorgianni on Sept. 14, 2010.

“We want this,” Giorgianni said, according to federal documents. “What do you think we did all this for? I like to make money for my friends. I like to do it like the Boss Tweed way. You know Boss Tweed ran Tamany Hall?”

Giorgianni called it “good corruption” at the time and continues to contend no one was harmed by the deal, which would have landed $100,000 in kickbacks in total as part of a sale of the property to the developers.

“I saved the guys, the informants, 68, I got 100 for the city and 100 for Tony, so what did I do so wrong?” Giorgianni asked this week, leaning back in his recliner with a lit cigar, as usual, stationed between his fingers. “Nobody got hurt.”

The $100,000 the government cooperators were allegedly willing to pay may seem high, but it was for a purpose.

“It’s not a lot to own a mayor,” Giorgianni said.

Mack came to the steak house in the spring of 2012 for a cash payment from the parking garage scheme, Giorgianni admitted during his guilty plea. Now giving the details for the first time, Giorgianni said he remembered Mack arriving on a warm day, his suit coat off, wearing a white shirt. Giorgianni ripped open an envelope containing the $8,000 — held from two payments of $1,500 and two more of $2,500 each. He gave Mack the cash, folded once, wrapped in a rubber band, and reminded the mayor that the money would need to be repaid if the project fell apart.

During his December plea hearing, Giorgianni also admitted soliciting a kickback from an auto detailing company in exchange for a contract power-washing steps in a city amphitheater. Of the money given, $600 went to former city employee Charles Hall III. Out of the rest, Giorgianni kept $400 and gave $500 directly to Mack, he said.

The full amount of the parking garage bribe was never paid before agents made themselves known with search warrants for the Macks’ houses, Giorgianni’s properties and City Hall.

‘Big betrayal’

Things fell apart in July 2012 when Giorgianni’s home was raided by the FBI. They had been tapping his cell phone and home phone for more than a year and bugged the clubhouse next door to JoJo’s Steak House that Giorgianni used for recreation and meetings. The agents were listening as Giorgianni spoke with informants Blackburn and developer Harry Seymour. Giorgianni was arrested along with the Mack brothers that September.

Giorgianni held out for more than a year after he was indicted with the Mack brothers in December 2012 before taking a deal.

He said his love for longtime girlfriend Mary Manfredo prevailed. While he has no promises of leniency from the federal government in exchange for his guilty plea, he said he hopes Manfredo can be spared jail time after she admitted her role in the separate prescription drug bust.

Manfredo was standing in the kitchen on the steak house that spring day Mack walked in for the parking garage cash, he said.

The government had leverage over both of them since they were charged in a separate narcotics case connected to the illegal dealing of prescription painkillers.

Giorgianni said he still has second thoughts about taking the plea, but said he believes Mack bears responsibility for his alleged actions.

“I mean, he was the boss,” he said of Mack. “Why didn’t he say no? It was up to him to say no, right?”

As a potential witness in the case, Giorgianni is barred from speaking with the Macks. He said he knows that they both face the potential of lengthy prison sentences.

“I got to live with this. And he’s going to live with it,” Giorgianni said. “He’s going to hate me till they throw dirt on him. And I’ve never been hated like that before. I been hated, ‘oh, yeah that fat sex offender, let him rot in jail,’ but that’s emotion, that’s not a hate. But this, he’ll hate me till the day he dies.”

Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com.

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Maurice London, 33, was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of body armor penetrating ammunition after being arrested yesterday, officials said.

Maurice LondonMercer County Sheriff's Office 

TRENTON — A city man ran onto the roof of his house in freezing temperatures yesterday in an attempt to avoid arrest before being taken into custody by authorities on weapons charges, the county sheriff’s office said today.

Maurice London, 33, was in his home on the 400 block of Adeline Street when sheriff’s officers and members of the U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force arrived just before 9 a.m. to arrest him for failing to appear in court on an assault charge, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

London fled through a window to a third-floor roof before being taken into custody, the sheriff’s office said.

Officers found a Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver loaded with hollow-point bullets and additional hollow-point ammunition in London’s house, the office said. London, who has prior felony drug convictions, is prohibited from possessing a weapon under state law, the office said.

London was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of body armor penetrating ammunition. He is being held in lieu of $100,000 cash bail.

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Someone attempted to rob the First Constitution Bank branch on Route 33 in the borough today, officials said.

A file photo of Hightstown police cars.Martin Griff/The Times 

HIGHTSTOWN — Someone attempted to rob the First Constitution Bank branch on Route 33 in the borough today, officials said.

The bank, located on the 100 block of Mercer Street, was the target of a robbery attempt during the afternoon, according to Councilman Larry Quattrone, who said he learned about the robbery attempt from borough police, though he did not know whether the person responsible was caught.

The FBI appear to be investigating the incident with Hightstown police, he said. Neither organization was available for comment last night and no additional information was available.

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Opening arguments in the corruption trial of Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel got underway today.

By Jenna Pizzi and Alex Zdan

TRENTON — Opening arguments in the corruption trial of Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel got underway today as attorneys for the defense and the prosecution presented sharply conflicting interpretations of the events that led to the Macks’ arrest in September 2011.

“This is a case about corruption,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Skahill said. “This is a case about how Tony Mack, the mayor of Trenton, took bribes.”

Defense attorneys for the two Macks said they knew nothing until very late about the corruption swirling around the automated parking garage project that they are alleged to have offered to usher through the city approvals system in return for bribe money.

“There is no credible evidence that Tony Mack took any money or knew about the corrupt nature of the project,” Mark Davis, the mayor’s attorney, said.

Davis said the government was waiting to catch Mack with the money in hand but never did.

“Show me the money, show us the money,” Davis said.

Different interpretations were presented on letters sent from City Hall, money that changed hands, and even pauses in the mayor’s secretly recorded telephone conversations by FBI surveillance.

The parking garage project was actually an FBI sting operation that involved no real intent to build.

Government attorney Skahill, in the first words of his opening statement, said the first-term mayor and those close to him schemed to sell their official influence over city affairs in exchange for illicit gain.

Skahill said that though Tony Mack tried to hide his role in the bribery scam, he was in fact conspiring with his brother Ralphiel and Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni, a campaign supporter and Trenton steak shop owner.

The developers in the scheme, Lemuel Blackburn and Harry Seymour, were actually working for the federal government as secret informants.

Blackburn first stepped forward to offer the trio of conspirators a deal where he would buy city land valued at $278,000 for just one dollar, then revised the offer to pay $100,000 for the downtown plot, where the garage would supposedly be built, Skahill said. That revised offer included another $100,000 in cash bribes for Mack and his co-conspirators to share, Skahill said.

But Mack was wary of getting caught dabbling in the corrupt scheme, so he employed his co-conspirators as “buffers” and used code words to hide his involvement, Skahill said.

Skahill said the conspirators used words like “Uncle Remus,” “pizza” and “cheese steaks” as substitute terms for bribe money. Although the jurors will never hear a tape where Giorgianni and Mack discussed up what code words they would use, Skahill said, Mack betrayed his understanding of the real meaning of the words through the way he behaved in recorded conversations.

“(Mack) doesn’t ask who Uncle Remus is,” Skahill said. “He didn’t need to ask because he knew full well what was going on. Mr. Giorgianni, his bagman, was at work, and he had just collected $3,000 for him,” Skahill said about one instance of payment.

Both Giorgianni and Mack’s own brother, Ralphiel, were used as buffers, Skahill said.

“Ralphiel Mack is Tony Mack’s second layer of protection, a second bagman in this case,” he said.

“You are going to see caution and discretion that Tony Mack had when carrying out this scheme,” Skahill said. “That is why you have a bagman.”

Skahill said Mack was careful in telephone conversations to pause, not offer a direct response and change the subject every time a corrupt deal came up.

In his opening argument, Davis said the mayor’s behavior on the tapes indicates that he actually had no idea about any corrupt activity.

Robert Haney, Ralphiel Mack’s attorney, said that the extortion charge against his client was just a fiction and that his client saw the deal as what it appeared to be on the surface — a legitimate development opportunity.

“It’s a sting — a fiction — but it is one that involves a public project of benefit to the community,” Haney said.

That sting that would eventually land Mack in a federal courtroom began two months and eight days after he took office as mayor with a phone call from Blackburn to Giorgianni. Blackburn, a former attorney, recorded his phone calls at the FBI’s behest. Audio from the calls was played in court today.

“The word I got is you’re the boss in Trenton,” Blackburn told Giorgianni over the phone the afternoon of Sept. 9, 2010. “That’s the word.

“And everyone who knows you talks about you being the boss, I’m a tell you right now,” he added.

The next day, Blackburn was talking to Giorgianni in his steak house. A concealed camera on Blackburn’s body recorded a blurry, pinhole version of the meeting. As part of the phony parking garage deal, which the FBI said would cost $5 million in a sheet of project notes shown to the jury, the government wanted Mack to authorize the use of Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) money to help with the project’s expense.

“We know we may have to do something for Tony,” Blackburn said. “We’re willing to do it but we got to be guaranteed he going to push it for the UEZ.”

According to the FBI, the men were talking about passing cash bribes.

“Then they’ll be happy,” Giorgianni said.

“Everybody be happy,” Blackburn said.

Giorgianni was pursued by the FBI due to his close ties with Mack, Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle said on the witness stand today. Doyle, the first prosecution witness to take the stand in the case, said Giorgianni is known around Trenton for his ties to politics and organized crime.

Doyle revealed that the FBI was using the parking garage project as a sting as early as 2009, without saying who the government suspected at the time.

In Trenton, the parking garage has not been the only sting, Doyle testified. At one time, the FBI briefly introduced a chance to renovate a city-owned commercial building for commercial and residential use. The proposed 196-car automated parking garage was the proposal they brought to Giorgianni, he said.

