Former city official Carmen Melendez testifies in the federal corruption trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack.
TRENTON - Former city housing director Carmen Melendez will take the witness stand for the second day in the federal corruption trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack.
Melendez, who said she has known Mack for many years and assisted in his 2010 campaign for mayor, testified yesterday about the relationship between Mack and alleged co-conspirator Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni. She also said Giorgianni gave her and other campaign supporters a directive in December 2011 to reach out to Giorgianni should they have any issues or problems.
Mack and his brother Ralphiel are on trial for their roles in an alleged scheme to extort the developers of a parking garage. The project was in reality a sting operation coordinated by the FBI.
I will be posting live updates throughout the day:
2:59 p.m.: Davis is done his questioning.
2:45 p.m.: On May 29, 2012, Melendez said she met with Mack in his office then went to take a picture with representatives from the Italian delegation.
Davis said that during her first meetings with the FBI she told them that she met with Mack after the photo was taken and then when she testified before the grand jury told them she wasn't sure if it was before or after the photo.
"This was all just happening so quickly," Melendez said
She said she was just happy that she caught Mack while he was in his office and did not have to wait to schedule an appointment because both he and she were very busy and Hall said he needed the letter that day.
2:02 p.m.: Melendez said after she and Mack agreed to put the property out to bid because they had not heard back from Seymour, she drafted a letter rescinding the proposal to sell the property for $100,000, but never sent it.
"We had the letter and I don't remember sending it out," Melendez said.
Davis questioned why it would take so long to draft the letter and why it was never sent out.
"The RFP was not going to go out that quickly," Melendez said. "We needed to reach out to Mr. Seymour, to take back, that we were going to take back our offer."
1:56 p.m.: Melendez testified that Hall seemed to not understand that the property would not be sold for $1.
She said she asked Mack at a cabinet meeting if the property could be sold for $1.
"I just needed to reconfirm with the mayor that some other conversation was not taking place for the parking garage," Melendez said.
But Hall continued to come to her to ask for the dollar sale price, Melendez said.
"You would pass him in the hall?" Davis asked.
"He would call me and talk about whatever else he wanted to dump on my lap to take care of him," Melendez said.
"He wouldn't stop asking about the dollar," Davis said.
"Yeah, he was a pest," Melendez said.
1:44 p.m.: Davis asked how many times Melendez spoke to Mack about the parking garage project.
"Would you say that there were four occasions?" Davis asked.
"I would say that’s accurate," Melendez said.
"No more than four, ok?" Davis asked.
"Well other than at our cabinet and division meetings," she said.
Melendez told Davis that she keeps track of dates and specifics through journaling so if he was going to ask her about a specific incident, seeing the journals would be helpful.
"I don't keep anything in my memory," she said.
1:37 p.m.: Back from lunch, Tony Mack's attorney Mark Davis is questioning Melendez.
1 p.m.: Haney asked Melendez to recount the visit she made to Mack's home on June 28, 2012.
The meeting was a condtinuation of a phone conversation that began earlier in the day with a phone conversation about the city's master plan for the downtown area. Mack then asked her to come over to the house.
When she arrived, she knocked on the front door and his children answered. She was asked to come in through the side door which leads to the kitchen.
Melendez said the two discussed that Seymour had not responded to the letter she sent a month earlier. Without any formal interest expressed, the two agreed the land should go out for public bid.
Haney instructed Melendez, a meticulous note taker, to read the page of her marble composition book regarding that day and the meeting with Mack.
The page was projected onto a screen for the jury and public to see.
the catalogue scribbled on the page showed the topics she discussed that day with the mayor, including a note about the parking garage project, which was marked with a star.
Next to the note about the parking garage, Melendez had written public in parenthesis and had the RFP, referring to a request for proposals, in brackets and underlined twice.
"If I have to do research, I will double line it to pay close attention to my notes when I go back," she said.
