Former aide to Newark Mayor Cory Booker is indicted on extortion, corruption charges

Former aide to Newark Mayor Cory Booker is indicted on extortion, corruption charges

By Star-Ledger Staff

February 18, 2010, 8:14PM

NEWARK — A former top aide to Mayor Cory Booker was indicted today on federal extortion and bribery charges for allegedly funneling contracts to a trucking company that he partially owned.

Ronald Salahuddin, who resigned last year as deputy mayor, was charged with steering contracts in 2006 and 2007 to a demolition firm. In return, authorities say Salahuddin demanded the firm hire his business partner in the trucking company, Sonnie Cooper, as a subcontractor. Cooper was also indicted.

“Salahuddin’s brazen efforts on Cooper’s behalf are at the core of what the federal corruption statues are designed to prevent,” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.

Salahuddin, 59, was among the first high-level appointments made by Booker, elected in 2006 as a self-proclaimed reformer who vowed to fight corruption. Fishman stressed today that there is no evidence that Booker was involved in wrongdoing.

In an interview, Booker defended his efforts, saying his administration had mounted probes leading to 19 convictions within city hall. “We don’t wait for other people to investigate corruption in our city. We are aggressively working against it every single day,” Booker said.

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Read the full indictment

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The 36-page indictment against Salahuddin and Cooper outlines a series of meetings in which they allegedly discussed commandeering contracts with an unnamed consultant and the owner of the demolition firm. The owner of the demolition company, however, was an undercover government informant who recorded the conversations, authorities said.

On one of the recordings, the consultant allegedly said, when referring to Newark officials with whom they would likely be dealing, “they’re all corrupt, except for (the Mayor),” according to the indictment.

A Montclair native, Salahuddin is an ex-investigator for the Essex County Sheriff’s Department and former director of the county’s juvenile detention center. As Newark deputy mayor for public safety, Salahuddin played a central role in Booker’s early efforts to fight crime. He cited undisclosed health reasons when he resigned in July 2009.

Cooper, 67, who runs a liquor store and deli on South Orange Avenue in Newark, founded his trucking company in the early 1970’s. Between May and August 2007, Salahuddin allegedly received $45,000 from Cooper, according to the indictment. In March of 2008 Salahuddin listed the trucking company on a state disclosure form requiring officials to list sources of income exceeding $2,000.

During an interview, Salahuddin insisted he had not broken the law. “I have never had a blemish in 35 years,” he said. One of his lawyers, Henry E. Klingeman, said his client would plead not guilty.

“He intends to defend himself,” said Klingeman, who is representing Salahuddin along with Thomas R. Ashley.

Attempts to reach Cooper’s lawyer, Alan L. Zegas, were unsuccessful.

Each extortion count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Salahuddin and Cooper are being allowed to voluntarily surrender. “If you hold a public office and you abuse your position and the public trust, you will be caught and you will face the strong possibility of prison,” said Kevin Cruise, acting head of the FBI’s Newark office.

Essex officials plan to cut 219 jobs from county government

US Airways flight 1549 crashes into Hudson River, all passengers rescued

US Airways flight 1549 crashes into Hudson River, all passengers rescued

Thursday January 15, 2009, 5:02 PM

A US Airways plane struck a flock of geese shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport and crashed in the Hudson River this afternoon, though all passengers were safely rescued, authorities said.

The 148 passengers and five crew members quickly scrambled onto the wings and inflatable rafts on the side of the partially submerged plane. Ferries from both the New York and New Jersey sides of the river rushed to their aid.

One of the passengers on the plane, Jeff Kolodajy 31, Norwalk, Conn., described hearing “a loud boom” and then, he said, “I saw fire.”

“The plane just dropped about 100 feet,” said Kolodajy, who was ferried to Pier 81 in New York. “It was real scary.”

But, Kolodajy said, “when the plane landed, the boats were there in about three or four minutes to pick us up, and the water started to fill up rapidly.”

The plane was submerged in the 41 degree waters up to the windows, and rescue crews had opened the door and were pulling passengers in yellow life vests from the plane. Several boats surrounded the plane, which appeared to be slowly sinking.

“I saw what appeared to be a tail fin of a plane sticking out of the water,” said Erica Schietinger, whose office windows at Chelsea Piers look out over the Hudson. “All the boats have sort of circled the area. … I can’t tell what’s what at this point.”

The flight was US Airways flight 1549, which took off at 3:26 p.m., headed for Charlotte, N.C.