Blackburn was supposedly fronting for Seymour, a northern New Jersey developer who had advanced legitimate parking garage projects in other cities.

Seymour came to Doyle’s attention in 2007 when he was a witness in a federal case, Doyle said, and was valuable to the bureau because he did residential and commercial work. He was paid $13,000 for an earlier investigation that ensnared Blackburn, and $3,000 for the investigation with Tony Mack as its target.

Doyle said he interviewed Blackburn prior to the Mack investigation and gave him the option of cooperating with the FBI to escape being charged criminally, and Blackburn agreed. Doyle did not detail what the FBI allegedly caught Blackburn doing, and said the decision on whether to charge him criminally was still not made when Blackburn died on March 20, 2013.

“Lem, we’re in our last quarter,” the then-61-year-old Giorgianni said during a Sept. 24, 2010, meeting with then-72-year-old Blackburn, according to recordings. “We’re not going out like punks. We’re going out like troupers.”

Giorgianni also talked about his love of money, saying “I can be bought.”

“I love money so much, I hate to fold it,” he said.

Giorgianni also revealed what he thought of Mack.

“He ain’t stupid,” Giorgianni said. “He’s a thinker. He just don’t blab about it.”

In his opening arguments, Davis attacked Giorgianni’s credibility, saying Tony Mack never knew Giorgianni was collecting cash in his name and that the corrupt activity was only known to Giorgianni and Charles Hall III, a former city employee and Giorgianni’s “partner in crime.” Both Giorgianni and Hall have previously confessed to their roles in the extortion scheme.

Davis said Giorgianni loved playing the role of a corrupt go-between.

“This was JoJo’s role of a lifetime and he accepted,” Davis said.

Davis explained that Giorgianni was recently diagnosed by corrections medical staff with narcissistic personality disorder, and that he wanted to control the cash that was coming in.

Driving that point home, Haney, Ralphiel Mack’s attorney, unveiled a visual aid during his opening: a photo of Giorgianni and Hall, circled, with arrows going in all different directions. The arrows suggested Giorgianni was the center of the scam.

Haney told the jury that Ralphiel Mack must be treated separately from his brother when the brothers’ guilt or innocence is weighed.

“Tony Mack is the mayor of the city, he is a public official; Ralphiel is a guidance counselor and football coach at Trenton High,” Haney said. “Ralphiel has no political power, he couldn’t effectuate anything.”

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Live coverage of the second day of testimony in the federal corruption trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel.

TRENTON - The federal corruption trial for Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack enters day two of testimony this morning.

Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle, who testified for several hours yesterday, is expected to be back up on the witness stand today.

Tony Mack, who has repeatedly said he is innocent, is indicted on six bribery and extortion counts, all linked to a parking garage project run by informants for the FBI. Mack was also charged with mail fraud for allegedly using the U.S. Mail to send the letter lowering the purchase price of the parking garage lot, which was a condition of the bribe, according to the indictment.

Yesterday, Doyle testified about how he got involved with one of the informants Lemuel Blackburn, a now deceased former Trenton attorney, and how he helped to guide him through recorded telephone and in-person conversations in this case.

While Doyle was on the stand, the government took the opportunity to play many of the recordings to the jury, which included conversations between Blackburn and Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni, a supporter of Mack and a former co-defendant in the case. Doyle testified that he asked Blackburn to approach Giorgianni because he was well known in the area for his role in local politics.

Giorgianni pleaded guilty to his role in the bribery scheme last month.

The trial is expected to take several weeks.

We will be posting live updates on this blog throughout the day:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Moran said that it is not likely the government will call Giorgianni to the stand as a witness, but because he has pleaded guilty and has a cooperating agreement with the government, he will be available to the defense attorneys if they want to call him as a witness.

"If he takes the stand and takes the fifth, we would withdrawl that cooperation," Moran said.

Doyle is back up on the stand and is talking about how because they knew that Giorgianni was known to exaggerate things, the FBI was careful to check things he said about his relationship with the Mayor.

The FBI examined phone records of calls between Giorgianni and Mack, which showed the two had about 400 calls over a two year period during the investigation, Doyle said. The calls were about equal in the number each man made and received from the other. He said the calls varied in length from one minute to some calls as long as an hour.

After seeing the phone records the FBI received court authorization for to tap phone calls and read text messages between Giorgianni and Mack, Doyle said.

The government played a recorded in-person meeting between Blackburn and Giorgianni from Nov. 27, 2011 inside JoJo's Steakhouse where Blackburn drops off two envelopes of cash filled with $1,500 each with the hopes of getting the ball rolling on the parking garage project.

"That money will make it happen?" Blackburn asked.

"That will make it happen," Giorgianni said.

Doyle said after Blackburn left the steak shop Giorgianni attempted to call Mack.

Although Giorgianni was initially unsuccessful reaching Mack, he texted Mack, saying allegedly dropping the secret code word "Uncle Remus," meaning corrupt cash payments, Doyle said.

A few days later on Oct. 29, 2011, Giorgianni called Mack again, and this time the mayor picked up, Doyle said.

In the call, played in court, Giorgianni said that Uncle Remus dropped by and that he needed to see Mack. To which Mack repsonded "OK baby."

"Whenever you got time, you gotta make an appointment and I gotta see ya, see you," Giorgianni said.

"OK baby," Mack responded.

The court is currently in recess for a lunch break. Set to return around 1 p.m.

Back from lunch. Doyle is still on the stand.

The government played another call between Giorgianni and Mack from November 2011 where Giorgianni tells him again he needs Mack to pay him a visit because he has "Uncle Remus."

Giorgianni said to Mack that Uncle Remus came in two parts.

Mack said "I will talk to them, I will talk to both of them"

In an Nov. 10 recorded meeting between Balckburn and Giorgianni at the steak shop, Giorgianni gets more information from Blackburn about the parking lot project.

According to the recording, Giorgianni tells Balackburn how things work with he and Mack.

"One thing about the Mack administration -- and when I say that its me and Mack -- we're not greedy," Giorgianni said. "We're corrupt and all, we just wanna make a buck."

"Tony wont do nothing unless he talks to me," Giorgianni said in the recording.

The government then showed a photo of Giorgianni and Mack that used to hang in the steak shop.

The government played two phone calls where Mack invites Giorgianni to come down to Atlantic City while he was there for the Urban Mayor's Conference, Doyle said.

Giorgianni said he would come.

"Im gonna bring uncle remus with me," he said. "I'll show you how to shoot craps and win money."

The government is now showing surveillance footage of Giorgianni in Atlantic City.

After they return from Atlantic City, Ralphiel Mack calls Girogianni and says he wants to meet with him, Doyle said.

According to pole camera footage outside the steak shop, Ralphiel Mack shows up at 3:21 on Nov. 18, 2011 and leaves about 20 minutes later.

Government is playing a recorded in-person meeting between Blackburn and Giorgianni from Nov. 21, 2011 where Giorgianni tells Blackburn, if he wants a meeting the developers have to meet with Ralphiel Mack first.

Giorgianni tells Blackburn he met with Mack in Atlantic City.

"Hes got all the paperwork," Giorgianni said.

"Is he satisfied with the gift?," Blackburn asked

"He didn’t say nothing," Giorgianni said.

In the same conversation, Giorgianni said Mack was hesitant to work with Blackburn because of his role as personal attorney for Doug Palmer, Trenton's former mayor.

"Hes always scared of like, you know, when we went to Atlantic City, he said Mr, Blackburn, he's a Palmer guy," Giorgianni said in the recording.

Giorgianni said he told Mack not to take it personally, that Blackburn was just looking "to do business."

"It's like me, I do business with Palmer, am I a Palmer guy?" Giorgianni said.

In the recording Giorgianni said he got a bag and they always trusted him to bring it back, but it was unclear in the recording who Giorgianni gave the bag to.

Doyle explained that a bagman is someone a politician trusts to pick up packages or money and deliver back to the politician safely.

In the recorded conversation, Giorgianni said Palmer told him that Tony Mack was his heir apparent.

"He said no, no Tony is heir apparent. I groomed him for this," Giorgianni said.

In an interview Wednesday night, Palmer denied telling Giorgianni Mack was his successor.

In a meeting on Jan.6, 2012 Doyle said he gave Blackburn two FedEx envelopes each stuffed with 2,500 in cash. Blackburn headed to the steak shop, where his hidden camera recorded him handing the envelopes to Giorgianni on behalf of the parking garage project's purported investors.

"They, and to show good faith, they got two envelopes," Blackburn said. "One for you and one for Tony."

Giorgianni told Blackburn to contact then-acting Housing and Economic Development Director Carmen Melendez. But on the video, Giorgianni said he wanted himself and Blackburn to steer the project.

"She don't have to know nothing," Giorgianni said.

Judge Shipp adjourned for the weekend. Jurors asked to return on Monday morning.

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Attorneys for The Times have notified the court and attorney that the subpoena will be contested

TRENTON -- The defense attorney for Ralphiel Mack, the brother and co-defendant of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack in the ongoing federal corruption trial, has issued a subpoena to a Times of Trenton reporter who has extensively covered the case.

Ralphiel Mack's attorney Robert Haney served the handwritten notice to reporter Alex Zdan on Thursday morning before opening arguments at the federal courthouse seeking "all notes relating to coverage of the Mack et al matter."

“Attorneys for The Times have notified the judge and the defense attorney of our intent to fight the subpoena," said Matt Dowling, editor of The Times. "Courts have long-recognized a privilege deeply rooted in the First Amendment that protects reporters from being compelled to provide evidence in judicial proceedings.”

The prosecution's case is expected to take two to three weeks before the defense may start presenting witnesses.

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The 20-year-old was standing outside a convenience store on Sanhican Drive shortly before 5 p.m. when a suspect walked up to him and began shooting, police say.

A Trenton police vehicle guarding a city crime scene in 2013.Times file Photo 

TRENTON — A city man who was approached by a gunman shooting at him in the West Ward Wednesday afternoon was hit twice, police said.

