The prosecution rested its case yesterday having presented six witnesses over a total of 13 days of testimony. The defense rested after one witness.
By Jenna Pizzi and Alex Zdan
TRENTON — Following testimony from FBI agents, former city officials and a friend of a defendant, both the prosecution and defense finished presenting their cases today in the federal corruption trial of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and his brother Ralphiel Mack.
As soon as jurors could take their seats this morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Moran told Judge Michael A. Shipp that the prosecution would rest its case having presented six witnesses over a total of 13 days of testimony.
Mayor Mack’s attorney Mark Davis called no witnesses, and Robert Haney, attorney for Ralphiel Mack, called just one, whose appearance on the stand lasted about 10 minutes.
That witness, Terry Birchenough, an apartment complex manager who called Ralphiel Mack his best friend, told the jury that Mack asked him for a loan in the summer of 2012. That was shortly before Ralphiel Mack received bribe money that was later seized from his home, the government has alleged.
Birchenough testified the two were riding ATVs in the woods near Parkside Avenue in Ewing in June when Mack asked for money.
“Were you able to give him a loan?” Haney asked.
“I was not,” Birchenough said.
“I did not have the money,” he said. “He did not specify the amount. He gave me a generalized amount but I did not have it.”
Birchenough said he believed the loan would have been to help Mack to pay his mortgage. The mayor’s brother works for the school district and is unemployed during the summer months.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Skahill asked Birch enough if he ever thought to tell police or the FBI about the conversation when Mack asked him for a loan.
“What would be the point of that?” Birchenough said.
Skahill asked Birchenough if Mack asked him to be in court today.
“You wouldn’t want to see him go to jail, correct?” Skahill asked.
“I wouldn’t want to see a friend go to jail,” Birchenough responded.
As quickly as Birchenough was asked to step down from the witness stand, both Haney and Mack’s attorney Mark Davis declared they had no further witnesses to call.
“We have provided all the testimony that there is to provide,” Shipp said to the jury. “Both sides have rested.”
Shipp excused the jurors until Monday, when both the government and the defense will present their closing arguments before jurors deliberate a verdict.
The Mack brothers are charged in connection with a scheme to build a parking garage on city land downtown. The government alleges that Tony Mack accepted bribes in exchange for his official influence to sell the property below the assessed value. The project was in reality an FBI sting operation with government cooperators passing marked cash — intended for Mack — to co-conspirator Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni.
Mack’s attorneys argued that the mayor was unaware Giorgianni was collecting bribe payments in his name and that any approval he gave was because the project was good for the city.
The government alleges that Ralphiel Mack acted as a go-between for Tony Mack, and picked up bribe money from Giorgianni, who has pleaded guilty in the case.
Haney has argued that Ralphiel Mack took cash from Giorgianni as a loan. When FBI agents searched Mack’s home on July 18, 2012, they found $2,500 in cash with serial numbers that matched the cash a government cooperator passed to Giorgianni.
Davis said today after court was adjourned that the defense feels “relatively confident.”
“Because the evidence was not there,” he said.
Tony Mack was visibly upbeat today, laughing and displayed a much higher level of energy than he has throughout the course of the trial, when he sat in his chair staring into space.
“I don’t think the government has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.
Davis said although he and Tony Mack discussed Mack taking the witness stand in his own defense, Mack made the decision not to do so. Davis admitted that it is highly unusual for a defendant in a corruption case to testify.
“It is always the client’s decision,” he said.
One witness who was highly anticipated in the case but never took the stand was Giorgianni, who admitted his role in the scheme last December.
“JoJo was prepared to take the oath just like everyone else,” Giorgianni’s attorney Jerome Ballarotto said after the defense rested today. “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
During his plea, Giorgianni said he handed $8,000 in cash bribe money to Mack in the back room of JoJo’s Steak House with Mary Manfredo looking on in the spring of 2012. Manfredo is Giorgianni’s longtime caretaker and runs the steak house.
“I believe the statements he made in his colloquy were absolutely the truth,” Ballarotto said. “I would not have stood by him and let him say things that were not truthful.”
Prosecutors utilized the testimony of Manfredo to tell the tale of the steak shop back room payment they alleged happened on April 17, 2012.
Haney spent most of this morning arguing for a mistrial because he would not call Giorgianni to the stand. Though Haney was well within his rights to subpoena Giorgianni, Haney said such a move would be unethical because he expected Giorgianni to lie.
Haney also asked for a motion for acquittal, saying the government had not proven its case. Joined in both motions by Davis, Haney argued the prosecution has had the benefit of Giorgianni’s testimony via the numerous wiretap conversations played in court.
“The jury has actually heard this testifying witness,” Haney said. “The defendant has not been allowed to use the same type of evidence on cross-examination. The jury has heard absolutely uncontradicted testimony.”
Moran argued that in order to hear what Giorgianni had to say, Haney could simply call Giorgianni to the stand.
For the mistrial motion, Haney argued the evidence against his client was merely circumstantial.
“Very briefly, the only evidence linking Ralphiel Mack in any way to the conspiracy in this matter is that money was found at his house,” Haney said.
If Ralphiel Mack picked up a bribe for his brother at the steak shop on July 16, 2012, then logically the cash should have been passed to the mayor when the two brothers met the following day, Haney argued.
“That money was still in the possession of Ralphiel Mack even after he had a meeting with Tony Mack,” he said.
With no evidence of bribe money in the mayor’s hands, the prosecution altered its case to make Ralphiel Mack seem like an intermediary to explain how the money could pass to the mayor undetected, Haney said.
“It is a series of coincidences, not even coincidences, incidents, read backward by the government in an effort to implicate Tony Mack because there’s no evidence of Tony Mack receiving bribe payments on June 19 (2012) or July 16 (2012),” Haney said.
Moran said both brothers were part of the conspiracy.
“This was a corrupt transaction and the Macks both had knowledge,” Moran said.
The law places more importance on whether the official influence was for sale rather than who pocketed the cash bribe money, Moran said.
“We need not prove that he gave it to Tony Mack,” he said. Code words such as “Uncle Remus” used by Giorgianni and others in reference to bribe money show the conspiracy, Moran said, and the meetings and phone calls made in furtherance of the garage project show official action, he said.
“All of them have criminal liability,” Moran said.
Shipp deferred his decisions on the two motions this morning. Davis said as court was wrapping up today that Shipp will decide the outcome of both the acquittal and mistrial bids from the bench tomorrow afternoon.
Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.
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