It's Day 6 for the trial of Mack and his brother Ralphiel, who are indicted on federal charges of extortion, bribery, wire fraud and mail fraud.
By Alex Zdan and Jenna Pizzi
TRENTON - Mayor Tony Mack's trial on federal corruption charges enters its sixth day today, with the defense expected to continue its cross-examination of FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle, the lead agent on the case.
Doyle underwent aggressive questioning by Mack's attorney, Mark Davis, yesterday, as Davis questioned when Mack became aware of the parking garage project for which Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni was accepting bribes ostensibly on the mayor's behalf.
Davis also played recordings made by Lemuel Blackburn, one of the cooperating witnesses who helped the FBI build its case, of Blackburn repeatedly trying to get a meeting with Mack in January 2011 but failing. Blackburn called ten times in 15 days but was rebuffed for a meeting in the occasions he reached Mack. Mack eventually stopped taking Blackburn's phone calls.
The FBI had set up the parking garage project as a sting, and after a two-year investigation arrested Mack, his brother and Giorgianni on Sept. 10, 2012. Giorgianni pleaded guilty last December and was severed from the case. It remains unknown whether he will testify in any capacity during the trial.
If cross-examination wraps up today, the prosecution could call its second witness.
Check back here for live updates throughout the day.
3:30 p.m.: Doyle was excused as a witness. Court adjourned for the day. Prosecution wil begin tomorrow with its second witness.
3:24 p.m.: Blackburn gave Giorgianni a photocopied brochure containing information on parking garages that the prosecution contends Giorgianni handed to Mack during their meeting in Atlantic City in November 2011. Davis repeatedly questioned that conclusion today, culminating during re-cross examination when he had Doyle hold a copy of the brochure in his hand.
Davis compared the distinctive black bar on the brochure with video of Mack holding papers after the meeting. There was no visible black bar.
"So you think his hand is covering the black bar?" Davis said.
"Yes," Doyle said.
But, Davis showed surveillance footage of Mack leaving the casino in which Mack moves the paper up and down.
"You do not see a black bar on those papers," Davis said.
"I do not see a black bar," Doyle said.
3:17 p.m.: Mack's attorney Mark Davis says that in the same conversation where Mack is talking about the use of surrogates to take meetings on behalf of the mayor, Mack also says "you stay away from possible corruption."
3:05 p.m.: During the course of the investigation, Doyle said he considered the repercussions of not continuing the investigation into Giorgianni and Mack.
"Based on the allegations that Mr. Gioriganni made during those, those, initial, those, initial meetings I was fearful that, um, an organized criminal element had taken over City Hall," Doyle said. "And if so I believe the cost to the tax payers would be in the multi-miliion dollars as part of criminal arrangement that had been inherent in the city."
"That is the reason we had such a robust investigation," Doyle said.
2:54 p.m.: Dolye said in calls where Giorgianni says Uncle Remus is mentioned, Mack does not ask Giorgianni what he is talking about or seem confused about the topic.
"Often times we would see a gap, sometimes we would see a change in conversation," Doyle said. Doyle said sometimes Mack would acknowledge and say "Ok, baby" or even hang up the phone.
2:13 p.m.: Moran is asking questions of Doyle about the Nov. 16, 2011 meeting at Harrahs in Atlantic City. On cross examination Doyle was asked if he knows that Gioriganni passed cash to Mack at their dinner meeting, to which he said he did not know. On cross examination Doyle was asked about testimony he gave in November 2012 to the grand jury for this case where he said he believed that Giorgianni had a white envelope inside papers about the parking garage project.
Doyle said today he maintains the same position, even though Giorgianni, in statements made the the government since his plea, said he did not remember if he gave Mack cash on that trip. Giorgianni told the feds that if he did give Mack cash it wasn't in an envelope, it was in cash.
1:29 p.m.: Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Moran is questioning Doyle about the pattern the FBI saw between then money was dropped off, a communication was made and a pick up occurred.
"Were they robotic in the sense of their routine?" Moran asked.
