Credit: Denis Larkin

Since April 2013, roughly 56 public officials have been convicted of crimes related to their office and were forced out of holding public office by the New Jersey Forfeiture of Public Office statute.

The nearly five-dozen officials on a list provided by the state Attorney General's Office who pleaded guilty to or were convicted at trial of a gamut of crimes over that period of years offers a glimpse of a far more extensive list of officials convicted of cheating the public, directly or indirectly, out of its tax dollars, according to the AG's office.

Their crimes included:

• Bilking public schools and taking millions of dollars in bribes (Superintendent of Toms River Regional School District Michael J. Ritacco on April 5, 2012).
• Cheating the New Jersey Turnpike Authority out of $1.5 million through inflated insurance claims (NJTA claims manager Gerardo Blasi on Dec. 11, 2013).
• Producing fraudulent state birth certificates to sell (Newark city employee Cory Cooke on Nov. 21, 2014).
• Purchasing gift cards with city credit cards for personal expenses (ex-Brick Housing Authority Director Alesia Watson on May 8, 2017).
• Assaulting a hospital patient and repeatedly distributing narcotics. (Paterson Police Officer Ruben McAusland was sentenced to 66 months in prison in March 2019 and a forfeiture order was filed July 1, 2019, to remove him from the police force).

Now the most recent New Jersey politician threatened with the Forfeiture Act is former Atlantic City Mayor Frank M. Gilliam Jr., who resigned Oct. 3 for using $87,000 in donated funds not for a youth basketball program as intended but on himself for trips and expensive clothing.

Within hours of pleading guilty in federal court to one count of wire fraud, Gilliam, a Democrat, was served with a forfeiture order from the state Attorney General's Office.

Attorneys and their respective firms who have represented clients facing forfeiture applications say the statute has been an effective legal tool in weeding out corrupt public servants by giving them a deadline to leave office.

Peter Verniero

"New Jersey's forfeiture of office statute has been applied on numerous occasions to underscore the public's intolerance for public corruption," said Peter Verniero, a former state Supreme Court justice and state attorney general, and currently a partner at Sills Cummis & Gross in Newark. "The forfeiture process is undertaken under judicial supervision and is relatively straightforward.

"From that perspective, it can serve as an additional deterrence to unlawful conduct," Verniero added.

John Azzarello of Whipple Azzarello in Morristown, president of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey, said, "I know the Attorney General's Office over the years has become increasingly aggressive with reminding anybody who has entered a guilty plea, or was convicted at trial, that they are not waiting until you are sentenced."

He said the office "uses the specter of the tool hanging over you to convince you to step down

John A. Azzarello of Whipple Azzarello

immediately after pleading guilty."

The Forfeiture Act requires an official to forfeit office "if convicted under the laws of this state of an offense involving dishonesty or of a crime of the third degree or above or under the laws of another state or of the United States of an offense or a crime which, if committed in this state, would be such an offense or crime; (2) He is convicted of an offense involving or touching such office, position or employment." The term "involving or touching such office, position or employment" means the offense was related directly to his or her performance in, or circumstances flowing from, the specific public office, position or employment he or she held.

The idea behind the statute is, if someone who is a public official is convicted of a crime, then that person should not continue to keep or have the honor of serving the public, nor should her or she be entitled to the benefits, salary and pension from pubic moneys that the office affords.

The law requires that action be taken by the state Attorney General's Office or a county prosecutor's office to secure a forfeiture order in state court against a defendant convicted in federal court or state court.

"The law is quite clear involving the use of your office," Azzarello said. "I can't think of a case in recent memory where some elected official has contested it. After entering a guilty plea it applies, and you can resign from office as opposed to litigating it."

Azzarello, though, has litigated it. He was one of two lawyers defending former Paterson Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres, who resigned his office after pleading guilty to corruption charges Sept. 22, 2017, a Friday. The state AG's office had filmed three city employees doing work on Torres' home and a family beer distribution business during work hours. Torres was convicted of one charge of conspiracy to commit official misconduct and sentenced Nov. 14, 2017, to a maximum of five years in prison with no chance of parole. He also had to repay the city $10,000 as restitution for overtime the city workers received while personally working for him.

Azzarello said he argued with the Attorney General's Office to give Torres at least 48 to 72 hours to vacate his office, but the office wanted him out the same day he pleaded guilty.

The AG's office made an application to the presiding criminal Judge in Hudson County who took the guilty plea to enter an order removing Torres from office effective immediately, pursuant to the forfeiture statute. The judge reserved her decision on the application for removal from office until that Monday, Sept. 25, at which time Torres resigned after transitioning out, and the state's forfeiture application became moot, according to Azzarello.

"The presumption is he can't be trusted," Azzarello said, quoting the position of the then-state deputy attorney general who was arguing to the criminal judge that Torres should be removed immediately because he couldn't be trusted for 48 to 72 hours to transition government. Torres served slightly more than a year of the five-year sentence for good behavior and credits earned and was released in December 2018.

"Once he pleads, forfeiture kicks in," Azzarello said.

Gilliam pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on Oct. 3 and could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. He resigned as mayor that same day and awaits sentencing Jan. 7.

The AG's office said that, despite Gilliam's resignation, it continues to seek the forfeiture order against him that would extend to all public positions, including any boards or chairmanships that the former mayor sits on.

"We are routinely successful in these actions," said Peter Aseltine, an office spokesman. "The public is entitled to a forfeiture order recording that he forfeited his office as a result of a criminal conviction."

Rajiv Parikh, a partner with Genova Burns. Courtesy photo.

Rajiv Parikh, a partner in the political law practice at Genova Burns in Newark, said the forfeiture statute is broadly written but still protects the due process of those accused of committing crimes, because the forfeiture does not occur until after conviction. He added that it covers an array of issues.

"It's not just with forfeiting the office, but [it] bars them from future employment with the state of New Jersey and other public entities, and also from doing business as a contractor with the state in many circumstances," Parikh said. "It is a pretty serious statute and really deals with some pretty serious things."

For instance, the act states that no court shall grant a stay of an order of forfeiture pending appeal of a conviction or forfeiture order unless the court is clearly convinced that there is a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of the appeal.

A person convicted of an offense "shall be forever disqualified from holding any office or position of honor, trust or profit in New Jersey or any of its administrative or political subdivisions," according to the statute.

In cases where a sentencing court has declined to order forfeiture, any government entity can still remove the person convicted of an offense from office or suspend them from office, since the conviction demonstrates that person is not fit for office.

The official would also be barred from conducting "any business with any board, agency, authority, department, commission, public corporation, or other body of this State, of this or one or more other states, for a period, not more than 10 years from the date of conviction for a crime of the second degree, or five years from the date of conviction for a crime of the third degree."

The day after Gilliam's conviction, on Oct. 4, Atlantic City Council President Marty Small Sr. became interim mayor, and on Oct. 16, Small was selected by the governing body to serve Gilliam's unexpired four-year term.

"It takes away any desire or ability for the elected official to take the position, 'I will just finish my term,'" Azzarello said of the statute. "The teeth of the statute is, 'you are going now and I don't care how much time you have left in your term.'"

Read More: A Sample of NJ Public Servants Whose Forfeiture Orders Were Signed in 2019