The NY Waterways ferry terminal at Port Imperial in Weehawken is closed until further notice, company officials said. Commuters who take the New Jersey-bound ferry will have to find another way home.

Christian Martin, who witnessed the crash from a New York office building, said the response by emergency personnel was swift after the plane hit the water.

“It came down very smoothly. If it had been an airport runway it looked just like that,” Martin said. “It’s drifted down the river. Touched down about 56th street. It’s way further down now.”

Ferry boats raced to help from both sides of the river, Martin said.

“In about four minutes, there was a ferry there and you could see people on the wings,” Martin said. “I didn’t exactly see people exiting because the ferry boat was in the way. There seemed to be plenty of time for people to get off the wings. Within 10 minutes there were three or four ferryboats, from the New Jersey and the New York side.”

Kolodajy said the passengers around him on the plane seemed to be uninjured.

“Everyone’s fine. There was a lady with her baby and she was trying to crawl over the seats. And I said, women and children first. She got off,” said Kolodajy, who praised the effort by the pilot.

“I tell you what. It says a lot about people. He knew we were going down,” Kolodajy said. “The engine blew out about three minutes, we circled around to the Hudson. Pilot said, look, we’re going down. We looked at one another and said prayers.”

When James Mohr, 21, opened the door of his apartment at around 3:45 p.m. in the Bronx, he heard a loud boom.

“It boomed more than once,” Mohr said. “I saw fire spitting out of one of the engines. I want to say the right one, but I could be wrong.”

The A320 is a widely used, medium-range passenger jet used around the world. More than 1,900 A320s are in service with 155 airlines.

The twin-engine jet, equipped with a “fly-by-wire” control system when it entered service in 1988. It typically can seat 150 passengers in a two-class cabin layout, and has a range of 3,000 nautical miles.

During its 20-year history there have been eight fatal Airbus crashes , the worst accident in 2007 when all 186 passengers and crew and 12 people on the ground died when a Tam Airlines jet ran off the runway at Sao Paulo- Congonhas Airport in Brazil.

Last year, a United Airbus A320 flying out of Newark Liberty International Airport experienced multiple avionics and electrical failures, including loss of all communications, shortly after taking off. The flight returned safety for a landing with no injuries to the 107 passengers and crew aboard the airplane and no damage to the jet.

A US Airways spokesman in a news conference shortly after 5 p.m. said it would be “premature to speculate about the causes of this accident.”

If you witnessed the crash, call The Star-Ledger newsroom (800) 350-4169.

Family members may call (800) 679-8215 to check on their loved ones.

N.J. venues provide community gathering spots for Obama inaugural

N.J. venues provide community gathering spots for Obama inaugural

by Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger

Tuesday January 13, 2009, 6:05 AM

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center sees itself as Newark’s living room, so it makes sense that it has invited more than 2,700 members of the community to watch the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

Partnering with the city and Mayor Cory Booker, NJPAC will project the live broadcast of the swearing-in on a big screen on the stage of Prudential Hall for an audience of students, senior citizens, public officials and community leaders.

It’s a first for the arts center, which has hosted city political and civic events but not a presidential inauguration.

“Everyone thought this is an historic event, and we wanted to play what we feel is our rightful role,” said NJPAC spokesman Jeffrey Norman.

The Newark arts center’s event tops a list of public gatherings and celebrations marking Obama’s inauguration. Colleges, churches, schools and restaurants will welcome crowds, providing a warm place to witness history and then later to celebrate it.

Students at Montclair State and Kean universities will be able to watch the proceedings together Tuesday morning at mass broadcasts held in University Hall in Montclair, and at the Student Center in Union. At Weequahic High School in Newark, alumni are joining current students to watch the proceedings on a big screen.

The Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood also will open for the community, as will Manhattan’s Symphony Space.

“It seems like such an important event, such a wonderful occasion for us to open up to the community,” said Cynthia Elliot, executive director of Symphony Space, an arts center on New York’s Upper West Side. “We are considered home base to so many artists and audiences, where people can come to be with each other as a community.”

None of the arts centers has hosted a previous inauguration, although all have held civic events for the community. BergenPAC will kick off the festivities Monday night with an 8 p.m. performance by The Capitol Steps, a comedy troupe made up of former congressional staffers. Their specialty is musical satire with a decidedly political bent. BergenPAC will reopen Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. for the swearing-in ceremony and the Inaugural Parade.

