Charles Hall III takes the stand in the seventh day of testimony for the federal corruption trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack.
By Jenna Pizzi and Alex Zdan
TRENTON - Mayor Tony Mack's trial on federal corruption charges enters its seventh day today, with testimony from Mack's long-time friend and former city employee Charles Hall III.
Hall, who is now cooperating with the government, will testify about how he attempted to hand off cash to Mack and campaign supporter Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni and Mack's fears that they would be caught by the FBI.
Hall's testimony will follow six days of questioning the lead investigator int he case, Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle.
Doyle testified yesterday that the FBI continued its investigation into Mack for nearly two years and expended many resources because he believed that there may have been an organized criminal element running City Hall.
Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack are charged with corruption in connection to a parking garage project that the FBI had set up as a sting operation. 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.
Check back here for live updates throughout the day.
3:38 p.m.: Judge Shipp is excusing the jury for the long weekend. On Tuesday Hall will continue his testimony.
3:02 p.m.: Haney goes back to a conversation between Hall and Seymour where, as soon as Seymour brings up Tony Mack, Hall suddenly says "I don't know what you are talking about."
"You were trying to keep this entire project from Tony," Haney said.
"I didn't want to expose him," Hall replied.
"The last person that you wanted to know, have any knowledge, especially the corrupt aspects of this project was Tony Mack," Haney said.
"Basically part of it was just being a buffer not having him exposed," Hall said.
2:21 p.m.: Ralphiel Mack's attorney on cross examination. Haney comes after Mack viciously asking if he was a lazy city employee because it seems like he never did any real work for the city while he was there.
"You just didn't find it necessary to describe a single job that you did during your time at the city of Trenton," Haney said.
Haney asked Hall how JoJo kept track of his time, because he was his boss.
"JoJo was not my boss," Hall said.
2:04 p.m.: In an conversation between Ralphiel Mack and Hall after the FBI raids were completed, Hall said Ralphiel Mack told him that he hoped that Giorgianni laundered the money.
"He basically said I hope JoJo switched up the cash money," Hall said.
"They mean that he washed the money, clean money, that you know, the bills were switched that they were clean," Hall said.
1:53 p.m.: On May 29, 2012 the day that Hall and Giorgianni were rushing to get the letter naming Seymour developer of the lot, Hall said he brought the letter to City Hall for Acting director of Housing and Economic Development Carmen Melendez to sign.
Hall said he went to her office and Melendez needed approval to get the letter signed from Mack. Hall said he wasn't there when Melendez got approval and did not know how it was secured.
"She wouldn’t have signed the letter unless she had approval with regards to the letter," Hall said.
Hall then faxed it off to Seymour and "got rid of it."
"I pretty much didn't want no evidence," Hall said.
1:24 p.m.: After a dinner meeting at the Borgata in Atlantic City on April 25, 2012, Hall said he and Giorgianni went over the slot machines to count cash. Hall said he had with him money obtained as a kick back for Five Star Auto Detailing.
He said on the casino floor he and Giorgianni split up cash he had received in envelopes and GIorgianni gave him $500 cash and a $100 casino chip.
Hall said he and Giorgianni stayed in rooms paid for by Seymour. Hall testified that Mack went into his room that night at the hotel.
The next morning, Hall returned to Trenton.
12:32 p.m.: Hall said he had a quick discussion with Mack about the parking garage project, although he did not give a specific date or time for that conversation.
In that conversation, Hall said Mack told him he did not want to be involved with Blackburn.
"He pretty much, he said he does not trust Mr. Blackburn," Hall said.
Hall said during the conversation, Mack seemed to have knowledge of the project and knew what he was talking about with regards to the parking garage development.
"I pretty much had a conversation and Tony said JoJo's handling everything," Hall said.
Hall said he did not talk to Mack about bribe payments
"It was understood, it was just understood about the bribe payments 'cause JoJo," Hall said.
In a call between Hall and seymour on Feb. 28, 2012, when Seymour asks Hall if he has talked to the mayor about the project, Hall says "I don't know what your talking about."
Hall testified today that he did not want Seymour to be connected to Mack, so he told him he did not know what he was talking about and said he would talk to him about it later.
"I was hiding the information from him," Hall said. "I didn't want him involved with the mayor."
11:50 a.m.: As part of his cooperation agreement with the FBI, Hall has also given a statement in connection to a Phoenixville, PA murder. Hall explained that he was not directly involved in the incident, but that he talked to the sister of a girl involved in the incident.
