Janiszewski Bribery Plea Casts a Wide Net

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Janiszewski Bribery Plea Casts a Wide Net

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Posted by 10-07-2002 on October 28, 2003 at 15:50:35:

Janiszewski Bribery Plea Casts a Wide Net

Jim Edwards
New Jersey Law Journal
10-07-2002

As he pleaded guilty in federal court last Thursday, former Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski named a county politician with ties to Sen. Robert Torricelli and Rep. Robert Menendez as being one of two people who bribed him for his help in steering county work to contractors.

The statement was among the signs that the U.S. attorney's probe into Hudson County is far from over. "There's certainly more to come," said assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Clark, deputy chief of the criminal division.

Janiszewski admitted taking more than $100,000 in bribes to recommend contractors to Hudson's freeholders and failing to report the bribe money on his 1999 tax returns. He pleaded guilty to one count of extortion under 18 U.S.C. 1951 and one count of tax evasion under 26 U.S.C. 7201.

Janiszewski told U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano that one of the people who ferried about $20,000 in bribes to him was Nidia Davila-Colon, a longtime county freeholder.

Colon is also Torricelli's director of community development and a former director of constituent services for Menendez. She is running for re-election on a ticket organized and endorsed by Menendez.

Colon, who did not return a call for comment, has been neither charged nor named as a suspect by prosecutors.

As part of his plea allocution, however, Janiszewski alleged that Colon's former boyfriend, Dr. Oscar Sandoval, gave Colon $5,000 to give to Janiszewski on a number of occasions. Sandoval's company, Hudson County Psychiatric Associates in Union City, provides services for the county jail and other institutions. Sandoval did not return a call seeking comment.

The last delivery, in November, was in Atlantic City, when Janiszewski was taped receiving money in his hotel room at a League of Municipalities convention. Three sources familiar with the investigation previously told the Law Journal that Sandoval was the person on that tape handing Janiszewski the bribe.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Clark declined to specify which cash deliveries he believes Colon was involved in.

Colon's name first surfaced last June when Gerald McCann -- a former Jersey City mayor who was convicted of corruption himself -- accused her of accepting improper gifts from Sandoval.

Colon was quoted by the Jersey Journal on June 12 as saying she was going to sue over the allegation. "I have never hid the fact that I am dating Dr. Sandoval. . . . Nothing I did was improper." The paper said she abstained from voting on his contracts.

Another indication that more is to come is that the Sandoval-Colon accusation accounted for only $20,000 of the $100,000 in bribes described by Clark and Janiszewski. Clark declines to talk about who paid the remaining $80,000. "Investigations like this tend to yield other cooperators," he says.

Colon is not one of those cooperators, says her attorney, Peter Willis of Willis & Young in Jersey City. "She absolutely denies having any knowledge of the allegations that she knowingly transferred monies from Sandoval to the county executive," he says.

The U.S. Attorney's Office has approached Colon seeking an interview. She refuses to talk to the office directly, but Willis met Friday with Clark to discuss Colon's position. "She has no information to give them that would be of any use," he says. Her relationship with Sandoval has ended, he adds.

Willis also says Colon remains employed by Torricelli and is not dropping out of the November freeholder race. "This is a situation that's fluid," he says.

Paul Byrne, an adviser to Janiszewski and a longtime Hudson County political powerbroker, may be a part of the investigation, according to two lawyers close to it. Asked whether he was a target of the probe, Byrne says "not to my knowledge" and declines further comment.

Also on the radar of the U.S. Attorney's Office, but performing more likely as a witness, is Geoffrey Perselay, a solo attorney in Mountainside, according to a lawyer familiar with the investigation. Perselay, who runs a consultancy to assist vendors seeking to win contracts with the county, is a former county administrator under Janiszewski and was once his campaign treasurer.

In January 2001, Perselay pushed for a $3 million contract for Aramark to provide food for Hudson County Jail. The contract eventually went to Aramark, the lowest bidder.

Darren Maloney, the county's former purchasing agent and now chief financial officer for West New York, is troubled that the "former county administrator was a consultant for a vendor that was doing business with the county."

