Former Newark, NJ Mayor Sentenced to 27 Months
As highlighted in this NY Times article, Former Newark, NJ mayor Sharpe James was sentenced today to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine for his April conviction on corruption charges. James was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy stemming from his failure to disclose his relationship with co-defendant, and former girlfriend, Tamika Riley, who obtained city council and mayoral approval on multiple purchase contracts for land in Newark. Over a four-year period Riley purchased nine city-owned tracts of land for $46,000 and resold them within short time periods for $665,000. Riley, who was earlier convicted on charges of fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion and lying about her income, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay $27,000 in restitution.
According to these reports, James faced a possible sentence of 12 to 15 years under the guidelines, but prosecutors sought up to a 20-year sentence. At the hearing today, defense attorneys asked the Judge to limit the sentence to probation. While District Judge William Martini refused the defense position, noting that it was a “sad day for the citizens of Newark who are disappointed in the conduct of the mayor,” he was particularly critical of the prosecutors, calling their position “shocking” and “lacking any basis in fact.” Judge Martini noted that the city of Newark did not lose anything of monetary value, but had lost James’ “honest services.” In response to the prosecutor’s argument that James’ administration had often operated in a corrupt manner, Judge Martini indicated, “Don’t talk about a history of corruption unless you can prove it. I don’t want to hear these allegations of a corrupt administration, he’s all-powerful, didn’t do any good. I’m supposed to throw out the history of a man’s life for misconduct he committed at age 69?”
Based on the article, it is not clear whether Judge Martini exercised some form of discretion to go so far below the guidelines, or whether he simply found that the factual predicates for such a sentence had not been met. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, unsurprisingly, immediately announced its intention to appeal to the Third Circuit.
UPDATE: These publicly-available documents, which include the government’s sentencing memorandum as well as select responses from the defense, provide insight into the arguments advanced on the sentencing issues by both sides:
Download sharpe_james_sentencing_memorandum.pdf
Download defense_letter_of_july_22.pdf
Download defense_letter_of_july_24.pdf