"No, no certainly not," Doyle said. "The identification of a pattern was not that the next step was predetermined by the step before."
"The pattern was not oriented to be that if an element of the stated pattern was not perfectly aligned, that it was default or no good," Doyle said.
Moran is now going through when all the payments were dropped off and when "Uncle Remus" text messages occurred.
1:07 p.m.: Doyle was involved in the search of Tony Mack's home and found none of the money recovered in his home matched the serial numbers of the money that was paid by the FBI for bribe payments, he said.
Some of the matching bills were found when other agents, not Doyle, searched Giorgianni's house. Agents recovered $9,441 at Giorgianni's house on the morning of the search -- $2,900 of which matched the serial numbers of the money that came from the FBI. Upon his arrest, Giorgianni was found with another $5,466 -- $2,000 of which were bills that matched the FBI serial numbers.
Davis did not question Doyle if any money was found at Ralphiel's home when it was searched that same day.
Davis has finished his cross examination the government will have another chance to question Doyle on redirect.
12:19 p.m.: Tony and Ralphiel Mack met at a Lawrence restaurant the night of July 17, 2012, which Doyle said came one day after Ralphiel Mack was believed to have picked up a bribe payment of JoJo’s Steak House.
Doyle testified searches of the Mack brothers’ homes and Giorgianni’s house were scheduled for July 30, but moved up to July 19 after the steak shop visit. Doyle said the FBI was worried about destruction of evidence after the two brothers met.
"Do you agree that the reason upon seeing that, moving up the search warrants because Tony Mack was expected to make a pickup in the next few days?" Davis said.
Doyle said getting search warrants and getting agents to execute them was a large undertaking.
"I know for a fact we were not going to do it at 1 a.m. on the 18th if not for the Roy Summers call," which warned Mack of government surveillance, Doyle said.
"You were waiting for money to happen, you were waiting for money to be transferred?" Davis asked.
"Yes," Doyle said.
"And this thing was not a go until it happened," Davis said.
"Yes," Doyle said.
11:58 a.m.: Davis is attacking the credibility of Charles Hall, expected to be a government witness. Hall pleaded guilty last month to lying to FBI agents prepping him for this trial. Hall was given $10,000 by the government in June 2012, and the FBI initially believed Hall left Giorgianni’s home after a June 28 meeting with none of the cash in hand.
On the witness stand, Doyle said he is not certain how much money Hall received.
"Because at first, the FBI believed Charlie Hall walked out of that meeting with no money," Davis said.
One month ago, Hall admitted lying to FBI agents about money he pocketed at Giorgianni's home during that meeting. Hall could face up to five years in prison as part of the plea.
"He had held onto this lie for a year and a half," Davis said.
"Yes," Doyle said.
11:31 a.m.: At least twice in May 2012, Giorgianni asked Seymour to give him a $100,000 check to buy the downtown lot for the parking garage, and Giorgianni said he would take the check directly to the mayor for approval, Doyle said.
"He's saying he could get the deal done in a day if he gets it, right?" Davis asked Doyle, who agreed. "Why didn't you just give him the check?"
"Because we didn’t have the authorization to give a $100,00 check at that time," Doyle said.
"We never even contemplated" that scenario, Doyle said, shaking his head slightly, still somewhat in disbelief.
"Well he was going to take it right to Tony Mack," Davis said. "That is what you wanted, right?"
"We wanted to see if in fact he would give bribe money to Tony Mack, that is true," Doyle said.
11:19 a.m.: Davis again tried to get Doyle to say the FBI asked for the purchase letter because there was a need to conclude the investigation, which by the spring of 2012 had been running for more than 18 months.
"Sir, the investigation started in 2010," Doyle said. "This need you mentioned, I believe twice now, is something that I am not testifying to."
Doyle said the FBI was trying to see how far the co-conspirators would go with the project.
"It was not someone saying, 'Boy, too much resources have been extended,'" Doyle said.
Davis asked Doyle if letters Doyle sent to other law enforcement agencies were indicators that there was pressure to wrap the investigation up.
