Charles Hall III is expected to take the stand to continue cross-examination questioning by attorneys for the mayor and his brother Ralphiel. Hall is a former city water meter reader who said he was transferred by Mack to have authority over multi-million dollar city park projects.
TRENTON - Charles Hall III, a former city water meter reader elevated to have oversight of millions of dollars in park renovations by Trenton Mayor Tony Mack. returns to the witness stand today in the federal corruption trial of Mack and his brother Ralphiel.
Ralphiel Mack's attorney Robert Haney will continue his cross-examination of Hall, as Haney continues to advance the theory that Hall and co-conspirator Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni used federal surveillance to swing blame toward the mayor and his brother. Both Hall and Giorgianni have pleaded guilty, while Hall worked for the government as an informant for about a month in the summer of 2012.
Mack and his brother were arrested alongside Giorgianni on Sept. 10, 2012 following a two-year FBI investigation centered around a phony parking garage project conceived by the government. Indictments filed in December 2012 alleged the group extorted thousands of dollars in bribes from two representatives of the supposed garage developers, who were working with the FBI.
Hall is the third witness to take the stand: the other two have been FBI agents. On Tuesday, Haney played a wiretapped phone call where a woman speaking with Hall complains about government surveillance. On the phone, Hall then addressed anyone who was tapping his line, saying "What's up, y'all listening?"
If Haney wraps up his cross-examination today, Mack's attorney Mark Davis will cross-examine Hall. The government will then have redirect questions before the defense gets a chance to re-cross Hall with additional questions before the witness is excused.
3:35 p.m.: Court adjourned for the day.
3:30 p.m.: Davis asked Hall about his meeting with the mayor at the ballfield in Pennsylvania on June 27, 2012. Hall said the money was in two thick envelopes but he did not remember whether he had them on his person.
"No I didn't recall where I actually had the money," Hall said.
At the pizzeria where the two met, Hall said he thought his government-issued recording devices were always on.
"You didn’t make an effort to turn them on?" Davis asked.
"No I did not," Hall said.
3:15 p.m.: Hall just testified that Tony Mack's use of the phrase "pizza" which he said on Friday was a code word for cash, was unfamiliar to him when he first heard it on the phone on June 21, 2012.
"Pizza was out of nowhere as far as you're concerned?" Davis asked.
Hall said it was.
"You never heard him say that before?" Davis asked.
"No," Hall said.
In that call Hall made to Mayor Mack right after he began cooperating with the FBI, Hall again said that Uncle Remus came back to town.
"I gotta get some pizza over there," Mack responded.
3:10 p.m.: Hall just changed his story again, saying his recollection of a $1,500 payment for the parking garage inside the steak shop happened not in March 2012 but on June 9, 2012.
"So the first payment now becomes Atlantic City?" Davis asked, referring to April 25, 2012, where Hall and Giorgianni were seen on security camera footage splitting cash and casino chips among themselves.
Hall concurred.
"So were going to wipe all that out?" Davis asked.
"Yes," Hall said.
"Got you," Davis said.
3:04 p.m.: Davis again exposes cracks in Hall's version of events during the May 29, 2012 meeting at City Hall.
"I know I was there waiting for a signed letter," Hall said.
Davis showed Hall an FBI report from June 22 2012 - the day after Hall began cooperating with the authorities - to help Hall's recollection of events.
"So your recollection is now refreshed wouldn’t you agree?" Davis said after Hall read it,
Hall waited in Melendez's office that day for her to type up and sign the letter. Hall said on the stand that she was meeting with Mack, but Davis said the information in the FBI report showed Hall said something different in 2012.
"So u have previously said that you don’t know whether Ms. Melendez ever went to see Tony Mack that day, correct?" Davis asked.
Hall agreed.
"So why would you say you did not know whether you were waiting for her to see or meet with him?" Davis asked.
"Two years, you're sure now, three weeks you're not so sure?" Davis asked.