Although he had been approached by police, Hall previously told the police he hadn't had any contact with either of the sisters. Hall said that was a lie and he has since given a statement that he had given them advice.
"I advised them to seek a good lawyer and not to make a statement," he said.
11:30 a.m.: In a call between Hall and Ralphiel Mack on May 30, 2012, Mack asks Hall if the steak shop is still open and Hall says to go by the next day in the afternoon. Hall said he told Mack to go by to see Giorgianni to pick up cash.
In a call between Mack and Hall the next day, Hall asks if Ralphiel Mack if he stopped by to JoJo's to "get a cheesesteak."
"I was referring to cash money," Hall said. "I understand that he stopped by and picked up a cash money."
Skahill asked Hall if in his friendship with Ralphiel Mack if he asked him about his eating habits.
"I don't care about his eating habits, basically," Hall said.
11:15 a.m.: The government played a call Hall made to Mack on June 9, 2012 while at the steakhouse.
"Uncle Remus came to town today," Hall says during the phone call.
Hall testified he was calling at the direction of Giorgianni to tell Mack that there was cash for him.
When asked why he didn't just tell Mack that there was cash, Hall said he had to use the code word.
"It was corrupt and I didn't want to tell him over the phone," Hall testified. "That is the code word we used for money."
Hall testified that when something illegal came up in conversation Mack would say the word "pizza."
In another call Hall made to Mack right after he began cooperating with the FBI, Hall again says that Uncle Remus came back to town.
"I gotta get some pizza over there," Mack responds.
10:48 a.m.: Hall testified he and Giorgianni were buffers for Mack, then was asked to explain the term.
"A buffer is a person who is in between, in-between person, not direct connection," Hall said.
"In between what?" Skahill asked.
"In between the mayor and cash payments. The bribe," Hall said.
Following the attempted handoff of bribe money to Mack, Hall met with his FBI handlers. They then sent Hall to Giorgianni's house, wearing a hidden camera.
Footage from that meeting was played again for the jury, as Hall watched from the witness stand with his head down, eyes never moving from the monitor in front of him.
During the meeting, Giorgianni admonished Hall for taking the money, which the FBI told Hall to say was from Harry Seymour, a North Jersey developer who was promoting the garage project but also working with the government.
"Cause the ground rules are put down, by Tony," Giorgianni said in the video. "No one in the administration touches nothing."
Giorgianni used a scene from "The Godfather" film where consigliere Tom Hagen refuses to take a letter from the fugitive Michael Corleone's girlfriend Kay because it would show Hagen knew where Corleone was hiding.
"He was referring to me because I took the cash payment, the bribe money, and that makes me aware of the situation," Hall said.
10:43 a.m.: The day after he began cooperating with the government in June 2012, Hall testified he met with Mack at a Morrisville, PA ballfield. In Hall's possession were two envelopes of $5,000 in cash provided by the FBI. The two did not discuss them until they sat down at a pizza shop nearby.
"I asked Mr. Mack would he like the payment of cash and he said, basically, 'Give it to JoJo,'" Hall said.
The two city officials also discussed the ongoing parking garage project, and Mack queried Hall if he knew anything about FBI activity around City Hall.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Skahill asked Hall if there was anything unusual about his meeting with Mack that day.
"Basically, I didn't give cash to him," Hall said. "There was procedures JoJo proceeded to do."
10:38 a.m.: The government called Charles Hall III to the witness stand. Hall said he has known the Mack brothers since he was a child because they all grew up in Trenton. He said he first met Giorgianni when Mack ran for office in 2006 and since they had cultivated a personal and criminal relationship.
Hall testified that he knew that Uncle Remus was a term from JoJo that meant cash and that he used the term with Tony Mack.
"I mean that there was cash money available," Hall said.
10:15 a.m.: FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Crawford took the stand this morning as the government's second witness. Crawford conducted surveillance at the November 16, 2011 meeting between Giorgianni and Mack at Harrahs in Atlantic City.
Crawford said he was conducting surveillance inside the restaurant where Mack and Giorgianni met with others for a meal at around 2:30 p.m. Crawford testified that he saw Mack and Giorgianni go to the back of the restaurant to have a private conversation and Giorgianni gave some papers that were folded in half to Mack.
Neither Mark Davis, Tony Mack's attorney, or Robert Haney, Ralphiel Mack's attorney, had any questions for Crawford.