In closing arguments yesterday in the extortion trial of Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo, attorneys battled it out, finishing the day by leaving the case in the hands of the jury, who will begin their deliberations today.
HAMILTON — Corrupt politician or innocent man?
In closing arguments yesterday in the extortion trial of Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo, attorneys battled it out, finishing the day by leaving the case in the hands of the jury, who will begin their deliberations today.
Bencivengo is accused of selling his office and his unseen influence with the Hamilton school board in exchange for $12,400 in bribes that he allegedly needed to pay his taxes and other bills.
“This was government by bribe,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey Bartle said yesterday in the prosecution’s final argument. “That is not government. That is bought-and-paid-for government.”
On the other side of the case was Bencivengo’s attorney Jerome Ballarotto, who in fiery arguments asserted that the government’s chief witness in the case, Marliese Ljuba, was nothing more than a liar. Ljuba was an insurance broker who claimed to have bribed Bencivengo to lean on school board members and thereby help her retain a lucrative insurance contract worth $1 million in commission to her and her company.
“She lied to you,” Ballarotto said to the jury. “Marliese is a liar, she’s a thief, she’s a manipulator, she’s a con artist.”
The alleged bribes are said to have exchanged hands in 2011 when Ljuba was representing Allen Associates of Vineland. Bencivengo, 58, is facing five counts of wrongdoing, including bribery and money laundering.
Yesterday, Bartle portrayed Bencivengo as a corrupt politician who was selling his public office with no regard for the people of Hamilton who gave him the job. Although Bencivengo could have gotten the money he needed from a bank, he chose to get it from Ljuba because he knew he wouldn’t have to pay it back, Bartle said.
He said Ljuba got the mayor to promise that he would solve the “Pratico problem,” in reference to two school board members, Stephanie Pratico and Patricia DelGuidice, who threatened to upend the comfortable insurance arrangement by putting the contract out to bid.
Refreshing the jury’s memory, Bartle pointed to several undercover recordings of conversations between Ljuba and Bencivengo that the insurance broker agreed to make for the FBI when she found out they knew about her bribery scam.
Bartle said the recordings show “corruption in real time.”
Ballarotto painted his client as an innocent man who was in the midst of financial difficulties and turned to a friend, Ljuba, for help. Ballarotto said that he and his client have never denied that Bencivengo took money from Ljuba. However, that money was a loan, he reiterated.
Ballarotto said Bencivengo was good friends with Ljuba and would have helped her any way he could, and that the mere fact that she gave him money does not constitute a bribe. His offer of help with the school board issue did not hinge on receiving money at all, and was not an abuse of office either, Ballarotto argued.
“John did things for Marliese Ljuba,” Ballarotto said. “He helped her when he could. None of that makes it a crime.”
Ballarotto also sought to weaken any confidence the jury may have had in Ljuba and her testimony against Bencivengo.
Ballarotto argued that Ljuba has much to lose and could be facing 20 years in jail if she is prosecuted for these crimes, so he said, she is trying to sell the story that Bencivengo sold his powers of office in exchange for a bribe.
“It is nothing but suspicion or conjecture,” Ballarotto said, asking the jury to return a verdict of not guilty.
Bartle countered that Bencivengo knew what he was doing was wrong because he tried to cover it up.
The first bribe, a $5,000 payment, was issued not directly to Bencivengo, but to an unsuspecting third party — the wife of one of Bencivengo’s friends, Robert Warney, who has pleaded guilty to money laundering in the case.
Ljuba testified that she and Bencivengo were afraid that the check would be traced back to them so they went to lengths to cover it up.
The final two payments, totaling $7,400 were made in two cash installments. The first Ljuba brought to Bencivengo’s home, but the second was made while the two were spending a weekend at a casino in Atlantic City. In recordings before the trip to Atlantic City, Bencivengo and Ljuba discussed how they could make the cash payments look like he won the cash at the casino.
“It is not just that the mayor took it,” Bartle said. “It is how he took it — secretly in cash, undocumented, so that the taxpayers would have no idea that the mayor of Hamilton was taking money from the insurance broker.”
After approximately six hours of closing arguments yesterday, the jury elected a foreperson and went home for the night without beginning deliberations. They are expected to begin deliberating a verdict this morning.
Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609)989-5717.