Live updates from the trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack
TRENTON - A former city water meter reader will return to the witness stand today for his third day in a row of cross examination in the federal corruption trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack.
Charles Hall III, a longtime friend of Mack, has admitted he was a buffer for the mayor and worked with him to secure cash payments from a developer in exchange for securing the sale of a city owned property the purported developers said they sought to turn into an automated parking garage downtown. The developers were in fact cooperating with the FBI as part of a sting operation.
Hall also worked for the government as an informant for about a month in the summer of 2012, before the investigation into the Macks became public with FBI raids of their homes.
Yesterday, Hall got tripped up in his testimony during cross examination from Ralphiel Mack's attorney Robert Haney and Mark Davis, the attorney for Tony Mack. Hall said he could not recall the particulars of several events and contradicted himself on earlier testimony.
We will be posting live updates on this page throughout the day:
3:43 p.m.: Judge Shipp adjourned the jury for the weekend. They will resume on Monday with Manfredo's testimony.
3:40 p.m.: Manfredo said the steak house is a cash business and that she makes enough in profits to support herself. Haney asked if she has any debt, to which she replied "no."
3:15 p.m.: Manfredo has said there was no connection between her guilty plea and Giorgianni's guilty plea. She said she did not know how close to her plea Giorgianni pleaded guilty.
Both hearings occurred on the same day in back-to-back sessions in the same courtroom.
"It just happened by coincidence to be at the same time that JoJo Giorgianni was pleading guilty," Haney said.
"I can only speak for myself," Manfredo said.
3:04 p.m.: Haney is asking Manfredo if she ever talked about the case with Giorgianni after their arrest. She said she has not, but Haney is sticking on the subject.
"So you never talked about it once with Mr. Giorgianni about this case?" Haney asked.
"Yes," Manfredo said.
2:49 p.m.: Although she knew that Giorgianni often lent money to people, Manfredo said, to her knowledge, Giorgianni never lent money to either Mack brother.
Moran has no more further questions for Manfredo. Haney is beginning his cross examination.
2:42 p.m.: Manfredo said Giorgianni asked her to stay in the kitchen area when he passed off money to Tony Mack because he wanted a witness.
2:00 p.m.: While Manfredo said she did not witness any cash passed at his June visit to the steak shop, she said she did see Ralphiel Mack take money from Giorgianni the next month.
Manfredo testified that in July of 2012, shortly before the FBI raids, she was with Giorgianni sitting in the steak shop when Ralphiel Mack walked in.
"Mr. Giorgianni went in his pocket and he handed Ralphiel money and he put it in his pocket," Manfredo said.
Manfredo specified that Giorgianni handed over "cash money."
"What did he do with it?" Moran asked.
"He put it in his pocket," she said.
"Had you ever seen Ralphiel Mack accept cash from Mr. Giorgianni like that before?" Moran asked.
"No," Manfredo replied.
1:55 p.m.: Giorgianni asked Manfredo to call Ralphiel Mack on June 13, 2012, and she said she called and told him to come to the steak shop because Giorgianni wanted to see him.
On June 19, 2012 Ralphiel Mack can be seen on the FBI's pole camera walking into the shop.
1:50 p.m.: Manfredo said she also witnessed a meeting at the steak shop between Giorgianni and developer Harry Seymour.
She said after the meeting Gioriganni came to the back, kitchen area of the steak shop where she was with two portfolios -- one black and one brown.
"He took the money from the brown portfolio, took all of the money out of there, and put it in the black portfolio," Manfredo said.
"Where did he get the money?" Moran asked.
"Mr. Seymour," she said.
1:45 p.m.: Manfredo says she believes that the money Mack received from Giorgianni was in the same white envelope that Giorgianni received from Blackburn during his January visit to the steak shop.
"The white envelopes that I seen came out of the Fed Ex was the same white envelope that I seen Mr. Giorgianni pull out of his pocket," Manfredo said.
1:15 p.m.: Mary Manfredo testified she saw Giorgianni give Mayor Tony Mack cash once in the spring of 2012.
"Mr. Mack came into the steak house," Manfredo said. "Mr. Giorgianni came behind the cooking area where I was. Mr. Mack Tony Mack was standing by the register."
With the door locked behind them, Manfredo said she witnessed Giorgianni pull out an envelope out of his leather jacket.
"There was money in (the envelope)," Manfredo said. "He handed it to Tony Mack. Tony Mack put it in his pocket and they embraced."
Moran asked if it was normal that Manfedo was present when Giorgianni would conduct "that kind of transaction."
Both Haney and Davis sprung up to object to the question.
"There was only one transaction," Haney said.
Manfredo said it was normal that she would be present for that kind of transaction.
12:27 p.m.: On Jan 6, 2012 after Lemuel Blackburn, a former city attorney who was posing as a developer in the parking garage project, left the steak shop, Manfredo said Giorgianni came into the kitchen area of the steak shop with a Fed Ex envelope in hand.
"He opened it up and took two envelopes out of it and put them into his leather jacket pocket," Manfredo said. "I took the Fed Ex envelope and threw it away."
Moran asked Manfredo what he believed was inside the envelopes.
"Money," she said.
12:12 p.m.: Manfredo said she first lied to the FBI when they first approached her in July 2012.
"It was 1, 1:30 in the morning when the bang was on my door," Manfredo said. "I was in a state of shock."
"I didn't want to get anybody any trouble," she said.
She said she eventually pleaded guilty to oxycodone distribution in November 2013.
"What took me so long was I had obstacles in the way," Manfredo said. "I wanted to come forward and I was scared."
Manfredo said Giorgianni told her not to plead guilty and that is part of what took her so long to tell the truth.