"I'm certain I wanted the investigation to be over," Doyle said.
10:45 a.m.: In an April 24, 2012 phone call, Mack yelled at and cursed out his friend Thomas Cardwell after Cardwell tried to set up a meeting on Mack’s behalf.
“You don’t meet with people anymore,” Mack said in a recording of the call, which was played in the courtroom. “People have wires on them, try to get you arrested.”
“I don’t even want to be in a meeting where I’m second guessing what it is,” he said.
Mack wanted to meet with the person Cardwell was suggesting he talk to in Atlantic City rather than Trenton. Mack was going to a mayor’s conference in the resort town the next day, and said it would be better to meet there because he would have “four or five mayors” sitting with him.
With then-Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo arrested by the FBI the week before, Mack said he was not taking any unnecessary risks.
“Google John Bencivenga and call me back,” Mack said.
When Cardwell asked Mack how he could do his job without meeting with people, Mack started screaming at Cardwell.
“Cause you have surrogates who meet with people,” Mack said. “You stay away from possible corruption.”
“How you know someone’s offering something that’s corrupt?” Cardwell said.
Cardwell eventually gave up on setting up the meeting and ended the call.
10:30 a.m.: Davis attacked the FBI’s evidence from the April 17, 2012 meeting between Mack and Giorgianni at JoJo’s Steak House in North Trenton.
Doyle testified he and other agents were watching the steak shop when Mack was there. Doyle was in a car, driving around the block in a loop two or three times, he said.
"You didn’t see him inside the steak house at any time?" Davis asked.
"No, but I saw him (outside) when I went around," Doyle said.
Minutes after Mack left the steak shop, Mack called a landscaper he owed money to, but Davis said the payment was not a significant amount.
"Only gave $100," Davis said. "And that did not clear the balance, correct?"
Doyle agreed. The $6,168 tax payment that was given to the city two days after the meeting was paid with a cashier's check cut by TD Bank before the meeting took place, Doyle said in response to Davis' questioning.
"Would you agree the check was cut on April 13, 2012?" Davis asked. Doyle agreed.
10:05 a.m.: Davis ties Doyle up in verbal knots over testimony about when Mack took bribe payments. After the meeting in Melendez's office, it became clear that the property was not going to be offered for one dollar, Doyle testified. The FBI then set a May 1, 2012 deadline for an official letter to be written from the city setting a purchase price for the lot.
Davis asked Doyle why the deadline was set.
"The belief was if we continue to pay bribes regardless of whether Mr. Giorgianni was sharing with Mayor Mack...they would keep taking the money potentially sharing it and not doing anything for it," Doyle said.
To facilitate the letter being written, Blackburn was sent to JoJo's Steak House to give Giorgianni $3,000 cash in two envelopes - one for Giorgianni, one for Mack. Davis repeatedly asked Doyle whether he had testified that Mack received money before that date, and Doyle could not answer.
"You say you don’t know if money want to Tony Mack before April 12, 2012?" Davis said.
Doyle said he did not know, and asked whether Davis meant examination during this trial or the grand jury proceedings.
"I’ll move on, special agent," Davis said.
On Monday the prosecution showed photos of Mack entering JoJo's Steak House on April 17, 2012. Minutes later, Mack was on the phone with a landscaper and the city tax office trying to pay bills.
9:45 a.m.: Davis is showing video of a Feb. 2, 2012 meeting in then-acting housing director Carmen Melendez's City Hall office, recorded by a hidden camera on Blackburn's person. Charles Hall III, a city employee and member of Mack's inner circle who had met with Blackburn, developer Harry Seymour and Giorgianni the month before, was sitting in on the meeting.
Seeking the city-owned land at 142-144 East State Street for one dollar, Blackburn said the parking garage would be be a benefit for the city. Hall chimed in with praise for the project.
"It's very nice, it's the thing of the future," Hall said.
Melendez said she would have to run the deal by the mayor before anything could be done.
9:35 a.m.: Doyle back on the stand. Davis is re-starting his questioning where he left off yesterday.
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