Mack's attorney blasted the jury decision that found his client guilty of corruption as the legal process to oust Mack from office showed no progress four days after his conviction.
By Jenna Pizzi and Alex Zdan
TRENTON — Calling the conviction of Mayor Tony Mack an unfair verdict, attorney Mark Davis yesterday blasted the jury decision that found his client guilty of corruption as the legal process to oust Mack from office showed no progress four days after his conviction.
Davis said both he and his client were disappointed in the verdict.
“I honestly cannot see how any reason-able jury can say that reasonable doubt was not raised,” Davis said.
“Obviously this is a blow to everyone, including him,” Davis said about Mack, who was found guilty of conspiring to accept bribes in exchange for furthering a parking garage project.
Davis said he talked to Mack over the weekend. He said no decision had been made whether to seek a new trial but there is still time to file a motion for a new trial this week.
“All is not lost,” he said.
“Tony’s good. He is in high spirits still.”
On Day Four of life in Trenton under the rule of a mayor convicted of corruption, there was no sign Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson had set a time limit for Mack to provide an answer to the Attorney General’s Office bid to have him removed from office.
Davis said he has not received any information about the move to remove Mack from office.
“I’m a criminal defense attorney so whatever is going on in the civil court now, I don’t know about that,” he said.
At City Hall yesterday, the mayor’s top adviser denied knowing anything about Mack’s plans or whereabouts.
Rushing out a side door at 3:30 p.m., mayoral aide Anthony Roberts said he had “no idea” where Mack was and didn’t know if the mayor intended to resign.
“I have no idea,” Roberts said.
Mack makes $126,000 per year. His biweekly, $4,800 paycheck will be coming along with those of all other city employees tomorrow.
DRIVER REASSIGNED
While Mack is being paid and retains executive authority, he no longer has a police officer driving and guarding him.
City police said yesterday that Mack’s police driver, Detective Gairy Robinson, is no longer assigned to Mack’s security detail.
“Detective Robinson has been assigned to the operations bureau, to the Southeast command,” Lt. Steve Varn said yesterday afternoon.
Robinson has been on Mack’s detail since the mayor took office in July 2010. Frequently behind the wheel of the mayor’s black Ford Expedition SUV, Robinson was assigned to the municipal court when Mack was not in town.
His new assignment will see him on patrol. Robinson is a highly regarded street cop within the department who was named Officer of the Year in 2005.
Last night, the mayor’s black SUV with a vanity license plate “1” remained in front of Mack’s Berkeley Avenue home.
Robinson could be seen dropping Mack off in that SUV at JoJo’s Steak House on April 17, 2012, on FBI pole camera video surveillance shown during the trial.
On that day, Mack received thousands of dollars in cash bribes from campaign supporter Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni in the back room of the steak shop, Giorgianni testified in a guilty plea.
During the trial, a police spokesman said Robinson never saw or reported any untoward activity by the mayor during the time he drove Mack.
Yesterday, a day after a malfunctioning heater along with frozen and burst pipes were found to have damaged Mack’s West State Street rental property, an official announcement said the building was to be sold at a sheriff’s sale next month.
BANK SEEKING JUDGMENT
TD Bank first foreclosed on 302 W. State St. in July 2012. As a result of that foreclosure, a nearly $107,000 lien was slapped on the property in October of that year.
The bank is now seeking judgment in the amount of $95,497.03 plus interests and costs in the sale set for March 5.
The building is owned by Mack’s Foremost Development and Construction company, and was listed as his primary address on bankruptcy forms filed last year.
The state Department of Community Affairs, which has a large role in Trenton’s governance since the city receives millions in extraordinary aid, struck an even tone in a statement yesterday on the power vacuum at City Hall.
“The Division of Local Government Services will continue to work with the Business Administrator to ensure Trenton continues to serve its citizens pending a resolution to the legal matters at hand,” spokeswoman Lisa Ryan said.
MUSCHAL WAITING IN the WINGS
Also yesterday, Division of Local Government Services Director Tom Neff called Council President George Muschal and asked to arrange a meeting, Muschal said. Muschal will take over as acting mayor when Mack is ousted by the court or resigns.
Any decisions Mack makes between his conviction Friday and Muschal taking over can be immediately reversed by the new acting mayor.
Muschal’s colleagues can convene within the next 30 days to elevate him or someone else to serve out the remainder of Mack’s term in office, which ends at noon on July 1.
Muschal, who said Mack once called himself “Teflon” and said he couldn’t be touched, was biding his time yesterday and said no official had given him a time frame when the forfeiture would be done.
“However long it takes, it takes,” Muschal said. “But I’m sure there’s gotta be a decision somewhere along the line.”
After feverish activity on Friday and over the weekend when it seemed like Muschal could be sworn in at any moment, the acting mayor-in-waiting was tending to his business, the Wishie Washie Laundromat on Lalor Street.
“I’m basically on standby, I’m on standby but I’m ready at any minute to perform,” Muschal said. “I’m going to come out of the chute with a level head and making decisions for the taxpayers.”
“When it happens, it happens: I’m ready to go,” Muschal said.
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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