The 20-year-old was standing outside a convenience store on Sanhican Drive shortly before 5 p.m. when a suspect dressed in dark clothing walked up to the storefront and began shooting, Lt. Mark Kieffer said.

The victim was hit in the left elbow and left side of the stomach. It was unclear if there was anyone with the victim at the time of the shooting, but when officers arrived no one else was on scene.

The victim was taken to Capital Health Regional Medical Center and rushed into emergency surgery. After the surgery, he was in stable condition, Kieffer said.

Police did not say whether the victim was targeted in the shooting, but Kieffer said the shots were not believed to have been fired as part of a robbery.

Anyone with information on the shooting can call police at (609) 989-4170, or the Confidential Tip Line at (609) 989-3663.

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Thomas Spinola, 35, is charged with eluding and possession of a controlled dangerous substance, police said in a news release.

A South Brunswick police car is seen in a file photoJennifer Hulshizer/FOR THE STAR-LEDGER  

Thomas Spinola, 35, is charged with eluding and possession of a controlled dangerous substance, police said in a news release.

Plain clothes officers patrolling the Kendall Park area on burglary detail at about 3 p.m. Friday noticed Spinola driving his 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse slowly through the neighborhoods, police said in a news release. They tried to stop him as he turned onto New Road, but Spinola drove faster away from police, the release said.

Officers called off the chase when Spinola approached Route 1, but found his car just minutes later in a parking lot off Wynwood Drive, the release said. The parking lot is about half a mile from where the officers lost sight of the car, the release said.

Spinola was not in the car and allegedly fled on foot, the release said.

Officers impounded the car and obtained a search warrant. Inside, they found controlled dangerous substances, the release said.

Spinola was determined to be the driver of the car, and he turned himself in at police headquarters at 10 p.m., the release said.

He posted $20,000 bail and was released.

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"The mayor will report to work every day during his trial," said mayoral aide Anthony Roberts in an e-mail last week.

TRENTON — While Mayor Tony Mack will be reporting to his corruption trial on the fifth floor of the Clarkson S. Fisher Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse for the next several weeks, he will not yield any of his powers as Trenton’s top elected official.

“The mayor will report to work every day during his trial,” said mayoral aide Anthony Roberts in an e-mail last week. “There will be no relinquishing of mayoral power during this period.”

Mack repeatedly refused to respond to questions about how he would continue to do both his job representing the people of Trenton and spend about six hours each day in the courtroom for the trial. He also gave no response when asked what would happen in the event of an emergency in the city.

Mack has been seen walking to court in the mornings from City Hall, which is less than 500 feet from the courthouse doors, and returning to City Hall for lunch during the first week of the trial.

His office did not respond to an e-mail with follow up questions on Friday.

Mack’s attorney, Mark Davis, said he anticipates his client will be in court each and every day of the trial.

“I would be here daily, so I expect him to be here daily,” Davis said.

Mack is facing six counts of bribery and extortion connected to a project to build an automated parking garage in downtown Trenton. The government alleges that the first-term mayor accepted cash bribes in exchange for his official help to have the developers obtained the city-owned property on East State Street across from the Broad Street Bank Building.

Mack faces 20 years behind bars if he is convicted on all counts. They include charges of mail fraud for allegedly using the U.S. mail to send the letter lowering the purchase price of the parking garage lot — a condition of the bribe — according to the indictment.

Federal prosecutors said last week they expect to take two to three weeks to present evidence, while the defense attorneys said they plan to take about a week to present their case. That timeframe does not include any time during which the jury will be sent to deliberate a verdict.

City clerk Richard Kachmar said Mack does not have to appoint an acting mayor, because there is no official vacancy in the office.

Last year, when former Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo was on trial for accepting $12,400 in bribes from a school district insurance broker, he appointed business administrator John Ricci as acting mayor. Bencivengo took time off to stand trial, something Mack has not done.

Kachmar said he never received a letter from the mayor saying he would be on leave during the course of the trail.

Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.

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Minutes after an FBI informant handed off two envelopes each stuffed with $1,500 in cash to Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni on Oct. 27, 2011, he called Mayor Mack, recording said.

By Jenna Pizzi and Alex Zdan

TRENTON — Minutes after an FBI informant handed off two envelopes each stuffed with $1,500 in cash to Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni on Oct. 27, 2011, Giorgianni picked up the phone and made a call to Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, according to wiretap recordings played yesterday during the corruption trial of Mack and his brother Ralphiel.

Two days later, Giorgianni got in touch with Mack and told him “Uncle Remus dropped by,” which federal prosecutors allege was a code word for corrupt cash payments.

“OK, baby,” Mack responded promptly on the intercepted phone call.

“Whenever you got time, you gotta make an appointment and I gotta see ya, see you,” Giorgianni said.

“OK, baby,” Mack responded again.

Yesterday the prosecution played many recorded conversations that were either intercepted on government wiretaps of Giorgianni’s and Mack’s phones or recorded by FBI cooperating informant Lemuel Blackburn, who was coached by FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle. Doyle took the stand yesterday to testify.

According to the government’s argument, the cash payments were meant to smooth the way for an automated parking garage that was to be built on a downtown city-owned lot. Blackburn ostensibly represented the developers in the project, which was actually an FBI sting targeting Mack and his administration.

Blackburn was formerly a prominent city attorney and served as personal counsel to former Mayor Douglas H. Palmer. References to Palmer have been spread throughout the first two days of testimony, none more than in a recording of a Nov. 21, 2011 meeting between Blackburn and Giorgianni.

Trying to convince Blackburn he could dispel Mack’s apprehension of dealing with someone connected to Palmer, Giorgianni said he also had a connection to the five-term mayor who left office in 2010.

“I did business with Palmer,” Giorgianni said in the audio and video played for the jury. “Am I a Palmer guy?”

During the conversation recorded on video, Giorgianni mentioned carrying a “bag” for an unidentified party. The prosecution suggested the “bag” was an illicit cash payment, but it was never indicated who was supposed to receive the money.

Blackburn, who is now deceased, said in a recording that, under Palmer’s administration he helped push through policy to limit the number of pawn shops in the city, which benefitted a tenant of Giorgianni’s, Mark Jacobs. Jacobs owned a shop next to the lot where the parking garage was supposed to be built.

When reached for comment last night, Palmer denied any connection with Giorgianni.
“That never happened,” Palmer said.

“JoJo had no influence, accessibility, availability to me, my campaign, or my administration during my 20 years other than him being a constituent, and that was it,” Palmer said.

In the video, Giorgianni insinuated that Palmer’s 2002 re-election opponent, then-North Ward Councilman Oliver “Bucky” Leggett, was not a serious contender and only put in the race to ensure a Palmer landslide.

“Like with Bucky, it was all (fake),” Giorgianni said.

Giorgianni said Palmer told him to donate to Leggett’s campaign. Leggett was crushed in the election, losing with 18 percent of the vote, as opposed to Palmer’s 82 percent.

“It’s laughable,” Palmer said. “Bucky decided to run at the last minute.”

Leggett, a 70-year-old who is a mayoral contender once again this year, said during a telephone interview that he had conflicts with Palmer in 2002 and ran the campaign to win.

“At the time I ran for public office, I was at odds with Doug over a number of things, including the way he ran the public housing authority,” Leggett said last night.
Palmer defended his administration, and said the Mack trial is not going to tarnish his accomplishments.

“We were honest,” Palmer added. “We worked hard. We had good people. We weren’t perfect, but we were honest with the public.”

Although Doyle said during his testimony that the parking garage sting was initiated as early as 2009, during Palmer’s tenure, the former mayor said he never met with Blackburn or the developers, and wasn’t sure why the FBI was running an investigation in the city.

“Trenton’s never had corruption issues,” Palmer said. “Ever.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Moran yesterday said it is not likely the government will call Giorgianni to the stand as a witness, but because he has pleaded guilty to a role in the parking garage extortion scheme and has a cooperating agreement with the government, he will be available to the defense attorneys if they want to call him as a witness.

“If he takes the stand and takes the Fifth, we would withdraw that cooperation,” Moran said.

Mack invited Giorgianni down to Atlantic City to meet with him during the U.S. Conference of Mayors in November 2011, according to a recorded phone conversation between the two.

“You should come down there,” Mack said, in the call a day before the conference.

Giorgianni said he would come and bring “Uncle Remus” with him.

“I’ll show you how to shoot craps and win money,” Giorgianni said in the call, where “The Sopranos” television show could be heard playing in the background.

Once in Atlantic City, on Nov. 16, the two spoke by phone, and arranged to meet at a restaurant within Harrah’s Resort and Casino.

Surveillance footage subpoenaed by the FBI showed Giorgianni, in a wheelchair and holding papers, being pushed by John “Bear” Ferrara down a casino elevator. They were accompanied by Joseph “the Bug” Bontempo, a convicted murderer.

Video from a different part of the casino showed Mack, wearing a black suit, stark white shirt and blue tie, strutting through the casino floor and lobby with then-acting Public Works Director Harold Hall and Charles Hall III on either side. No video was shown of the planned meeting between Mack and Giorgianni, but Mack is later seen getting into a taxi, talking into his Bluetooth wireless phone, with rolled-up papers in his hand.

Yesterday, Moran attempted to get Doyle to testify the papers in Giorgianni’s hands contained information about the parking garage project. However, both defense attorneys jumped to their feet at the same moment and made their loudest objections so far in the trial. The attorneys argued Doyle couldn’t know what the papers contained because he was not at the Atlantic City meeting.

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Live updates from Trenton Mayor Tony Mack's federal corruption trial.

TRENTON - The federal corruption of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack continues today as the jurors hear the third day of testimony.

The government is still presenting its case with Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle, who testified for several hours on Thursday and Friday last week.

