The Trenton Times published the following article on June 7, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
TRENTON — Mayor Tony Mack’s day in court is on hold until 2014.
Mack’s trial on federal corruption charges is scheduled to begin Jan. 6, 2014 — about five months before votes are cast in next year’s mayoral election. Attorneys for Mack and his co-defendants will have until early next year to prepare a defense against counts of extortion, wire fraud, and bribery, the mayor’s lawyer Mark Davis said yesterday after Judge Michael A. Shipp set the new trial date.
The trial had been expected to start this summer, but Davis said he pushed for a later date so that he and the other attorneys could sort through the wiretaps, documents and video making up a large part of the government’s evidence.
“It’s the best-case scenario for everybody,” Davis said on the steps of the federal courthouse in Trenton. “As much as we would like a speedy trial, we have to go through the discovery, which is voluminous.”
Both Mack and Davis have maintained the mayor will not step down before his trial, which Davis said yesterday is expected to take four to six weeks.
Mack has played coy about whether he intends to run for re-election, but said in April that if residents looked at his record he would be re-elected “overwhelmingly.” Mack formed a campaign committee for the 2014 election in early 2011. According to his last quarterly report filed in April 2012, the mayor had just under $23,000 cash on hand.
The municipal nonpartisan elections are scheduled for May 13, 2014 in the first round of the election. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff between the top two candidates will be held in mid-June.
The city clerk’s office said yesterday that candidates can begin to declare for the race on Jan. 1, 2014, but that no filing deadline had been set. During the last mayor’s race in 2010, candidates had to file by March 18.
Even if Mack is convicted of the charges against him and forced from office, there would be no special election to decide a successor. Though council would appoint an acting mayor to serve out the remaining days or weeks of Mack’s term, the mayor’s race would continue on the previously scheduled timetable.
Mack and his brother Ralphiel were indicted in January on six counts of extortion, bribery, and wire and mail fraud. Alleged co-conspirator Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni faces seven counts in the case. The government has accused the three men of working to extort money from developers in a downtown parking garage project. The developers were actually FBI informants.
Immediately after the indictments, Judge Shipp set a trial date for this past February. Days later, Shipp signed a continuance that delayed proceedings until at least June 17, 2013.
Currently, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is planning to try all three defendants together at next year’s trial. Though none of the attorneys has asked for severance to split their client off into a separate trial, severance remains an option.
“It’s not something we’re taking off the table, but we want to sift through the evidence,” Davis said.
He also said that Shipp and the attorneys discussed the budget for the attorneys to pay for the processing of the evidence. All the attorneys are now court-appointed and being paid out of federal funds.
The status conference yesterday was held in Shipp’s chambers out of public session, and none of the defendants were required to appear. Giorgianni attended briefly, entering and leaving in a wheelchair pushed by an attendant, while trying to use two canes to block his face from photographers.
Giorgianni faces an additional six counts in a separate drug dealing case, in which Mack and his brother are not charged. The court has delayed hearing that case until at least late September.
Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.