"Right," Hall said.
"Got it," Davis said.
2:55 p.m.: Davis provided Hall with a copy of an FBI report from June 2012 after Hall said it would refresh his memory about May 29, 2012, when Melendez issued the sale letter for the lot.
"Your memory now that you didn’t have three weeks after it happened?" Davis asked.
"Correct," Hall said.
2:25 p.m.: Hall testified that he knew to pick up the money he was making from the parking garage deal in March 2012 because Giorgianni used the code phrase "Uncle Remus came by."
2:14 p.m.: Davis is on the attack, pointing out contradictions in Hall's statements. Though Hall had said the first time he was paid in connection to the garage scheme by April 19, 2012, Davis' questioning just led Hall to admit he received $1,500 from Giorgianni in March 2012.
"Mr. Hall, when you prepared for this trial what did you do?" Davis asked.
Hall said he read some of the transcripts and had between 15 and 20 meetings with the FBI and U.S.Attorney's Office.
"You didn’t do anything but review transcripts during those 15 to 20 meetings?" Davis asked.
Hall also said he did not know whether Mack received money from Giorgianni when they journeyed to Atlantic City for a mayors' conference in April 2012. Ralphiel Mack did not receive any money from him, Hall testified.
Davis also asked Hall to clarify whether he was a bagman or a buffer for Mack and transported cash.
"I didn’t pick up the money all the money went thru JoJo," Hall said.
1:50 p.m.: Hall testified he cannot remember the exact date he talked to the mayor about the parking garage project for the first time. During that conversation, Hall testified earlier, Mack said "JoJo's handling it" which Hall interpreted as dealing with bribe money.
"It was around February," Hall said. "I know it was after the Princetonian meeting."
1:35 p.m.: Hall testified that he knew as early as a Feb. 2, 2012 meeting with Melendez and Blackburn that the city-owned lot would not be sold for one dollar.
"But you didn’t share those thoughts with anybody?" Davis asked.
"Right," Hall said.
"Not with JoJo Giorgianni?" Davis asked.
"Right," Hall said.
"You just kept them to yourself," Davis said.
1:25 p.m.: Despite a wiretapped phone call Hall made during the Jan. 31, 2012 meeting with Melendez at the steak shop which was played for the jury, Hall said he couldn't recall the meeting.
"So your testimony to the jury is you don't remember being at this meeting at the steak house with Carmen Melendez?" Davis asked.
Hall said yes, but when Davis mentioned the phone call Hall said he remembered that.
"So you remember the phone call," Davis said.
"Yeah, I remember the phone call," Hall said.
"But you don't actually remember going to the meeting?" Davis asked.
Hall agreed.
1:10 p.m.: Court is back in session, and Davis is asking his first questions of Hall.
Davis referenced a meeting with Melendez inside JoJo’s Steak House on Jan. 31, 2012 to discuss the parking garage project. Davis asked about Hall’s influence over Melendez.
"You were able to secure a meeting right?" Davis asked. "You asked once and she came, right?"
"Yes," Hall said
That meeting was six days after Hall and Giorgianni meet Seymour and Blackburn at the Princetonian Diner.
"This is you telling the table that Tony Mack is not going to meet with him, right?" Davis said, pointing to a transcript.
Hall said Giorgianni told him about Mack's plans on the car ride over.
"That did not come from Tony Mack, correct?" Davis asked.
"Not from my understanding," he said.
12:30 p.m.: Haney has no further questions. Jury goes on lunch break until 1 p.m.
12:20 p.m.: Again, Haney asked Hall whether he and Giorgianni collaborated to pin the blame for the extortion on the Mack brothers.
"No, I never had a plan with JoJo to cooperate," Hall said.
The day after the homes of both Macks and Giorgianni were raided on July 18, 2012, Hall went to JoJo's Steak House on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the city. Haney showed pole camera footage of Hall sidling up to the front door of the shop.