NJPAC, on the other hand, distributed 2,740 tickets to city officials and community partners for the event. Doors open at 10:30. The arts center will project the live broadcast of the swearing-in and the subsequent speech, benediction and national anthem.

It is asking those who attend to donate canned goods for the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. Walk-ins will not be allowed.

The celebrations will continue at night. Elsie Foster-Dublin of Highland Park and some friends who worked on the Obama campaign have organized the Garden State Inauguration Celebration at the Holiday Inn at Raritan Center in Edison. The party starts at 7 p.m. and costs $50 for food, dancing and open bar.

“We realized how many people won’t have an opportunity to go to Washington, (D.C.),” Foster-Dublin said. “So we wanted to do something local.”

LaChaun Willis, a partner at 4 Aces Entertainment, a party planning company in Edison, is hosting a dinner party honoring Obama at Mirage Celebrations, also in Edison. Tickets are $75 and are available from 4 Aces.

Other parties are planned at the Mood Restaurant and Lounge in Union and at the Harvest Table Fresh Food Eatery in Newark. Carissa Borraggine, owner of the Harvest Table, decided to postpone her annual holiday party and celebrate Obama’s inauguration instead.

The Episcopal Church of St. Andrew & Holy Communion in South Orange will host the community for both the civic ceremonies and a celebration. In the Parish Hall, the 122-inch television will broadcast the morning swearing-in. Guests also will be encouraged to return at 7:30 p.m. for black-tie inaugural ball at the church.

“It is part of our congregation’s sense of radical hospitality,” said the Rev. Canon Sandye A. Wilson, rector of the church, at the corner of South Orange and Ridgewood avenues. There will be food, music and the television broadcast of the balls in Washington. Admission is a bottle of wine and donation of canned goods.

The church invited the community to watch the conclusion of the Democratic and Republican conventions and the vote tallies on election night. More than 100 people attended each of those events.

Wilson said the inaugural seemed a logical extension of that effort.

“It is what the president elect is all about, rebuilding community and the rebirth of hope,” Wilson said. “That’s what we want to be about.”

But the biggest venue may be Times Square, where major news events are often shown on the giant screens run by news networks. Lori Raimondo, vice president of marketing for the Times Square alliance, said it was likely that the inauguration of the new president would be shown — bigger than life.

“Any newsworthy event is usually on those network screens,” she said.

Newark police director, mayor tout city’s drop in crime

Newark police director, mayor tout city’s drop in crime

by Ralph R. Ortega and Carmen Juri/The Star-Ledger

Wednesday January 07, 2009, 3:24 PM

After two years in office, Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker and his civilian police director, Garry F. McCarthy, were due an assessment on the city’s top priority: public safety.

Today, they delivered their report card, showing the kinds of results Newarkers were promised by the mayor, when he took office two years ago.

Murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and thefts went down from 2006 to 2007, most in double digit percentages.

Shootings, among the most prolific violent crimes in the city, dropped 11 percent over the same time period. The number of shooting victims also declined by 13 percent from 2006 to 2007, the years detailed in the report. Crime statistics are also available on the department’s website.

Booker said the data was chiseling away at the Newark’s reputation for crime and violence.

“We are effectively, not through rhetoric, but through results, beginning to smash that reputation,” he told reporters at a news conference.

It was a celebration moment for Booker, alongside local, state and county law enforcement officials, who have helped battle crime in the city.

Among them was Essex County Prosecutor Paula T. Dow, who announced today that homicides dropped 24 percent countywide in 2008.

The county’s criminal conviction rate also jumped to 77 percent, she said. Dow specifically recognized law enforcement cooperation with Newark, and noted the city’s declining murder rate, which dropped to 67 homicides last year.

But city officials weren’t claiming victory.

“We are making progress, but don’t be fooled,” said Booker. “We know we have much, much work to do.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey emerged today to point out some of that work. Deborah Jacobs, the state’s ACLU executive director was critical of the city’s handling of civilian complaints and how it reports them.

Jacobs, who did not attend the news conference, was skeptical of the accuracy of figures, that showed complaints dropped to 485 in 2008, down from 578 the year before, and 612 in 2006. A review of Police Internal Affairs Division Summary Report Forms detailing complaints from 2000 to 2007 by Jacobs, detected mathematical errors and even missing data, she said.

