The case against the mayor has become focused on the minute details caught in surveillance videos.
TRENTON — Without a smoking gun, or conclusive evidence, to show that Mayor Tony Mack received bribe money from federal informants posing as parking garage developers, the case against the mayor has become focused on the minute details caught in surveillance videos.
During the first full week of testimony in the federal corruption trial of the mayor and his brother, Ralphiel Mack, attorneys on both sides have quibbled over a thick black bar on a piece of folded paper.
They have discussed what the mayor was really after when he talked about getting “pizza” from Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni’s steak house restaurant, where pizza was not on the menu.
And they have discussed the timing of Mack’s payments of personal debts and whether they coincided with the exchange of marked bills that were passed by federal informants to Giorgianni, who has admitted to accepting payoffs on Mack’s behalf.
On the witness stand for much of the trial so far, FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mike Doyle has argued that Mack received calls about “Uncle Remus,” a nonexistent person, whenever bribe money was handed off to members of his inner circle.
Doyle has testified that FBI raids on the homes of Mack, his brother Ralphiel, and Giorgianni were launched in the summer of 2012 after it became clear to investigators that the trio had become aware that authorities were closing in on the extortion scheme.
Defense attorneys last week picked away at the evidence that the Macks were even aware of the parking garage plan, suggesting there was no consistency to the prosecution’s argument that the mayor knew Giorgianni was taking money or that the parking garage developers expected Mack to help them.
On the stand Friday, longtime Mack friend Charles Hall III, an admitted participant in the extortion scheme who turned government informant, testified that the mayor knew all along about the bribery plot.
“His expression was worried, concerned,” Hall said about Mack’s reaction to the FBI raid on his home.
Much of the evidence presented so far has been in the form of FBI wiretaps and surveillance video, particularly of a meeting in Atlantic City on Nov. 16, 2011, of Giorgianni, Mayor Mack, Hall and other city officials.
Giorgianni is seen on video taking the elevator in Harrah’s Resort and Casino down to a late lunch meeting with the group at McCormick and Schmick’s restaurant.
In his hands, Giorgianni has a sheaf of papers folded in half. The papers have a thick black bar, which appears to match a photocopied brochure with details about the proposed parking garage plan that were provided by FBI cooperator Lemuel Blackburn, a now-deceased former city attorney. Later on, in another video from after the meeting, Mack is seen clutching some white paper.
Despite vehement objections from defense attorneys Mark Davis and Robert Haney, who represent Mack and his brother Ralphiel, respectively, Doyle testified he believed the papers Mack was holding were the same as those Giorgianni was seen with earlier that same day, indicating that the mayor was fully aware of the parking garage plan.
During cross examination, Davis tried to debunk Doyle’s testimony, showing surveillance video of Mack raising his arm and revealing that there was no visible black bar on the papers he was holding.
But the defense’s position weakened Friday, when Special Agent Jeffrey Crawford testified he witnessed Giorgianni pass the papers to Mack.
After a private discussion between themselves in the back of the restaurant, Mack and Giorgianni return to the group table. “Tony Mack stood up first and was handed the papers by Giorgianni,” Crawford said.
Another sticking point between the two sides centers around how far away Mack was standing on the floor of the Borgata casino on April 25, 2012 while Giorgianni was counting $100 bills pulled from an orange envelope handed to him by one of the FBI informants.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eric Moran and Matthew Skahill contended in court that Mack, who is seen in the same frame as Giorgianni and his motorized wheelchair, must have known that Hall and Giorgianni were in possession of bribe money meant to be shared among the three of them. Mack is never seen on tape actually accepting the money.
Haney argued that Mack wouldn’t have known what the two were doing, because they were counting the cash out of his sight line. On Friday, Haney repeatedly asked Hall about where the mayor was positioned in relation to slot machines and whether it would be unusual for someone to have cash at a casino.
Hall testified that the money being exchanged at the casino was in fact a bribe and he was upset that Giorgianni was counting it on the casino floor where there were inevitably surveillance cameras.
This payment was one of seven that were made to Giorgianni through wired-up cooperators during the course of the two-year investigation. But prosecutors will have to convince the jury that the cash found its way into the hands of Tony Mack and that he accepted it in exchange for his official action to facilitate the sale of an East State property to Harry Seymour, the FBI-paid developer, so that the parking garage could be built.
In the next two weeks, additional witnesses will be called to the stand to fill in the gaps where surveillance footage and FBI recording devices and phone taps can’t reach.
Hall will continue his testimony on Tuesday. As the trial continues, the government also is expected to call Carmen Melendez, the former acting director of the city’s department of Housing and Economic Development, who will testify about the letter she signed agreeing to sell the downtown property to Seymour for $100,000. At issue is whether Melendez received the OK from the mayor before putting pen to paper or if she was directed to sign it by Hall without approval from Mack.
Mary Manfredo, longtime companion of Giorgianni, also will take the stand for the government. Manfredo is expected to testify about Mack’s multiple visits to the steak shop to meet with Giorgianni and specifically about an April 18, 2012, handoff between Mack and Giorgianni where Mack accepted cash.
Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.
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