Tony Mack, who has repeatedly said he is innocent, is indicted on six bribery and extortion counts, all linked to a parking garage project run by informants for the FBI. Mack was also charged with mail fraud for allegedly using the U.S. Mail to send the letter lowering the purchase price of the parking garage lot, which was a condition of the bribe, according to the indictment.

Doyle testified that he got involved with one of the informants Lemuel Blackburn, a now deceased former Trenton attorney, and how he helped to guide him through recorded telephone and in-person conversations in this case. Doyle said he also worked with Harry Seymour, a north Jersey developer, who was paid to cooperate with the FBI in the investigation.

While Doyle was on the stand, the government took the opportunity to play many of the recordings to the jury, which included conversations between Blackburn and Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni, a supporter of Mack and a former co-defendant in the case. Doyle testified that he asked Blackburn to approach Giorgianni because he was well known in the area for his role in local politics.

Giorgianni pleaded guilty to his role in the bribery scheme last month.

The trial is expected to take several weeks.

We will be posting live updates on this blog throughout the day:

3:27: As the May 30, 2012 deadline approached, Mack went to Giorgianni's house on May 29, 2012. After the meeting, Giorgianni called Hall saying he had just met with Tony and he had given the OK. Giorgianni said Hall had to call Melendez to get the letter naming Seymour as developer. Hall brought a form letter to Melendez and Melendez called Mack to see if she should send it out. Mack responded asking her to meet him in his office later that afternoon. Giorgianni called Seymour that afternoon saying Melendez mailed out the letter.

2:24: Doyle was given a letter that Seymour received from Carmen Melendez on May 15, saying that the property he was looking to purchase was valued at $278,000.

In a call from Blackburn to Giorgianni, Blackburn asks if the city would do the deal for $200,000. He said if they can get a letter naming Seymour developer by May 30, Mack and Giorgianni would get a "bonus."

Giorgianni said he would call Mack. He texts him later asking for Mack to come and meet with him for a few minutes. In a call a few days later, Mack says he came by the day before and Giorgianni wasn't there. Giorgianni asks him to come by the next day.

In a meeting on May 21, 2012 between Giorgianni and Blackburn, Giorgianni says he can make the deal happen for the land to be bought for $100,000, rather than $200,000 that Blackburn had proposed.

2:12: Back in Trenton, on April 30, 2012 there is an intercepted phone call between Tony Mack and Giorgianni where Giorgianni says Ralphel should come by because "Uncle Remus."

Later that day, around 10:45 p.m. Ralphiel calls Charles Hall III to see if the steakshop is still open. Hall told him to go back the next afternoon.

The next day around 2:30 Ralphiel Mack is seen entering the steakshop.

12:56: "It was nice to finally meet you," Mack said to Seymour at the beginnig of the meeting in Atlantic City.

During the dinner Seymour explains to the group including Mack about the automated parking garages, which he said could turn a surface parking lot that usually holds 15 cars to 150. Mack seemed interested in the idea of the garages and lamented that most of the parking lots in Trenton were surface lots used by the state rather than garages.

Giorgianni praised Seymour in front of Mack.
"He's doing great things for our town," Giorgianni said.

Seymour thanked Giorgianni and Mack for the meeting and said he would continue the conversations about the project through Blackburn.

"Its just like we've been helping you we'll be helping you all along," Seymour said.

12:35: April 25, 2012, there was a dinner meeting at Bobby Flays in Atlantic City scheduled between Mack, Giorgianni, Blackburn, but when Blackburn couldn't attend Seymour went instead. Doyle said the FBI prepared three envelopes for the meeting. Two of the envelopes, meant for Mack and Giorgianni, were filled with $1,000 in cash and two $100 casino chips and another envelope with $500 cash and one $100 casino chip for Hall. Doyle said the payments were packaged in orange envelopes so they could more easily seen on surveillance. The envelopes were handed over to Giorgianni wrapped in a Wall Street Journal before the dinner meeting, according to video surveillance of the hand off in the Borgata in Atlantic City.

Doyle siad he instructed Seymour not to overtly talk about the project or speak directly to Mack because Giorgianni had previously warned Blackburn that Mack would "run out" they handed him money or spoke too openly.

"So I told him not to o to overt with fear of him terminating the meeting and suspecting (Seymour) was working with the FBI," Doyle said.

12:21: An intercepted phone call from April 19, 2012 between Mack and Giorgianni talking about former Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo's being investigated by the FBI on corruption charges:

Giorgianni says if you are goign to catch a politician its going to be a sting like Abscam.

"If I didn't know you before I got in, I don't need to know you, you know," Mack said. "I don't want you to be around me. I don't wan't you to be next to me."

Mack also speculates that if Bencivengo was charged, than it must include other people in Hamilton, not just him.

Giorgianni told Mack he "investigates" people before he brings them around.
"I've only got to be right once, and I've saved you," Giorgianni said.

Giorgianni said you don't usually hear when the FBI is in town investigating, they "sneak attack ya."

11:43: After Mack left the steak shop, Blackburn called Giorgianni around 2:16 p.m. Giorgianni said Mack wanted to have dinner with "our friend" while Mack was in Atlantic City for the Mayor's conference. Giorgianni told Blackburn to "make sure he gets us some rooms down there."

A few minutes later Giorgianni called Mack to tell him that "what-cha-call-it" is gonna have dinner with them in Atlantic City and will get roms "no cost to the city."

"You are saving the city money," Giorgianni said in the recording of the intercepted call.

"That's right, thats right. No dollar amount. No city funds," Mack said.

11:02 a.m.: Four days after the meeting between Giorgianni and Blackburn, Giorgianni texted Mack saying he needed to see him. One day later on April 17, 2012, Mack showed up at the steak shop at around 1:30 p.m. The FBI did observation at the steak shop during the meeting. Mack's car left around 2:01 p.m.

10:51 a.m.: Doyle said there was a meeting between Blackburn, Hall and city's acting Director of Housing and Economic Development Carmen Melendez on Feb. 2, 2012. The government said the meeting was recorded, but did not play any of the recordings from that meeting.

On April 12, 2012, Giorgianni and Blackburn had a meeting at the JoJo's steak shop. Blackburn drops off two envelopes with $1,500 each. In the meeting, according to the recording, Blackburn tells Giorgianni that if Mack can name Seymour developer of the project before May 1, 2012, there will be a bonus for the mayor.

Giorgianni then calls Hall, while Blackburn is still there, to tell him it is "imperative" that they get the deal done before May 1.

10:41 a.m.: In a Jan. 26, 2012 phone call between Giorgianni and Mack, that was intercepted on wire tap, Giorgianni says "Uncle Remus might be stopping by."
Mack repsonds "Ummmm..... Yeah I'm gonna make sure you've got everything squared away."

10:28 a.m.: They brought the jury back in and started testimony. Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle is on the stand for the third day.

The first audio/video recording they are playing is a meeting between Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni, Charles "Charlie" Hall III, Developer Harry Seymour and former city attorney Lemuel Blackburn, who is now deceased. The meeting was recorded by both Blackburn and Seymour, who were cooperating with the FBI.

In the Jan 25, 2012 meeting, Seymour is pressing Giorgianni and Hall, saying they are hoping to get a meeting with the mayor before they start spending money on the automated parking garage that Seymour plans to build on a city-owned property.

Giorgianni and Hall say they represented the mayor and that the mayor doesn't meet with anyone. Giorgianni said "once you get the lot there is no better OK than that."

10:10 a.m.: This morning the defense attorneys Robert Haney and Mark Davis asked Judge Michael Shipp to dismiss the case against the Macks saying the evidence (recordings) thus far has been from Giorgianni. He said the government will not call Giorgianni to the stand because they know he would contradict the statements made in the recordings and this does not allow the defense to properly cross-examine Giorgianni and confront him about lies he may have told on the tapes.

Haney said this is a "bad faith prosecution."

Davis says the jury is being misled and confused and the government is not willing to put Giorgianni on the stand because it conflicts with their hearsay evidence.

Shipp refused to rule on the motion, reserving his ruling until he can review all the arguments.

Two men and a woman from Philadelphia have been arrested and charged with the Jan. 2 robbery of an IHOP restaurant in the township, police said today.

BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP — Two men and a woman from Philadelphia have been arrested and charged with the Jan. 2 robbery of an IHOP restaurant in the township, police said today.

Customers at the IHOP on the 2700 block of Mount Holly Road about 7:15 that morning were told to get down on the floor by masked robbers, at least one of whom was armed with a handgun, police have said.

At the time of the robbery the breakfast crowd was still sparse, and the incident was over quickly, Lt. Bruce Painter said.

Jeanna Walker, 47, Ramon Martinez, 28, and Ronald Stone, 28, have since been
arrested by the Philadelphia police following an investigation with the Burlington Township Police Department, township police said today.

The three have each been charged with robbery and conspiracy and are being
held on $250,000 bail, police said.

They are being held in Philadelphia and are expected to be extradited, though the timeline is unclear, police said.

A fourth suspect has been charged in connection with the robbery, but police have not yet arrested him or disclosed information about him.

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Trenton Mayor Tony Mack's federal corruption trial continues tomorrow.

TRENTON — Half an hour after visiting Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni at JoJo’s Steak House one afternoon in April 2012 allegedly to pick up bribe money, Mayor Tony Mack was on the phone with the city’s tax office asking whether he could pay off a lien with a cashier’s check, jurors heard in the mayor’s federal corruption trial today.

That cashier’s check arrived at the tax office two days later, paying in full a $6,168.46 lien on Mack’s rental property at 302 West State Street dating back to 2009, according to city tax records obtained by The Times today. Government attorneys did not say whether the payment came from Mack.

The same day as the bribe money was allegedly exchanged at JoJo’s, FBI wiretaps also picked up a call from the mayor speaking by phone with the owner of a Robbinsville landscaping company, with whom Mack set up a meeting to discuss his outstanding bill.

