Wolfe led off for the defense. He was a big, muscular man who'd been an ironworker before entering politics. He gave the appearance of being an easygoing, likable clod. He answered counsel's questions with a breezy informality that kept the courtroom chuckling.

Here's how he described the Schuster payoff: Schuster came into his office with Manning and said, "Here, I want to make a contribution to the Democratic party."

"Are you sure this is all right for me to take, this thing?" Wolfe asked.

"Yes, it is. It is perfectly all right. I appreciate what you did for me."

Schuster gave him an envelope. "I didn't open it," Wolfe said.

Noonan suggested that Wolfe get off the stand, step to the easel and draw the layout of his office.

"I can't draw, Jack. Just let me explain. OK?"

Wolfe said he took the envelope into Stapleton's office. "I said that Manning just brought some guy into the room and he handed me an envelope.

"He says, `What is in it?'

"I said, `I don't know.'

"I said, `Manning went like that."' Wolfe held up his hands with ten fingers extended. " `I assume it's ten tickets [to the organization's annual $100-a-plate dinner].'

"So Joe said, `You have a safe over there in that office?'

"I said, `Yes, I do, but I don't know [how] to get in it. I'll find out.'

"So I went back and asked Marie [his secretary]. I said, `Do you know how to open the safe?'

"She opened it. She knew the combination.... I took the envelope, and I just threw it down with the Christmas decorations."

Months later, Wolfe continued, he opened the safe and found that the envelope contained $10,000.

"I brought it over to Mr. Stapleton, and I said, `Joe, there is something wrong. He went `ten' " - Wolfe demonstrated again - "`I assumed it was ten tickets.' "I said, `Let's send him ten tables to the dinner.'

"Joe said, `No one ever took ten tables to the dinner. Besides, we couldn't give him ten if we wanted to.' Because he was making the chart up.... He said, `Send him a table of tickets and send him the nine grand back,' which we attempted to do."

He said he asked Kropke to drive him to Schuster's office and, when Schuster wasn't in, sent him a check by mail.

He similarly described Galano's $20,000 payoff as a "campaign contribution," and as for the men's-room transaction with Merrigan:
"Mr. Stapleton gave me an envelope outside the Freeholders' office. He said somebody handed it to him with a note on it-no, he asked me if I knew John Merrigan, and I said yes. He said somebody in the hallway gave him an envelope-'Would you deliver it to him?' And I thought he said the Brunswick Inn, Jack, I swear I do."

"... When you accepted moneys from Philip Schuster and Dominick Galano, Mr. Wolfe, did you believe that you were committing a crime?" Noonan asked.

"No, I did not."

"Did you believe you were doing wrong?"

"No, I didn't believe I was doing wrong. I was trying to do a job for this dinner of ours...."

Stern started cross-examination by asking Wolfe about his war wound.

"I'm not crazy," Wolfe shot back. "I'm not trying to say I am, pal. Remember it!"

Stern continued, "You know it's wrong for a public official to take money, don't you, Mr. Wolfe?"

"No, I don't, not where you are the county chairman."

"Do you know whether or not it is wrong to bring people into back rooms and give them envelopes with money in them?"

"I didn't know what was in the envelope."

Noonan also presented several psychiatrists and psychologists who testified to Wolfe's "diminished responsibility." During cross-examination of one doctor, who insisted that Wolfe suffered from "chronic brain syndrome," something Stern said touched a sensitive nerve. Wolfe suddenly jumped up and lunged for the prosecutor. He had to be restrained by counsel.

The next defendant to take the stand was Police Chief Kropke. A hard-jawed man with a bulbous red nose, his name naturally evoked parodies of West Side Story's "Gee, Officer Krupke." The 60-year-old cop admitted making several deliveries as favors-of an attache case filled with cash from John V. Kenny to his banker for a bond purchase, of the "dinner tickets" from Wolfe to Schuster. But he denied any evil intent. He finished his direct examination in tears, exclaiming, "I never took a dollar from anyone."

Then Stern took over for cross-examination. In 1967, when Kropke reported income of $12,875, his wife bought a parcel of land for $13,000-cash-and $1137 in stocks - also for cash. Where had the cash come from?

From the household money, Kropke insisted.

Stern continued with the list of purchases - $400, $1168, $627, $461, $296, $6000, all for stocks, all in cash; $1500 for a new car; $13,000 on another land deal. He also showed that Kropke's wife owned a $6800 diamond ring and a $4800 mink coat. She also bought $5000 worth of stock for cash.

Where had the money come from?

From a dresser drawer.

Even though he had three savings accounts and two checking accounts?

"Perhaps I am eccentric."

Where did the money come from?

"My wife saved it."

"Out of the household money?"

"Could be."

Few who heard him believed it "could be."

Kropke's testimony was interrupted for a character witness whose priority could not be denied - former Governor Robert Meyner. He appeared on behalf of Sternkopf, whom he had named to the Turnpike Authority years before. He answered his direct examination with the usual platitudes of character witnesses.

Still, it was impressive. Meyner had been a figure of rare integrity in New Jersey politics - so much so that his comeback had been opposed by the Kenny machine two years before. He had a rugged, chiseled face and a Lincolnesque appearance; he was married to a distant cousin of Adlai Stevenson and had once been touted as a presidential possibility.

On cross-examination Stern elicited Meyner's admission that Sternkopf had been recommended by Kenny, but "when I made any appointments, they were my appointments." Stern asked Meyner about the Larner Report, prepared by Judge Sidney Larner after a 1955 investigation of Hudson County, which found Sternkopf guilty of "dereliction of the performance of his duties" as county auditor. Had Meyner been aware of it when he appointed Sternkopf? The former governor said he was not familiar with the particular passages cited and that they had not affected his decision.

After Stern presented a rebuttal psychiatrist who said, "I found nothing at this time that made me feel that [Wolfe] should be considered anything except normal," Stapleton took the stand.

While the trial was in progress, the 75-year-old county treasurer had been hit with an 84-count state indictment, on charges of approving $392,000 in improper disability pensions for more than a hundred county employees.

Stapleton made a complete denial to almost all the charges.

"Did you ever receive money from any contractor that did business with the county of Hudson?"

"No, sir."

"Mr. Stapleton, did you ever conspire with anyone to violate any law?"

"No, sir."

"Did you ever receive any kickback money from anyone?"

"No, sir."

The only thing he admitted was passing the envelope containing the $18,000 rebate to Merrigan. He said he received it from an unknown man in the corridor of the County Administration Building and gave it to Wolfe.

A few more character witnesses took the stand-including Austin Tobin, executive director of the Port Authority, appearing for Sternkopf. Then Sternkopf himself was sworn. The 70-year-old commissioner admitted buying the bonds for John V. Kenny but denied there was anything illicit or conspiratorial in the transactions. He denied receiving any kickbacks.

Stern was thwarted from asking his key questions on cross-examination. With the jury absent, he informed Judge Shaw of his proposed line of inquiry. Sternkopf and D. Louis Tonti, then executive director of the Garden State Parkway, Stern said, had reaped a $210,000 profit on a shady land deal. They had bought the land from ITT in 1964 for $90,000 and sold it to the parkway over the next four years for $300,000. Tonti's role in the transaction was hidden, and his profits were secretly funneled to Italy for deposit in a Swiss bank account. It was a classic case of what George Washington Plunkett once defined as "honest graft"-not so honest under today's conflict-of-interest statutes. But Judge Shaw ruled that the transaction was outside the scope of the trial.

After a few more character and peripheral witnesses, the defense petered to a close on the last day of June.

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