Neither Perselay nor freeholders who voiced concerns about the contract at the time returned calls for comment.

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: Janiszewski Bribery Plea Casts a Wide Net

: Jim Edwards
: New Jersey Law Journal
: 10-07-2002

: As he pleaded guilty in federal court last Thursday, former Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski named a county politician with ties to Sen. Robert Torricelli and Rep. Robert Menendez as being one of two people who bribed him for his help in steering county work to contractors.

: The statement was among the signs that the U.S. attorney's probe into Hudson County is far from over. "There's certainly more to come," said assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Clark, deputy chief of the criminal division.

: Janiszewski admitted taking more than $100,000 in bribes to recommend contractors to Hudson's freeholders and failing to report the bribe money on his 1999 tax returns. He pleaded guilty to one count of extortion under 18 U.S.C. 1951 and one count of tax evasion under 26 U.S.C. 7201.

: Janiszewski told U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano that one of the people who ferried about $20,000 in bribes to him was Nidia Davila-Colon, a longtime county freeholder.

: Colon is also Torricelli's director of community development and a former director of constituent services for Menendez. She is running for re-election on a ticket organized and endorsed by Menendez.

: Colon, who did not return a call for comment, has been neither charged nor named as a suspect by prosecutors.

: As part of his plea allocution, however, Janiszewski alleged that Colon's former boyfriend, Dr. Oscar Sandoval, gave Colon $5,000 to give to Janiszewski on a number of occasions. Sandoval's company, Hudson County Psychiatric Associates in Union City, provides services for the county jail and other institutions. Sandoval did not return a call seeking comment.

: The last delivery, in November, was in Atlantic City, when Janiszewski was taped receiving money in his hotel room at a League of Municipalities convention. Three sources familiar with the investigation previously told the Law Journal that Sandoval was the person on that tape handing Janiszewski the bribe.

: Assistant U.S. Attorney Clark declined to specify which cash deliveries he believes Colon was involved in.

: Colon's name first surfaced last June when Gerald McCann -- a former Jersey City mayor who was convicted of corruption himself -- accused her of accepting improper gifts from Sandoval.

: Colon was quoted by the Jersey Journal on June 12 as saying she was going to sue over the allegation. "I have never hid the fact that I am dating Dr. Sandoval. . . . Nothing I did was improper." The paper said she abstained from voting on his contracts.

: Another indication that more is to come is that the Sandoval-Colon accusation accounted for only $20,000 of the $100,000 in bribes described by Clark and Janiszewski. Clark declines to talk about who paid the remaining $80,000. "Investigations like this tend to yield other cooperators," he says.

: Colon is not one of those cooperators, says her attorney, Peter Willis of Willis & Young in Jersey City. "She absolutely denies having any knowledge of the allegations that she knowingly transferred monies from Sandoval to the county executive," he says.

: The U.S. Attorney's Office has approached Colon seeking an interview. She refuses to talk to the office directly, but Willis met Friday with Clark to discuss Colon's position. "She has no information to give them that would be of any use," he says. Her relationship with Sandoval has ended, he adds.

: Willis also says Colon remains employed by Torricelli and is not dropping out of the November freeholder race. "This is a situation that's fluid," he says.

: Paul Byrne, an adviser to Janiszewski and a longtime Hudson County political powerbroker, may be a part of the investigation, according to two lawyers close to it. Asked whether he was a target of the probe, Byrne says "not to my knowledge" and declines further comment.

: Also on the radar of the U.S. Attorney's Office, but performing more likely as a witness, is Geoffrey Perselay, a solo attorney in Mountainside, according to a lawyer familiar with the investigation. Perselay, who runs a consultancy to assist vendors seeking to win contracts with the county, is a former county administrator under Janiszewski and was once his campaign treasurer.

: In January 2001, Perselay pushed for a $3 million contract for Aramark to provide food for Hudson County Jail. The contract eventually went to Aramark, the lowest bidder.

: Darren Maloney, the county's former purchasing agent and now chief financial officer for West New York, is troubled that the "former county administrator was a consultant for a vendor that was doing business with the county."

: Neither Perselay nor freeholders who voiced concerns about the contract at the time returned calls for comment.

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