The Trenton Times published the following article on May 18, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton Mayor Tony Mack’s lawyer in federal corruption case paid for by the government, court documents show

By Alex Zdan/The Times 
on May 18, 2013 at 7:10 AM

TRENTON — Despite drawing a $126,000 annual salary, Mayor Tony Mack is heading to trial on six federal corruption charges with a lawyer paid for by the government, court documents show.

Mark Davis, the Hamilton attorney at Mack’s side from the day he was arrested last September, was accepted May 2 as a court-appointed lawyer for the duration of the case, according to court records.

The standard $125 hourly rate that public defenders receive will be paid to Davis, footed by federal funds.

Despite the mayor’s high salary, appointments for cases such as his are not uncommon and may be necessary, said Jerome Ballarotto, who represents one of Mack’s co-defendants and has been working as a court-appointed advocate for 20 years.

“It’s extremely expensive to mount a defense in cases like this, and the court takes that into consideration,” Ballarotto said yesterday.

Davis had no comment last night. The order appointing Davis, which Judge Michael A. Shipp signed, indicated Mack was “financially unable to employ counsel.”

Rather than being considered a public defender, Davis was appointed by Shipp “pro hac vice” — for the duration of the case. Like many other attorneys, Ballarotto is a privately practicing lawyer periodically appointed by the court to represent defendants under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA).

Almost no one can defend a case like this without help

Mack was arrested in September and indicted in December alongside his brother Ralphiel Mack and the mayor’s associate Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni, whom Ballarotto represents. Davis represented Mack through that time, but neither he nor his client divulged any payment arrangements.

Mack has had well-documented money troubles, from foreclosures on his house to hundreds of thousands in IRS liens. Friends have said they loaned him thousands of dollars but were never paid back.

The three defendants in the corruption case were accused in connection with allegedly soliciting bribes from developers to build a parking garage downtown.

The plot was in reality a sting, organized by the FBI and played out with cooperating witnesses. The FBI had been investigating Mack since weeks after the mayor took office in 2010.

“It’s a huge case, just a huge amount of discovery,” Ballarotto said.

All the wiretaps the FBI recorded — from when they tapped Mack’s cell phone for six months, bugged Giorgianni’s club house and put listening devices on witnesses — now must be made available to the defense attorneys. They have to pay up to tens of thousands of dollars to get the material, Ballarotto said.

“When the government comes at you with a huge case, they work you for 15 months — millions of documents, millions of lines of recorded conversation. Almost no one can defend a case like this without help,” Ballarotto said.

A workload like that can shut down a small law firm, allowing attorneys little opportunity to make money doing anything else. Ballarotto was appointed counsel for Giorgianni in December after joining his team just days after Giorgianni was arrested.

Though the $125 hourly rate “sounds like a lot of money,” it has to go toward running the firm, not just into the attorney’s pockets. When lawyers who make $450 to $500 choose to serve as appointed counsel, the pay can represent a marked decrease from what they normally receive.

“No one gets rich taking CJA cases,” Ballarotto said. “It’s not a money-making situation. It’s a modest compensation.”

Mack’s brother Ralphiel, who has been suspended without pay from his job as a counselor in the city’s schools, has retained court-appointed counsel since his lawyer John Hartmann backed out in December, citing the high cost of mounting a defense in the case.

A continuance in the case runs out June 17, after which the government will have less than 70 days to go to trial.

A separate case, in which Mack has not been charged, alleges Giorgianni ran a narcotics ring out of JoJo’s Steak House in North Trenton. That case has a continuance in place until late September.

Both cases have voluminous amounts of wiretaps, the government has said.
“I am the only attorney representing Mr. Giorgianni, so you can be sure I’m listening,” Ballarotto said.

Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.