Jacobs renewed her past criticism of Internal Affairs, saying that the process for filing civilian complaints was intimidating, and could discourage citizens from coming forward to report police abuses. She urged the city to improve the citizen complaint process, so that it becomes more user friendly, and to consider putting in place an outside monitor of local law enforcement.

“An external monitor would be the most important thing to improve policing,” she told the Star-Ledger.

Booker said he respected Jacobs and that her input provided opportunities for the city to do better. He said, in this case, she was showing her “genius,” for getting the maximum attention for her cause.

McCarthy declined respond to Jacobs, because she had not addressed her concerns directly to the police. “Deborah Jacobs should come to me,” he said after the news conference.

Still, Jacobs wasn’t alone in pointing out issues for the police to consider, especially when dealing with the public.

“A lot of things happen and people don’t report it,” said the Rev. Moacir Weirich, pastor of St. Stephans Grace Community Lutheran Church in the Ironbound section of Newark.

Weirich blamed cultural factors that keep immigrants, both legal and illegal, from reporting crimes. Some residents, he said, who speak only Portuguese or Spanish, also have a hard time communicating with precinct officers.

At the same time, Weirich mentioned monthly meetings between residents and police at the church that have helped, he said.

“I think there’s a great effort from the community trying to make sure their voices are heard,” he said. “And also an openness from police in terms of how to best serve the community.”

Newark swears in 58 police academy graduates

Newark swears in 58 police academy graduates

by Ralph R. Ortega/The Star-Ledger

Tuesday January 06, 2009, 5:34 PM

Newly-sworn Newark Police Officer Genaro Ortiz knew first hand from his father, a veteran detective on the force, what it takes to want the job.

“I grew up all those years watching him. I guess his inspiration rubbed off on me,” said the 23-year-old Ortiz, who graduated in the city’s 114th police recruit class today.

Friends and family cheered wildly inside the city council’s chambers as 58 cadets joined the force, at a time when the department is undergoing radical management and policy changes.

About 250 police recruits have gone through the city’s police academy under Mayor Cory Booker’s administration. The force now has 1,312 officers, according to the city.

Police Director Garry F. McCarthy said he expects to add another 50 to 60 officers this year to boost services, while the department seeks to slash about $3 million in spending from its $156 million budget.

McCarthy claimed the expected reduction was the result of management efficiencies put into place under his leadership. He will join Booker Wednesday to tout a 2008 Public Safety report, that will reflect benefits attributed to the efficiencies, including a drop in complaints against police to 485 in 2008, down from 578 the year before, and 612 in 2006.

The report also will reflect a drop in shootings to 297 in 2008, down from 393 the year before, and 502 in 2006, as well as the city’s declining murder rate. Newark ended 2008 with 67 murders, a drop from 99 the year before, and 107 in 2006.

“This city is turning a corner,” McCarthy told reporters after today’s ceremony, within hours of an early morning shooting on Parker Street.

The unidentified man fatally shot between 3 and 4 a.m., was the city’s third homicide for the new year.

McCarthy had stood with Booker during the graduation ceremony, while former police chief Anthony Campos was left sitting to the side. It was a clear indication of the department’s shift to civilian leadership under McCarthy, who signed on with the city during the first year of Booker’s administration two years ago.

Campos resigned from being the city’s top cop in October, but has remained under the civil service title of deputy police chief, after tensions with McCarthy. Campos began serving as an adviser to the mayor on public safety issues on Jan. 1.

The city council is expected to hold a second public hearing Wednesday, before voting on an ordinance to completely do away with the chief’s position, leaving McCarthy’s authority unchallenged.

The move comes after the city settled a lawsuit filed by the Superior Officers Association, which questioned McCarthy’s ability to oversee the force. Booker said he wants the position abolished, so the director can absorb the chief’s responsibilities of the day-to-day operations of the department.

The mayor said today that the position may end up abolished, but that the focus of his leadership team, which still includes Campos, was the same.

“Judge us not by our organizational chart,” he said.

Booker, who also spoke to reporters, said that, “everything was up for discussion,” when asked how an additional $812 million cut in state spending announced by Gov. Jon Corzine this week could impact city services.

However, Booker insisted that police services would remain untouched.

“We are not going to cut back on public safety,” he said.

Officer Genaro Ortiz had his family, including his 10-month-old baby boy, attending yesterday’s graduation ceremony. “I grew up in Newark. I want to make the city safe for me, and my son,” the officer said.