Haney is finished with his questioning. The jury is in recess for lunch until 1:30, when Mark Davis will begin his cross examination.
12:46 p.m.: Haney asked if it was unusual for her to go to Giorgianni about a project.
"I knew based on my experience with other things that we were working on with Mr. Giorganni, that sometimes the mayor would instruct me to go and speak with him and I would speak with him," Melendez said. 'That was his person. That was how they operated."
Haney said Melendez never called Mack to tell him that she was going to meet with Giorgianni.
"I didn't see why I had to call the mayor and tell him I was on my way to Mr. Giorgianni's house," she said.
"You didn't have to keep the mayor in the loop?" Haney asked.
"I always kept the mayor in the loop with things that I had to get his permission," Melendez said.
12:35 p.m.: Haney asked Melendez how she knew about the relationship between Tony Mack, Giorgianni and Hall.
"They told you all the time that they had the mayor's ear," Haney said.
"Certain people had the mayor's ear, they never told me that," Melendez said.
"They never had to say it," she said. "It was always there."
"Oh, it was understood!" Haney said.
12:25 p.m.: Melendez said she isn't sure when the value of the property was assessed.
"You must have remembered the decade," Haney said.
"I don't remember," she said.
Pointing to a letter Melendez sent to Harry Seymour, Haney asked if Melendez inquired about reassessing the value of the property.
"If you appeal the land value, you'll get a lower price, isn't that true?" Haney asked.
"No," Melendez said.
"It would maybe decrease or increase the taxes," Melendez said. " You don't know whether it is going to go one way or the other."
12:10 p.m.: Haney asked Melendez if she felt pressured by Hall who kept bothering her about the project.
"I don't think he understood that the property was not going to be sold for a dollar," Melendez said.
"And on May 29, the day of the infamous letter, Charlie was pressuring you that day too," Haney said.
"No, when I sent the letter out the price was already on the letter, the $100,000," she said.
12 p.m.: Blackburn and Melendez are sitting at the bar on April 16, each with a glass of wine in front of them, discussing the options Blackburn's developers have to benefit with the project.
In the meeting, Melendez tells Blackburn to apply for a 30 year pilot with the state, to make the project "work" for the developer. She said the developer would not be able to buy the property for $1, but that it would likely have to be purchased at the assessed value.
"You provided a great deal of advice that night," Haney said.
"Yes, we discussed how to get the project moving forward," Melendez said.
"Did you indicate to Mr. Blackburn that it all went through you?" Haney asked.
"Meaning that it goes through my department, yes," Melendez said.
11:40 a.m.: Haney is back to asking questions about the meeting with Blackburn. Melendez said she is having difficulty answering questions about portions of the meeting and would like to listen to the entire 17 minute tape. The tape is allowed into evidence and will be played in its entirety.
11:35 a.m.: Although Blackburn expressed hesitancy that city council would approve anything related to this project, Melendez said she told him it would be OK because it was a "clean deal."
"You believed it was a clean deal, didn't you?" Haney asked.
"Based on the information I had at the moment, yes, I had," she said.
11:27 a.m.: Melendez said she has no memory of this meeting, so Haney keeps playing clips of the recording made on from a body wire the now deceased Blackburn was wearing so that she can answer questions about what went on.
11:20 a.m.: Melendez said at that meeting, at a restaurant, she told Blackburn that it was a great project.
"You were enthusiastic about the project?" Haney asked.
"I didn't make one difference to me or the other," she replied.
Haney asked why, then she told Blakburn it was a great project.
"Why would I not promote the city of trenton in anything especially if someone was interested in purchasing a property at that time in that environment," she said.
"The gentleman was moving forward on this project," Melendez said. "I would not discourage anyone for wanting to bring economic development into the city."
11:10 a.m.: After listening to a portion of the tape, Melendez said she and Blackburn were talking about tax abatements and entering into a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) agreement for the project.
"it was your opinion that a tax abatement was not desirable," Haney said.