“When can you, you wanna come by and get this money?” Mack asked Ron Mirabelli Jr., on the wiretapped phone conversation.

The calls to the tax office and Mirabelli were just two of a multitude of wiretapped phone calls and video recordings played by government attorneys today as they built a case that Mack was a willing participant in the scheme to extort cash bribes from a potential developer for an automated parking garage downtown.

Jurors saw video of a sit-down dinner in Atlantic City where Mack heard a developer working for the FBI describe the parking garage project, another video that showed Giorgianni counting bribe money as Mack allegedly stood less than 10 feet away, and a phone conversation where Mack abruptly interrupted his housing director when she tried to discuss details of the garage project with him over the phone.

Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle, who ran the investigation and sent in the government informants with the cash bribes, said agents noted a pattern when the money was in play. Purported developer Harry Seymour or former attorney Lemuel Blackburn would hand off money to Giorgianni, and, “In short order, after the payment to Mr. Giorgianni, we noticed through our wiretap interceptions there was a call to Tony Mack,” Doyle testified.

Doyle’s cooperating witnesses were part of the FBI’s sting operation that landed Mack and his brother Ralphiel on trial for extortion, bribery, wire fraud and mail fraud.

Mayor Mack’s meeting with Giorgianni at the steak shop in April 2012 came five days after an FBI cooperating witness dropped off two envelopes there containing $1,500 cash — one for Giorgianni, and one for the mayor, an FBI agent testified.

The prosecution showed video of that handoff, between Giorgianni and former attorney Lemuel Blackburn, the cooperating witness.

The parking garage plan was actually a government sting operation, and though there were no actual financial backers, Blackburn made it seem as though there were.

“They’re very happy,” Blackburn said of the fictitious investors, his microphone rustling as he drew two envelopes from his pocket, “so, one for you and one for the Little Guy.”

“The Little Guy,” the prosecution alleges, is one of several nicknames Giorgianni had for the 5-foot-5 Mack.

One day before the steak shop meeting with Mack, Giorgianni had sent a text message asking for a meeting with the mayor and telling him time was of the essence. FBI agents armed with cameras captured images of the mayor meeting Giorgianni outside the steak shop the next afternoon.

Following those pictures the prosecution played a series of phone conversations Mack had over the next couple hours where he spoke with Giorgianni about setting up a meeting during the following week with the developer Seymour, in Atlantic City and arranging to pay outstanding bills.

Mack left the steak house at 2:01 p.m. and by 2:14 he was attempting to make a call to Ron Mirabelli Jr. of Ron’s Lawn and Tree Service in Robbinsville. Tonight Mirabelli recalled meeting with Mack around that time and receiving one $100 bill to cover some of the expenses his company was owed from lawn cutting and mulching at the mayor’s Berkeley Avenue home. Mirabelli said Mack still owes him $250 to $300 dollars for work his company did in 2011 and 2012.

“He never paid for jobs,” Mirabelli said. “Everything was too much for him.”

Mirabelli was interviewed by the FBI in 2012 and has more recently been served with a subpoena but does not know if he will be called to testify in the trial, he said tonight.

For the first time today, jurors got to see and hear recordings from Seymour. The informant was in reality a North Jersey developer who served as the FBI’s second cooperating witness in the case.

Seymour and Mack met face-to face in Atlantic City on April 25, 2012, while Mack was in the resort town for a mayor’s conference. Their conversation over dinner was captured by a video and audio recorder Seymour was wearing at the behest of the FBI.

“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Mack said.

The cheery tone continued through the meeting, a large portion of which was played for the jury in five sections of video. In one, Seymour talked up the benefits of the garage project.

“I’m going to put 150 cars there,” Seymour said. “What’s that going to do for your people?”

Mack showed interest in Seymour’s description of a strategy in Newark where surface lots were being abandoned in favor of multi-level parking garages, freeing up the remaining space for development. The mayor said there were 15 state parking lots in Trenton.

“They should be developed, though,” Mack said.

When dinner concluded, the cordial relations continued.

“It’s just like we been helping you; we’ll be helping you all along,” Seymour said.
“You’re certainly welcome,” Mack said in the final clip.

Before dinner, Seymour had handed three envelopes filled with cash and casino chips, hidden inside an edition of the Wall Street Journal, to Giorgianni.

“The idea was we would give them in yellow envelopes so they would be readily seen by surveillance,” Doyle said.

Seymour had warned Doyle that he had to approach Mack carefully because if the money was given directly to Mack, he’d “run right out of there,” Doyle said.

“So I told him not to go too overt with fear of (Mack) terminating the meeting and suspecting (Seymour) was working with the FBI,” Doyle said from the witness stand.

Later that night, surveillance footage at the casino showed Giorgianni ripping open the envelopes, pocketing cash, and giving some to then-city employee Charles Hall III, who had negotiated for the parking garage deal alongside Giorgianni. Mack was standing six to 10 feet away at the time, Doyle said. Moments later, Mack and Giorgianni talked, but the remaining envelope held by Giorgianni did not appear to change hands. Five days later, Giorgianni and Mack talked about the meeting.

“That was a great thing, J,” Mack said in the conversation, which was captured on the wiretap. “It was a great opening.”

The FBI had planned to have Seymour purchase the property at 142-144 East State Street for $200,000, a $78,000 discount from the assessed value. But Giorgianni unexpectedly cut a new deal during a phone conversation with Seymour, offering a $100,000 purchase price if the remaining $100,000 was directed to himself and Mack to be “spread around.”

“When I got it in my hand, it will make him work faster,” Giorgianni said in a May 23, 2012 phone call.

Seymour told Giorgianni that Seymour’s company needed to be named developer by May 30, 2012. A day before that deadline, Giorgianni sprang into action, summoning Mack to his Ewing home. Prosecutors showed photos of Mack on Giorgianni’s front steps leaving, and minutes later the wheels started turning at City Hall.

Carmen Melendez, then the acting housing director, was handed a letter by Charles Hall that named Seymour Builders LLC as the developer for the garage project and set a $100,000 sale price. The FBI had prepared that letter and given it to Seymour, who then emailed it to Giorgianni. Giorgianni had given the letter to Hall shortly after Mack left the house that morning.

“Tell her (Melendez) to get that letter out today,” Giorgianni said to Hall in a wiretapped phone call that was played for the jury. “He’s satisfied with the hundred.”

By noon, Charles Hall was at City Hall, with the FBI watching outside. Melendez called Mack to see what she should do about the letter, and Mack cut her off before she could say the full property address.

“Meet me at my office at 12:30,” Mack said.

“So, don’t do the letter?” Melendez said.

“Meet me at my office at 12:30!” Mack said.

Seymour faxed the final copy he had received from the city over to Doyle by
2 p.m. that day, Doyle said.

Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.

Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.

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Defense attorneys in the ongoing federal corruption trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack called for a mistrial because the prosecution wouldn't call a witness.

TRENTON — Yesterday defense attorneys in the ongoing federal corruption trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack called for a mistrial because the prosecution wouldn’t call a key player to the witness stand.

The prosecution’s refusal to call steakshop owner Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni, an admitted participant in the extortion scheme, shows that the government is afraid his statements under oath on the witness stand will contradict much of the evidence presented so far in the form of FBI secret recordings of Giorgianni, Robert Haney, Ralphiel Mack’s attorney, said.

“The failure to call JoJo Giorgianni to the witness stand ... constitutes a violation to my client’s ability to examine him and challenge the veracity of the witness statements that have already been introduced,” Haney said.

The government’s refusal to call Giorgianni also shows they are afraid what Giorgianni may say on the stand would confuse the jury, Haney said. Giorgianni pleaded guilty last month to passing a bribe payment to Tony Mack that was received from an FBI informant posing as a parking garage developer.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Skahill said the defense attorneys still have the right to call Giorgianni to the stand if they want to. But Haney has previously said he could not ethically call Giorgianni to the witness stand knowing that he would lie under oath.

Skahill said that Giorgianni’s statements on tape would have less weight to the jury than if he were to appear in court and testify under oath.

Also yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Moran, who is prosecuting the case with Skahill, sought to get the judge to allow the government to present evidence about the Macks’ prior activities that are not directly related to the extortion scam.

In a brief, Moran argues that because Haney and Mark Davis, attorney for Tony Mack, called the FBI sting operation a “setup” and argued that Mack had no knowledge that Giorgianni was accepting money, it “opens the door” for the government to use information about prior deals between the Macks and Giorgianni to prove that they had a prior corrupt relationship.

Judge Michael Shipp ruled that evidence of some prior acts would not be allowed at trial, but the prosecution continues to argue that the court should allow recorded evidence where Giorgianni says he was taking kickbacks from city employees in return for them keeping their jobs.

Attorneys for the government also want to include information about a deal where Giorgianni allegedly attempted to solicit a bribe from the owners of a city auto wrecking and towing business. The owners had allegedly sought to bribe city officials after they were ordered to remove illegal signs by a local code enforcement officer.

Moran argued that in this scheme, Giorgianni uses the code name “Uncle Remus” which means cash, and is used extensively in the parking garage scheme also. He said it shows that the Macks were well aware that a system of bribes in exchange for official action existed.

Shipp said he had not had enough time to review any of these arguments and could not make a decision yesterday.

“This court is woefully not in a position to make any decision at this point,” Shipp said.

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Mack and his brother Ralphiel are on trial at the Clarkson S. Fisher federal courthouse in Trenton on charges of extortion, bribery, wire fraud and mail fraud. It's the fourth day of testimony.

TRENTON - It's Day 4 in the federal corruption trial of United States v. Tony F. Mack as the prosecution continues to present its case that the mayor and his brother Ralphiel worked to extort money from parking garage developers who were cooperating with the FBI.

Since the conclusion of opening arguments on Thursday, the prosecution has had FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle on the stand. Doyle devised the parking garage sting, which was controlled by the FBI through two cooperating witnesses: former prominent Trenton attorney Lemuel Blackburn and North Jersey developer Harry Seymour.