After about five minutes outside, Hall received a phone call from his FBI handlers, Hall testified.
"And they told you that you weren’t supposed to be there, right?" Haney asked.
"Correct," Hall said.
"That’s because they didn’t want u to have any communications with JoJo Giorgianni," Haney said. "You received this phone call and that’s why you began to run from left to right back to your car."
12:10 p.m.: The day after the meeting with the mayor in Bucks County, Hall met with Giorgianni at his Ewing home. Playing a video Hall recorded of the meeting with a hidden camera on his shirt, Haney questioned every detail, from names allegedly interjected in the conversation to whether or not Hall ever watched the film "The Godfather" with Giorgianni.
In the video, the two discussed the possibility the $10,000 bribe payment, which Hall brought with him, was a trap.
"For me and you?" Giorgianni asked.
"Um, um uh the boss," Hall said on the video.
Haney asked if this was an opportunity for Hall again to falsely link the mayor to the parking garage project while Hall knew the FBI was listening in.
"And you are able to insert the boss into it," Haney said.
Haney's relentless questioning drew numerous objections from Skahill, mostly on the grounds that Haney's questions had been asked and answered by Hall. Skahill also objected to Haney's line of interrogation.
"This is argumentative questioning," Skahill said to Shipp.
"Your Honor, it's cross-examination"; Haney said.
"Overruled," Shipp said.
Haney's questions even included Hall's understanding of "The Godfather." On the video, Giorgianni references the film while talking about a person's criminal exposure, and Hall knew the reference.
"You're right because I have seen "The Godfather" numerous times," Hall said.
Hall testified he had not watched the film with Giorgianni and understanding the reference was not a pre-set code.
"Because I saw the movie, I understood the movie," Hall said.
11:35 a.m.: Hall is being questioned about a June 27, 2012 meeting with Mayor Mack in Morrisville, PA across the Delaware River from Trenton. The FBI had told Hall to try and give Mack a $10,000 cash bribe.
Agents had outfitted Hall with three recording devices: one in his car, one in a watch he was wearing and another known as the "Hawk" which could be turned on and off, Haney said.
"In the end, not one single device produced any evidence in this case," Haney said.
Hall became emotional during questioning, breaking down briefly into tears when Haney asked about what was going on at the ballpark that day he met with Mack,
"It was a baseball game my son was playing in," Hall said.
After the game, Hall and Mack went to eat at a nearby pizzeria where Hall testified he offered Mack the cash. Mack told Hall to take the money to Giorgianni, Hall testified.
Hall admitted he never asked Mack to get into his car and Haney argued that Hall used "special means" to make the watch device and Hawk not function properly. They included speaking to Mack at the game.
"You made sure that you made whatever statements you made to Tony Mack that night under circumstances that would have been masked by loud noise and your other anti-surveillance techniques," Haney said.
"So we have only your word as to what went on between you and Tony Mack that night, if anything," Haney added.
10:55 a.m.: The day after the FBI interviewed Hall and Hall agreed to cooperate, Hall called Giorgianni on Giorgianni’s home phone line, which was no longer being wiretapped, Haney said.
Hall’s purpose was to report everything the FBI had told him, Haney argued.
“I don’t recall sir,” Hall said.
“You don’t recall if you reported everything you knew about the FBI to JoJo?” Haney asked, incredulous.
“You needed to coordinate your story with JoJo Giorgianni now that you had information from the FBI didn’t you?” Haney asked.
“No, I didn’t need to coordinate,” Hall said.
Hall continued to testify he could not recall whether or not he contacted Giorgianni outside the presence or knowledge of the FBI during the time he was cooperating with the government.
Haney argued that during that time, armed with information from FBI agents who told Hall the Mack brothers were targets of the investigation, Hall and Giorgianni conspired to make good on their plan to falsely link the Mack brothers to the garage extortion.