"I just got tired, not sleeping everyday, on my mind," she said. "I wanted to tell the truth and I made up my mind I was going to tell the truth."
By cooperating with the government, Manfredo said she is hoping to get a lighter sentence.
11:57 a.m.: Manfredo said she met Giorgianni when he would frequent her father's Chambersburg restaurant and he asked her to come work at the steak shop with Giorgianni's mother.
"'Please,' she said, 'Would you please take care of him' and she said 'when I pass you can have this business,'" Manfredo said.
"And you did?" Moran asked.
"Yes, I did," she said.
Manfredo said she had access to all Giorgianni's finances, paid his bills and wrote checks from his account.
After Mack was elected mayor, Manfredo said Giorgianni bought two tables at Mack's mayor's ball at the Trenton Marriott for $2,500 a piece.
"One table was in my name and one was in his name," Manfredo said.
Manfredo said while Gioriganni was the one that paid for the tables, she wrote the check for one and got a money order for the other.
11:47 a.m.: Manfredo is describing photos of the steak house for the jury. Aside from grainy undercover video or pole camera footage, this is the first time the jury is getting photo tour of the steak shop they have heard so much testimony about.
11:40 a.m.: Manfredo is sworn in and begins testifying. Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Moran is starting with basic questions, including Manfredo's schedule at the steak shop.
"So it's fair to say you're a fixture at the steak house?" Moran asked.
"Yes," Manfredo answered.
"When it's open, you're there?" Moran asked.
"Yes," Manfredo said.
11:35 a.m.: Mary Manfredo is called to the witness stand. Manfredo is a longtime companion of Giorgianni's. She has worked at JoJo's Steak House for 37 years.
11:30 a.m.: Haney and Davis are both done their re-cross examination of Hall and he is excused as a witness.
11:08 a.m.: Hall said he had no experience working with FBI recording devices and at the day of the baseball field meeting with Mack, Hall had only been cooperating with the government for about a week.
"Was it your understanding that the meeting with Tony Mack was recorded?" Skahill asked.
"Yes," Hall said.
"Were you ever told by anyone in the government that the meeting was not recorded?" Skahill asked.
"No," Hall said.
"Was it your assumption that they could listen to the tapes and see if you were telling the truth?" Skahill asked.
"Yes," Hall said.
Skahill is done his re-cross examination of Hall. Haney is up next.
10:40 a.m.: Rebutting the defense's theory that Hall and co-conspirator Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni used the parking lot scheme as a way to cooperate with the FBI to give them Tony Mack in exchange for a lesser sentence on the drug charges they faced, Skahill asked if Hall and Giorgianni ever discussed using the parking garage project to cooperate.
"No," Hall said.
After hearing the answer Haney loudly turned the page of his yellow legal pad scribbling feverishly.
Both Haney and Davis have made objections to Skahill's questioning of Hall, saying the same questions were asked on direct testimony, but Judge Michael Shipp overruled their objections, allowing the questions to continue.
Hall once again testified that he never told Giorgianni or Carmen Melendez that he was cooperating with the FBI after he flipped.
10:27 a.m.: Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Skahill is questioning Hall about his difficulty remembering specific dates or phone calls.
"Did you keep a ledger of your phone calls?" Skahill asked. "Did you write down the dates you took bribe money?"
"No," Hall said adding it is very difficult for him to remember the particular conversations or dates.
"Why didn't you want to write down the days that you received bribe money?" Skahill asked.
"Basically, I didn't want to keep track of it," Hall said. "There was no reason to write it down."
"Was it legal or illegal?" Skahill asked.
"It was definitely illegal," Hall said.
10:21 a.m.: Davis asked Hall about the benefit he will receive as part of his cooperation with the FBI.
"Ideally you would like to stay out of prison," Davis siad.
"I would yes," Hall said.
Hall agreed that the cooperation is with the US Attorney's Office and they are the ones who will determine if he is testifying truthfully.
"So you are telling their truth?" Davis asked.
"I'm telling my truth to the matter of everything," Hall said.
Hall said he pleaded guilty because he knew what he did was wrong and he was caught "dead to rights."
"I knew I was guilty," Hall said. "I knew my actions and I confessed. I knew my sins."
When asked if he knew his only way out was to "deliver" Tony Mack, Hall said he was only telling the truth.
Davis has finished his cross examination of Hall.
9:49 a.m.: Mack's attorney Mark Davis has resumed his cross examination of Charles Hall III. Davis is asking Hall again a time in June 27, 2012 when Hall, at the behest of the FBI, attempted to pass off two envelopes filled with $5,000 each to Mack, who refused. The two met at a baseball field across the river from Trenton in Morrisville, Pa. and went to go get pizza after the game with their sons, Hall testified.
Davis is attempting to go through the particulars with Hall, comparing Hall's testimony with what he told the FBI in an interview following the event.
Davis asked Hall if he attempted to turn on an FBI-provided undercover recording device as Mack was walking over to him.
"You saw him coming towards you and you didn't want to walk away, go to the bathroom and turn it on," Davis said.
"Correct," Hall said.
"But you told the FBI that you put it behind your back and tried to turn it on?" Davis asked.
"No," Hall said.
Davis asked Hall if he would like to see a copy of a report created by FBI agents following their interview with Hall. Hall reviewed the report and changed his answer saying he did attempt to turn the recording device on.
"You didn't remember this when you were testifying ten minutes ago?" Davis asked.
"Yes," Hall said.
Hall testified he didn't know that his attempts to make recordings for the FBI were unsuccessful.
"So this is news to you?" Davis asked.
"Yes," Hall said flatly.
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