The prosecution has made extensive use of the months of wiretapping in the case, playing selected phone calls between Mack and his associates for the jury. They include calls between the mayor and Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni, Mack's alleged "buffer" for illegal activity who pleaded guilty in December. At that guilty plea, Giorgianni testified he handed Mack an $8,000 cash bribe in the back room of his sandwich shop, JoJo's Steak House, in the spring of 2012.

Yesterday, the jurors saw photos of Mack arriving at the steak shop on April 17, 2012, five days after Blackburn dropped off $3,000 cash in two envelopes in exchange for official action on the parking garage project. Minutes after leaving JoJo's, the jurors heard, Mack called a landscaper and the city tax office to ask about paying outstanding bills.

A cashier's check obtained by The Times late yesterday shows Mack made a $6,168.46 payment on a 2009 city tax lien on April 19, 2012. And Ron's Lawn and Tree Service owner Ron Mirabelli Jr. said last night that Mack gave him a single $100 bill to cover expenses for cutting the lawn and mulching at the mayor's Berkeley Avenue home around the time of the phone call.

Prosecutors left off yesterday with a letter drafted by then-acting housing director Carmen Melendez, which lowered the price of the East State Street lot meant for the parking garage to $100,000. The lot was assessed at $278,000. Giorgianni was heard on tape working out a deal with Seymour where $100,000 in cash bribes would be funneled to Mack and himself in exchange for lowering the price.

Mack refused to discuss the details of the letter over the phone with Melendez, insisting she come to his office on the afternoon of May 29, 2012. Seymour sent a copy of the letter to the FBI by 2 p.m., showing it had been signed and taken care of.

1:35p.m.: Judge Shipp tells the jury they will be excused for the day. Expected to be back tomorrow morning for more testimony.

1:31 p.m.: The jury is back from lunch. Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle is still on the stand.

12:15 p.m.: The jury is on a lunch break until 12:40.

12:10 p.m.: The FBI moved up their timetable for searches when Mack received a phone call from carpet company owner Roy Summers the evening of July 17, 2012. Summers, who is a fraternity brother of Mack’s, told the mayor to stay off the phones.

"I’m serious," Summers said. "I’m very, very, very serious."

Summers offered to help shield the mayor’s phone and would give him advice when he saw the mayor in person at City Hall.

Six hours later, Doyle was knocking on Mack’s door, armed with a search warrant.

"It happened at 1 in the morning because it was the fastest we could get it ready, and it was in the hope we could preserve whatever evidence we could get," Doyle testified.

11:44 a.m.: Mack and Giorgianni had a phone conversation captured by the wiretap the afternoon of July 4.

"Uncle Remus, uh was in town," Giorgianni said. "He stopped by and said hello."

"I'll stop by tomorrow," Mack said.

"Alright boss," Giorgianni said.

"You have a good holiday," Mack said,

Since Doyle said the FBI pattern by this point was that Ralphiel Mack would stop by the steak shop, agents staked it out the afternoon of July 16, 2012. The jury was just shown images from a pole camera set up across the street that showed Ralphiel Mack walking inside, then exiting the steak shop a little more than 15 minutes later.

11:32 a.m.: Immediately after Hall left, Giorgianni tried to call both Mack brothers but got no response. He then sent a text to Mayor Mack saying “Uncle Remus is in town.”

An hour later, Giorgianni called Seymour to tell the developer not to pass money to Hall.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that I was just running," Seymour said on the call, which was intercepted and played for the jury.

"I would have come by if, you know, I knew it was going to be an issue," Seymour said.

"I'm the guiding light in that whole administration," Giorgianni told him.

Doyle said he instructed Seymour to say Seymour had given the money to Hall, but in reality the $10,000 cash was provided by the FBI.

11:00 a.m.: Another 20 seconds of audio redaction.

“I’ll even keep Tony safe where I give money to Ralphiel," Giorgianni said right before the audio went briefly silent.

Hall and Giorgianni were watching the 1964 Alfred Hitchcock film "Marnie," starring Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren, on TV as they spoke.

10:56 a.m.: There is a 59-second gap in the recording of the meeting at Giorgianni's where the government redacted the audio. Earlier, Shipp told the jurors they must not guess what the redacted piece might include.

"The jury is once again reminded that when there is a recording of any sort where any portion has been redacted that you are not to draw any inferences or guess as to what that redacted portion may be," Shipp said, his instructions a result of a sidebar discussion requested by the government earlier this morning.

10:51 a.m.: Giorgianni continued to be suspicious during a meeting at his home with Hall on the afternoon of June 28. Hall was wearing a video and audio recording device

œ"Now, I smell a rat," Giorgianni said.

"You think so?" Hall asked.

Giorgianni was upset Hall had taken $10,000 from Seymour directly - $5,000 for Giorgianni, $5,000 for Mack, Hall said in the recording.

"Once you take, you'™re part of the administration, you'™re dead," Giorgianni said.

"œSee, Tony wants to keep them at a distance," Giorgianni added.

"He gave me, um, five apiece," Hall said of Seymour.

"It's got to be a trap," Giorgianni said.

10:26 a.m.: The co-conspirators were apparently becoming suspicious by June 28, 2012 – less than three weeks before the FBI would execute search warrants at the homes of the Mack brothers and Giorgianni. Still, Hall - now working with the FBI - was sent to Giorgianni with $10,000 from Seymour.

“He was told again he should have a meeting with Mr. Giorgianni where he pays the money,” Doyle said.

10:16 a.m.: With the investigation intensifying, Doyle said the FBI decided to approach Hall and seek his cooperation. The FBI was ready to execute search warrants if that attempt failed, Doyle said. Finding Hall alone the morning of June 21, 2012, they made the approach.

“We presented Mr. Hall a summary a compendium of all his criminal activity we had gathered at the time,” Doyle said, including photos and wiretapped calls.

Hall agreed to cooperate, and placed a call to Mack later in the day. He caught Mack at a baseball game.

"What you doin' after I got to speak with you,” Hall said on the wiretapped phone call.

He sought to get Mack’s attention for a meeting.

“I said Uncle Remus came back to town,” Hall said.

“I gotta get some pizza over there,” Mack said.

The government has alleged "pizza" was a code word for illicit cash, while "Uncle Remus" was the signal money was available for pick up.

Doyle said the FBI executed one search warrant the day Hall was turned, but he did not say where.

10:05 a.m.: The day after Seymour dropped off the bribe money, Charles Hall III called Mack from inside the steak shop. The wiretapped conversation started with talk about Hall’s son’s baseball skills.

“Yeah that’s good I think Uncle Rem…Mr. Remus came around,” Hall said.

“Yeah, so, um….I’ll be around today,” Mack said. “What you doing later on?”

“Call me,” Hall said. “Later on. I got, I got a couple dollars.”

9:57 a.m.: "I got some books for you to read," Seymour says, handing two leather-bound portfolios filled with cash to Giorgianni during a June 8, 2012 meeting at JoJo's Steak House.

The jury saw photos of the folders, which were filled with $10,000 in $50 and $20 bills - one for Mack and one for Giorgianni, Doyle said. Hundred-dollar bills totaling $5,000 were placed in a white envelope in case Giorgianni wanted to cut then-city employee Charles Hall III in, Doyle testified.

Seymour declined a cheese steak from Giorgianni. Giorgianni tells steak shop operator Mary Manfredo to make him one anyway.

9:46 a.m.: Jury is being shown the copy of the city letter lowering the East State Street lot's purchase price which was mailed to Seymour. It carries Carmen Melendez's signature.

9:44 a.m.: Doyle back on the stand. Government plays a wiretapped conversation between Seymour and Giorgianni where Seymour says he got the letter from the city via mail. He promises to put together a $25,000 package for Giorgianni and Mack.

"You know how we love money," Giorgianni said.

"Who doesn’t?" Seymour said.

"That’s the common denominator," Giorgianni said.

9:35 a.m.: Before the jury was brought in, Judge Michael A. Shipp shot down a second prosecution attempt to admit wiretap evidence of an alleged kickback scheme between Mack, Giorgianni and two brothers who co-founded a junk car business in Trenton.

"The evidence is irrelevant unless the jury makes an improper determination about the Mack's propensity for corruption," Shipp said, ruling out the conversations between Giorgianni and Nedal Abuhumoud.

Shipp continued to reserve judgment on two other alleged schemes the prosecution wants to enter into evidence: an attempt to collect kickbacks from city employees and steering a t-shirt contract for payment.

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Live updates for the federal corruption trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack

TRENTON - Testimony continues on the fifth day of the federal corruption trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack.

The government has finished direct examination of FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle, who has given his testimony for the last four days.

The defense attorneys for the Mack brothers will get a first stab at cross examination of Doyle today.

Yesterday the prosecution showed more evidence of what they contend shows Ralphiel Mack' involvement in the scheme to extort money from parking garage developers who were actually working for the FBI.

Testimony yesterday revealed that the federal agents flipped Charles Hall III, one of the few in Mack's inner circle, who wore a wire on others involved in the alleged scheme.

Hall has since pleaded guilty in the case and is expected to testify during the trial.

Doyle also testified yesterday that the FBI moved up its timeline of the investigation after Hall began recording conversations because Giorgianni and the Mack brothers appeared to be suspicious that they were being investigated. Doyle said the FBI feared that their investigation may have been compromised.

We will be posting live updates during the course of today's testimony here:

3:47 p.m.: Davis is going through the timeline of when payments were made to Giorgianni and when the Uncle Remus messages were left. Davis says even though Uncle Remus is dropped in conversations in February, there was no recent payment to Giorgianni, so how can it fit the government's pattern?

Davis will continue with this testimony tomorrow morning. The judge has allowed the jurors to go home for the day.