Hall said there was no misrepresentation of the mayor and Ralphiel Mack's roles.
"The answer is I knew," he said. "I knew they were involved."
10:49 a.m.: FBI agents approached Hall in the driveway of his parents' house in Ewing on June 21, 2012, Hall testified. They showed him some of the evidence they had against him, and Hall agreed to cooperate, he said.
Haney suggested that Hall's cooperation was all part of an elaborate, preconceived plan by Hall and Giorgianni to mislead the government into believing the mayor and Ralphiel Mack were involved in the parking garage scam.
"No, it wasn’t part of the plan," Hall said.
"You and JoJo never discussed the possibility that you would have to cooperate in order...to evade your drug charge?" Haney said, referencing the prescription painkiller-selling scheme that both Hall and Giorgianni have pleaded guilty to.
"You began cooperating immediately for the purpose of snagging Tony Mack," Haney said.
"I agreed to cooperate because I was guilty," Hall answered. "Because I had a lot of evidence against me."
10:35 a.m.: Haney's questions are focusing on Hall's connection to Carmen Melendez, the city's former acting housing director. Haney showed video of a diner meeting between Giorgianni, Hall, and Harry Seymour, the North Jersey developer posing as the builder of the parking garage. Seymour, who was joined by former attorney and fellow cooperator Lemuel Blackburn at the meeting, was wearing a recording device.
In the video, Hall and Giorgianni say they will get Melendez's approval to sell an East State Street lot to Seymour's development company for one dollar.
"And you felt that you and Joe could control Carmen isn't that so?" Haney asked Hall.
"No, I never felt I could control Carmen," Hall answered.
Haney then asked about May 29, 2012 when Melendez approved a letter offering the lot for sale at $100,000. Hall went to City Hall to meet with Melendez, who approved a draft letter and signed it herself.
"The best you could do was get that letter signed by Carmen Melendez before the mayor saw it, then you could get out as soon as possible," Haney said.
Hall said he told Melendez Mack had okayed the letter's contents.
"'He knows about it', I said, 'he already knows about it," Hall said.
According to the government, Giorgianni received the text of the letter via email a few days before. Minutes after Mack left his Ewing home, Giorgianni called Hall and said Mack had approved the letter's contents.
10:07 a.m.: Back from sidebar. Haney was allowed to keep playing the video, but decided to skip through a majority of it while making clear there is no sound recorded.
9:57 a.m.: Hall back on the stand. Haney is continuing his questioning from Tuesday, about a time on Dec. 23, 2011 where a government recording device was located inside a building Giorgianni owns next to his steak shop. Hall has denied discovering the device and said Giorgianni told him about it before they entered the "club house" on Martin Luther King Boulevard.
The device recorded video of Hall's search. In clips shown Tuesday, Hall used what appeared to be some sort of detector to sweep for the bug as Giorgianni watched from the back of the room.
Haney wanted to play the full 15-minute clip, which is silent, for the jury but the prosecution objected.
"Frankly, it's a waste of the jury's time," Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Skahill said.
After a brief sidebar, the video began playing. Several minutes in, Skahill objected, saying that the video is silent and thus no proof of what Haney is arguing - that Hall and Giorgianni were whispering and gesturing to avoid being recorded.
"I just think this is very misleading because there's no audio associated with it," Skahill said.
Shipp ordered the video paused, then huddled with the attorneys in another sidebar in the area next to the bench. Sidebars cannot be heard by the jury because of a static sound that plays in the courtroom to block what is being said.
9:45 a.m.: With the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday Monday, an abbreviated court session due to snow on Tuesday, and the courts being closed yesterday, the jury has only heard two hours of testimony so far this week.
"The snow days have kind of put us all a little behind," said Judge Michael A. Shipp at the beginning of today's court session.
Shipp wants the prosecution and defense to provide him with an updated timeline by the close of the day so jurors will know how much longer they should expect to serve.
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