His father, also Genaro Ortiz, a detective with 20 years on the force, admitted it was hard allowing his only child to join the force. The elder Ortiz recalled his time in the department, being overworked, because of staff shortages. But he said he believed the addition of officers, recent training and upgrades to equipment were putting the department in the right direction.

He also said that like himself, his son lives in the city, and that he shared his calling, as a resident and family man, to serve as a police officer.

“We have a lot at stake,” the father said.

Newark leaders call a foul after suburban snubs

Newark leaders call a foul after

suburban snubs

by Jeffery C. Mays/The Star-Ledger

Tuesday October 28, 2008, 10:00 PM

Newark Mayor Cory Booker has spent much of the last year touting the city’s dramatic reduction in homicides and plugging the state’s largest city as a viable destination for businesses priced out of New York City.

But a 90-minute spasm of violence Friday has set the city’s reputation back to the days when comedian Jay Leno compared Newark with war-torn Kosovo.

After gunmen drove through the city, fatally shooting two people and injuring another, and two others were shot in separate incidents, two suburban high schools refused to play football in the city Monday.

On Tuesday, Parsippany High School became the third team to say it didn’t want to come to Newark for a game this week. Parsippany was scheduled to play Weequahic High School Thursday, almost a full week after the shootings and the arrest of two suspects.

Booker said the perception of Newark as unsafe simply does not jibe with the facts. He reeled off a number of statistics that place Newark as a leader in both crime reduction and population growth. New businesses are opening and law firms that left are returning. Schools that were formerly commuter colleges are now adding dormitories.

“You see joggers all over the place now, and you didn’t see that before. You see people walking dogs in Newark. You see the artist community opening up galleries,” the mayor said. “There are stubborn people with misperceptions of our city, but the realities are taking effect.”

Probably slower than the mayor would like.

Just last year, ESPN’s lead hockey analyst at the time, Barry Melrose, told fans headed to the newly opened Prudential Center not to venture outside the arena, “especially if you got a wallet or anything, because the area around the building is awful.” Melrose apologized and later toured the city, saying he was impressed by the “energetic” and “friendly” people.

Two weeks ago, the mayor’s office contacted the publicist of the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” after residents called to complain that one of the multiple-choice questions asked what is Hades and one of the possible choices was Newark, said director of communications Desiree Peterkin Bell.

Bell said the city is setting up a meeting with the show’s publicist and will request a formal apology. “Millionaire” publicist Trisha Miller confirmed the question appeared on the daytime show but declined further comment.

Upon the news that the Newark Bears minor league team may close, former Yankees catcher and team owner Rick Cerone cited the shooting incidents as one reason the stadium on Broad Street is failing, calling Newark the “Wild, Wild West.” Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo called Cerone’s remarks “out of line.”

Newark police director Garry McCarthy said residents tell him every day they feel safer, but that it could take years for that impression to spread to the suburbs. The fact that crime rates in the city are down is easily overshadowed by incidents like Friday’s shootings, he said.

“A crime reduction really isn’t sensational, especially when you juxtapose it with one car running around town and involved in four separate shootings,” he said.

Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek said that over the last year he’s seen perceptions change among fans coming to the Prudential Center for hockey games and other events. Vanderbeek said he’s starting to notice fans venturing farther into the Ironbound for parking and restaurants.

He added: “The Hannah Montana concert, which was attended by all children and their parents, sold out in seven minutes. The Celine Dion concert was mostly older people and it was sold out. I talked to people from Hunterdon County who had never come to Newark before.”

That’s why venues like the Prudential Center and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center are so important in helping to change perception of the city, said Al Koeppe, president and chief executive of the Newark Alliance, a nonprofit organization that has focused on public safety in the city.

“Perceptions change, but reality remains. We can’t blink away that we’ve had violence, but we also can’t ignore that the city has made extraordinary progress,” Koeppe said.

Booker, who has faced criticism about the way some stories he tells outside the city portray Newark, sought to decrease the notion that the shootings were random, saying the victims were “targeted for assassination.”

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said some young people get involved in drugs and violence and are going to commit shootings of the type that happened Friday. But those incidents are not confined to Newark, he noted.

“I just want to let the folks in Scotch Plains and Fanwood know it can happen there,” Fontoura said.

“This is a war. We need to band together and address these issues, not cast a pall over the thousands of Newark kids that work hard by saying, ‘You are not worthy and we don’t want to be with you,’” he said.

Staff writers Jonathan Schuppe and Kevin C. Dilworth contributed to this report.

Another Sample 5

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