3:22 p.m.: Doyle said in a statement obtained from Giorgianni, Girogianni said he never gave money to either Ralphiel Mack or Tony Mack between October and December 2011. Doyle also said they do not believe that Giorgianni gave money to Mack on a Jan 10 2011 visit to the steak shop. Davis asks Doyle to look at a recording from Jan 14 where Giorgianni tells Blackburn that Mack was happy with the gift, implying that the payment was made.

"So he's lying correct?" Davis asked.
"Yes," Doyle said.

3:08 p.m.: Davis played the tape of a December 7, 2011 meeting at the steakhouse between Blackburn and Giorgianni where Giorgianni asks Mary, meaning Mary Manfredo, to be named a partner in the automated parking garage. In the same meeting Blackburn asks if he should bring one or two envelopes, Giorgianni says "one's alright."

The next payment that is dropped off is in two envelopes, Doyle said.

2:38 p.m.: Davis is going back to the Nov 2011 trip to Atlantic City where Mack and Giorgianni had dinner at Harrahs. Doyle said he believes that Giorgianni passed papers and possibly money were passed at that meeting.

"I don't know if money was passed to him," Doyle said.

2:11 p.m.: Davis is going through approximately 15 unanswered phone calls Blackburn made to Mack on in January 2011, while Giorgianni was out of town in Florida. Doyle said he had Blackburn call Mack several times in an attempt to set up a face-to-face meeting.

After detailing a few of the calls that went unanswered or phone calls where Mack said they would set something up at a later date, Davis asked Doyle if he thought Mack didn't want to meet.

"At that point did you realize that Tony Mack was going to meet with Mr Blackburn?" Davis said.

"In hindsight, it did not look like it was going to happen at that time," Doyle said.

Doyle said after they realized a meeting would not happen he re-focused investigative techniques back to funneling the deal through Giorgianni.

1:52 p.m.: Doyle confirmed that Giorgianni assisted in Mack's campaign. Davis asked if Doyle was surprised that Giorgianni and Mack had such frequent phone conversations, seeing as it was two months after the campaign.

Doyle said it would have been surprising for them to be talking so frequently two months after the conclusion of the campaign, but said he was not surprised because the two had known each other and had a friendship since 2006.

1:43 p.m.: Haney is done his cross examination of Doyle. Mark Davis, Mack's attorney will begin his cross examination of the agent.

'The platform's intent was to go directly through JoJo Giorgianni, correct?" Davis asked.

"Yes," Doyle responded.

Davis asked if Doyle directed the FBI cooperators to "stroke the ego" of Giorgianni. Doyle said he didn't, but he did ask Blackburn to ask if he had sway over city affairs.

1:28 p.m.: Back from lunch, Haney is continuing to ask Doyle about Giorgianni and his relationship with Mary Manfredo.

12:42 p.m.: Judge Shipp allows a break from Haney's review of the transcripts with Doyle on the stand for lunch.

12:04 p.m.: Haney is asking Doyle if the FBI considered the local laws or the oversight that the Department of Community Affairs has over the city's finances when planning the "platform" of the sting operation.

Haney asked if Doyle took into consideration the financial impact that the sting might have on the city.

Doyle said he did not do an analysis on what impact it would have. He said they didn't believe there was much liability to the operation.

11:19 a.m.: Haney asked Doyle about the pattern the FBI saw between the meetings where bribe payments were dropped off. Doyle explained that the general pattern was that the FBI informant would meet with Giorgianni, drop off cash, GIorgianni would send an Uncle Remus message to Mack and either Tony Mack or Ralphiel Mack would visit Giorgianni in short order.

Doyle said after it became public information that Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo was under federal investigation, the pattern of activity changed and instead of Tony Mack showing up himself, Ralphiel Mack would instead visit the steak house.

"The steak house sells food doesn't it?" Haney asked.

"Yes," Doyle responded.

Haney asked if in May 2012 when Ralphiel Mack was seen walking out of JoJo's Steak House with an orange soda, if Doyle, according to his testimony, stated that Ralphiel Mack, on that day, picked up a bribe, a sandwich and an orange soda.

"I don't know if he picked up a sandwich," Doyle responded.

10:56 a.m.: Haney is asking Doyle if he believes that Giorgianni was suspicious of FBI surveillance in the summer of 2011. Doyle agreed with Haney that the FBI attempted to set up surveillance inside the clubhouse, but it was ultimately unsuccessful.

Doyle said it ultimately became unnecessary because after a December 2011 incident where a lock was broken at the clubhouse, Giorgianni stopped inviting FBI informants to the clubhouse for meetings regarding the parking garage scheme.

Doyle said whatever "activity" Giorgianni, Hall and Manfredo noticed, they did not want to "walk into that area that could have been compromised."

Haney asks Doyle if as a result of Giorgianni's suspicions, if Gioriganni altered his behaviors around the suspected listening devices. Haney asked Doyle if he has reason to "disbelieve" Giorgianni's intercepted statements moving forward.

"I did not disbelieve him in some regards," Doyle said. " Mr. Giorgianni says a lot of thins so that is a really broad question."

Dolye said the FBI did not believe that there should have been any substantially different about the execution of their operations than before.

10:20 a.m.: Haney is peppering Doyle with questions about the differences between his testimony before the grand jury that indicted this case and what he has testified in this case before this jury.

Haney asked Doyle if he testified to the grand jury that during the during the April 25, 2012 meeting in Atlantic City Giorgianni handed off cash to Tony Mack. Doyle said he did. Haney then asked Doyle if he said cash was passed to Mack during that same meeting to this jury. Doyle said he had not.

"Didn't you alter your view of what occurred in Atlantic City?" Haney asked, saying Doyle has changed his story since Giorgianni pleaded guilty in the case.

"I altered my view but not solely contingent on what Mr. Giorgianni had told me," Doyle said.

10:11 a.m.: Doyle is being cross examined by Robert Haney, attorney for Ralphiel Mack, about the number of times Mack and Giorgianni spoke on the phone during the FBI's surveillance of their phone contact.

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HIGHTSTOWN _ A Philadelphia man was arrested Tuesday in connection with the Jan. 9 armed robbery of the First Constitution Bank on Mercer Street, police said. According to Hightstown police, Nathaniel L. Stroud, 33, entered the bank on Mercer Street about 2:35 p.m. and handed a note to the teller stating he was armed with a gun and listening...

A file photo of Hightstown police cars.Martin Griff/The Times 

HIGHTSTOWN _ A Philadelphia man was arrested Tuesday in connection with the Jan. 9 armed robbery of the First Constitution Bank on Mercer Street, police said.

According to Hightstown police, Nathaniel L. Stroud, 33, entered the bank on Mercer Street about 2:35 p.m. and handed a note to the teller stating he was armed with a gun and listening to police radios. He left with about $6,000 in cash. No one was injured during the incident, police said.

Stroud was charged with armed robbery, terroristic threats and theft of movable property. Bail was set at $200,000 and Stroud was being held at the Burlington County Adult Correction Facility for his role in bank robberies within that county, police said.

The arrest was the result of an investigation involving Hightstown police, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, the Burlington County Sheriff’s Department, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, Willingboro Police Department, Delran Police Department, Philadelphia Police Department, and the FBI.

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Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack are on trial for allegedly taking bribes in exchange for peddling the mayor's ability to fast-track the sale of a city property.

By Jenna Pizzi and Alex Zdan

TRENTON — As the FBI turned a member of Mayor Tony Mack’s inner circle into an informant in the early summer of 2012, Mack and his associates in the alleged extortion scheme became increasingly suspicious they were under investigation by law enforcement, according to wiretaps and testimony in the mayor’s corruption trial today.

What started off as wariness on the part of Mack protector Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni became a full-throated warning by a city carpet salesman who was Mack’s fraternity brother, leading the FBI to rush for search warrants because they thought their cover was blown, the lead agent in the case testified today.

Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack are on trial for allegedly taking bribes in exchange for peddling the mayor’s ability to fast-track the sale of a city property so that a parking garage could be built there, also with the mayor’s help. The parking garage was in fact an FBI sting operation, and Mack and his cohorts, including Giorgianni, had been under close surveillance.

A phone call Mack received the evening of July 17, 2012, intercepted by FBI wiretaps and played for the jury today, had Justin’s Carpet owner Roy Summers tell Mack in the strongest possible language to stay off the phone.

“I’m serious,” Summers said. “I’m very, very, very serious.”

Summers promised to explain when he saw Mack in person, and offered a way to shield the mayor’s phone from any surveillance.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle, who spent his fourth day in a row on the witness stand today, said that call set off alarm bells within the FBI, where scheduled search warrant executions at the mayor’s home and elsewhere were still a few days away.

“We needed to execute immediately because we believed we were compromised in the investigation,” Doyle said.

Six hours later, Doyle was knocking on Mack’s door, armed with a search warrant.

“It happened at one in the morning because it was the fastest we could get it ready, and it was in the hope we could preserve whatever evidence we could get,” Doyle testified.

The raids on Mack’s house and the residences of his brother and Giorgianni in the predawn hours of July 18, 2012 were the first public signs of the FBI’s 22-month long investigation. Today, in court for the mayor’s trial, as he has been for the preceding three days, Summers told reporters he was warning Mack as a friend and had cautioned the mayor to stay off the phone several months prior.

Summers did not say how he knew the FBI was watching Mack, but said he has college friends who work at the Justice Department, and a familiarity with Judge Michael A. Shipp that has him referring to the judge as “Michael.”

In court today, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Moran showed video of Ralphiel Mack entering JoJo’s Steak House in the summer of 2012 after drop-offs of cash bribes by government cooperating witnesses. The cooperators — former attorney Lemuel Blackburn and North Jersey developer Harry Seymour, were fronting for the fictitious parking garage plan.