"because he was discussing the total project and was asking me questions of what I thought," Melendez said.
She testified that Blackburn was discussing that to install the automated parking structure would be very expensive so on the whole the property value was diminished.
"he was concerned that the numbers would not work," Melendez said. "The property value was insignificant to the other things that he ws discussing."
"We were discussing options," she said.
10:50 a.m.: Earlier today, during direct examination, Melendez testified that she was very clear with Blackburn when they had a meeting in her office with Hall, that because of the political climate, the no property int he city would be sold for $1.
"The mayor directed me not to sell anything for a dollar," she said. "And Charlie Hall already knew that and I don’t think he really discussed it with Mr Blackburn. I wanted Mr. Blackburn to hear it directly from me that the property was not going to be sold for a dollar."
She said she would talk to Mack about the proper price for the property but didn't call him right away because "he doesn't like to have these types of conversations on line."
She was able to meeting with Mack on Feb. 7, 2012 to discuss the property.
"I was under the impression that he knew because Charlie told me he talked to him about it," Melendez said.
During the meeting, Melendez said Mack was agreeable to the plan to name Seymour the developer.
"He didn't say no," she said.
Melendez said she wanted to approach Mack on May 29, 2012 to get approval to set the sale price because she did not trust the word of Hall that Mack knew about the plan.
"Because Charlie hall isnot my boss and number two ive already had different experiences with Charlie hall," Melendez said.
10:46 a.m.: Melendez said she cannot remember the details of one of the meetings between she and Blackburn from April 16, 2012. Haney is asking her to listen to the recording of the meeting, which is 17 minutes long.
10:38 a.m.: Melendez said she and former city attorney Lemuel Blackburn, who was posing as a local advocate for Seymour, were family friends. The two had two encounters in April 2012, where she and Blackburn discussed the project in unscheduled meetings.
"The only scheduled meeting I had with Mr. Blackburn was in my office with Charlie Hall," she said.
10:35 a.m.: Melendez said she was first approached by the FBI when they came knocking on her door at 7 a.m. one weekday morning.
"Did they arrest you?" Haney asked.
"No," she responded.
"Did they read you your rights?" he asked.
"No," she said.
Melendez said she was not expecting government agents to come to her door and was pretty scared while they were asking her questions.
10:30 a.m.: Haney asked Melendez if the December 2011 meeting with the Mack brothers and Giorgianni.
"It was a Christmas party, wasn't it?" Haney asked.
"If it was a Christmas party it didnt seem like it was," she said.
"It was bring your own bottle?" Haney asked.
"That isn't true," she said.
Melendez said she never discussed the project with Ralphiel Mack.
10:20 a.m.: Melendez said Mack didn't ask any questions about the letter when she brought it to him.
"No he was right to the point," she said.
Melendez said she and Mack had another meeting on June 8, 2012 at Mack's home.
Melendez said among other things the two discussed the parking garage.
Melendez said it was the first time she had been to Mack's home.
She said she hadn't recived any more information back from the developer and they agreed to put the property out to bid, alongside others to hasten the redevelopment.
The Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Skahill has finished his questioning of Melendez. Ralphiel Mack's attorney Robert Haney has begun his cross examination.
10:00 a.m.: Melendez said on May 29, 2012 she went to Mack's office to get his authorization for a letter setting the sale price at $100,000 for the city-owned property to Seymour Builders. Seymour Builders and principal Harry Seymour were actually working for the FBI.
On that day Melendez said she went into Mack's office and showed him the letter, which he then approved.
"He read the letter and he said OK," Melendez testified.
"He authorized me to send the letter," she said.
She said after that she walked with Mack into the conference room where the two posed for photos with Italian businessmen who were visiting City Hall.
She then went back to her office where Charles Hall, a city employee, was waiting for the letter, she said. She signed one copy and printed out another copy, signed it and put it in an envelope addressed to Seymour Builders, Melendez testified.