If yesterday’s testimony focused on Mayor Mack, who was captured on tape seeking to pay bills after a visit with Giorgianni, today’s testimony brought in new information about Mack’s brother. With wiretaps on the phones of Mayor Mack, Giorgianni and then-city employee Charles Hall III, the FBI agents noticed a pattern that summer — a connection between the name “Uncle Remus” and bribe money exchanges, Doyle testified.

“After we made a payment, in short order, the phrase ‘Uncle Remus’ would be stated to Mayor Mack,” Doyle said. “We also identified a pattern that, at this time, Ralphiel Mack would stop by the steak house in short order.”

Giorgianni is heard in one recorded conversation indicating that attempts would be made to keep the mayor from having any connection to the tainted money.

“I’ll even keep Tony safe where I give money to Ralphiel,” Giorgianni said in a June 28, 2012 conversation.

The video from an FBI pole camera showed Ralphiel Mack entering the steak shop on June 19 and July 16. The June visit was six days after Giorgianni mentioned “Uncle Remus” to Mayor Mack during a phone conversation.

After leaving the steak shop in July, Ralphiel Mack appeared to deliberately try to evade Doyle, who was following his car. The mayor’s brother veered onto a side street and reappeared on the main road behind the FBI agent’s vehicle.

“That has significance that we potentially have been compromised, that they know we are following them,” Doyle said in testimony today.

After Mack spoke with then-acting Housing Director Carmen Melendez and a letter was finalized that would sell an East State Street lot to the parking developers for $100,000, cash began flowing in larger amounts. Seymour personally dropped off $25,000 at the steak shop on June 21, 2012 — two leather-bound portfolios containing $10,000 apiece in $20 and $50 bills, one each for Giorgianni and Mack. A smaller white envelope with $5,000 in $100 bills was prepared if Giorgianni wanted to share the money with Hall.

The day after Seymour dropped off the bribe money, Hall called Mack from inside the steak shop, waking the mayor from an afternoon nap in front of a college baseball game on TV. The wiretapped conversation started with talk about Hall’s son’s baseball skills.

“Yeah, that’s good, I think Uncle Rem … Mr. Remus came around,” Hall said.

“Yeah, so, um . I’ll be around today,” Mack said. “What you doing later on?”

“Call me,” Hall said. “Later on. I got, I got a couple dollars.”

With the investigation intensifying, Doyle said the FBI decided to approach Hall and seek his cooperation. The FBI was ready to execute search warrants if that attempt failed, Doyle said. Finding Hall alone the morning of June 21, 2012, they made the approach.

“We presented Mr. Hall a summary of all his criminal activity we had gathered at the time,” Doyle said. That included photos and wiretapped calls.

Hall agreed to cooperate. His interview gave the FBI some corroboration of what they had picked up already in the case. Doyle said one search warrant was executed that day, but he did not say where. As the first step in his new cooperation, a dejected-sounding Hall placed a call to Mack later in the day. He caught Mack at a baseball game, and tried to get Mack’s attention for a meeting.

“I said Uncle Remus came back to town,” Hall said.

“I gotta get some pizza over there,” Mack said.

Hall’s performance may have been convincing, but a decision by the FBI to have Hall present Giorgianni with $10,000 the next week, which Hall would say came directly from Seymour, aroused Giorgianni’s suspicions. In Giorgianni’s living room, with the 1964 Alfred Hitchcock thriller “Marnie” blaring on TV, Hall and Giorgianni spoke the evening of June 28, 2012.

“Now, I smell a rat,” Giorgianni said, as he was recorded by an audio and video device on Hall’s body.

“You think so?” Hall asked.

“See, Tony wants to keep them at a distance,” Giorgianni said of the developers. “It’s got to be a trap.”

Hall’s position as a city employee further complicated things, so Giorgianni told Hall not to take any more cash because he risked being caught by law enforcement and sent to prison.

“Takin’em is ten (years), and you’re gonna put Tony in jail,” he said.

Giorgianni tried to call both Mack brothers immediately after Hall left but could not reach either of them. Mayor Mack and Giorgianni had a phone conversation captured by the wiretap the afternoon of July 4.

“Uncle Remus, ... was in town,” Giorgianni said. “He stopped by and said hello.”

Twelve days later, Ralphiel Mack walked into the steak shop, staying for about 15 minutes before leaving. The FBI was watching.

In a phone conversation after the sun rose on the day of the raids, Mack and Giorgianni went over their answers to the questions from FBI agents who had interviewed them. Both men said they were asked about “Uncle Remus.” Mack said he told the FBI he thought it was a saying of Giorgianni’s.

“I know you got a million slogans, so add that to the million,” Mack said.

Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.

Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.

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Hamilton blotter from Jan. 7 to 14 and Robbinsville blotter from Dec. 30 to Jan. 12.

File photo: A Hamilton police officer at a crime scene last year.Alex Zdan /The Times 

HAMILTON —

Jan. 7
Criminal mischief — 1800 block Yardville/Hamilton Square Road.
Theft — 1200 block Silver Court.
Theft — 1400 block Chambers St. — Arrested Erika Peterson, Tyrone K. Raymond.
Theft — 2700 block South Broad St.
Theft — Lamont Avenue.
Burglary — 200 block Jeremiah Avenue.
Burglary — 200 block Woodlawn Avenue.
Burglary — Valli Court.

Jan. 8
Theft — 1100 block Route 33
Theft — 1000 block Edinburg Road.
Theft — George Dye Road.
Theft — Lamont Avenue.
Theft — Klockner and Hamilton avenues.
Burglary/aauto — New Cedar Lane.
Burglary — 800 block Cedar Lane.
Burglary — Joan Terrace.

Jan. 9
Criminal mischief — 500 block Lalor Street.
Theft/auto — 1200 block Route 33.
Burglary/auto — Barricklo St.
Shoplifter — 2500 block Nottingham Way.

Jan. 10
Criminal mischief — Apollo Drive.
Criminal mischief — 500 block Whitehorse Hamilton Square Road.
Theft — 200 block Grand Avenue.
Burglary — 200 block Miami Avenue.
Burglary — 1700 block Chambers Street.
Burglaries — 200 block Hollywood Dr. — Arrested Samuel Gonzalez, Juan Gonzales Jr.
Shoplifter — 100 block Marketplace Boulevard.
Shoplifter — 700 block Marketplace Blvd. — Arrested Kara M. Tunney.

Jan. 11
Theft — 100 block Marketplace Boulevard.
Burglary — 1600 block Genesee Street.
Burglary — 300 block Park Lane.
Burglary — Kensington Way.
Robbery — 2100 block S. Broad Street.
Shoplifter — 700 block Marketplace Blvd. — Arrested Gilbert L. Yammine.

Jan. 12
Theft — 3500 block S. Broad Street.
Theft — 3000 block Klockner Road.
Theft — Klein Avenue.
Shoplifter — 2700 block S. Broad Street.

Jan. 13
Criminal mischief — Crossroad Drive.
Criminal mischief — 100 block Parkinson Avenue.
Theft/auto — Moffatt Avenue.
Theft/auto — 1400 block Elizabeth Avenue.
Theft — Bismark Avenue.
Theft — 100 block Estates Boulevard.
Burglary/auto — 1700 block Chambers Street.
Burglary — 100 block Atlantic Avenue.

Jan. 14
Theft/auto — 200 block Norway Avenue.
Theft/Auto — Gwenth Way.
Theft — 100 block Hewitt Avenue.
Theft — 1500 block Spruce Street.
Theft — Central Avenue.
Burglary — 400 block E. Franklin Street.
Burglary — 500 block Edinburg Road.
Burglary — Guilford Lane.
Burglary — Marietta Lane.
Robbery — Atlantic and Hamilton avenues.
Shoplifter — 4400 block South Broad Street. — Arrested Maria J. Rein.

ROBBINSVILLE —

Dec. 30
Possession of stolen property — Route 526 — Arrested: Joshua Nacht, 23, Princeton. An alert was issued out of Allentown for a vehicle involved with a theft of UPS packages from a front porch, prompting a traffic stop and the arrest. Two additional UPS packages stolen from Buford Road and Tindal Road in Robbinsville were also found in the car, police said.

Dec. 31
Driving while intoxicated — Route 130 — Arrested: Shannon Pelke, 20, of Hamilton.
Driving while intoxicated — Route 526 — Arrested: Kaila Araneo, 23, of Robbinsville.
Burglary/Criminal Mischief — Foxmoor Shopping Center — Marrazzos was broken into while vacant. Fire extinguishers were discharged and glass windows and light fixture were smashed.

Jan. 1
Driving while intoxicated — Route 130 — Arrested: Sabour Baguaei, 22, of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Driving while intoxicated — Route 130 — Arrested: Karna Dipankar, 37, of West New York.

Jan. 2
Narcotics — I-195 — Arrested: Jose Martinez, 24, of Toms River; Brad Cottrell, 24, of Lakewood; Alaina McColley, 24, of Lakewood.

Jan. 3
Theft — Work Out World — Gym bag was taken from unlocked locker. Contents included a wedding band, clothing and car keys. The items were valued at $1,355.

Jan. 4
Driving while intoxicated — Route 33 — Arrested: Raymond McNulty, 40, of Hamilton.
Narcotics — I-195 east — Arrested: Stephen Jarkowski, 27, of Trenton.

Jan. 5
Driving while intoxicated — Route 130 — Arrested: James Dragon 2nd, 33, of East Brunswick.

Jan. 8
Narcotics — I-195 east — Arrested: Brittany Petro and Carlos Malaver, both 23, of Jackson.

Jan. 9
Narcotics — I-195 east — Arrested: Christoph Manjarrex, 23, of Lakehurst; Timothy Fircha, 25, of Manchester; Stephanie Brander, 30, of Toms River.

Jan. 12
Driving while intoxicated — Washington Boulevard — Arrested: Mina Ghobrial, 26, of Robbinsville.
Narcotics — Route 130 north— Arrested: Ewa Sweeny, 23, of Hamilton.

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