Former mayor Sharpe James may receive an indictment today for corruption charges during his term in office, reports the ??New York Times??: “In Newark, Anxiety Grows Over Inquiry on Ex-Mayor”:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/nyregion/12sharpe.html. This is the latest in an “ongoing investigation”:http://dailynewarker.com/2007/06/10/the-times-covers-sharpe-james-legal-woes/ involving misuse of political power to benefit financially.
In the month since Sharpe James, who ran Newark City Hall and much of Essex County’s municipal affairs for two decades, was notified by federal prosecutors that he could face criminal charges for corruption, the city’s political establishment has been bracing itself for an indictment, which many expect to come as early as today.
Mayor Cory A. Booker’s administration has been negotiating with the developers whose purchases of city land at below-market rates are a major facet of the investigation into whether Mr. James abused his office, and has been pressuring at least one developer to pay a price closer to market rates, in an attempt to recoup some of the city’s losses.
Mr. James, according to the state treasurer’s office, last week withdrew more than $500,000 from his $1.1 million retirement account at Essex County College, where he was the athletic director before becoming mayor in 1986. Many allies view the action as a sign that he is bracing for a long and costly legal fight.
Philip Thigpen, chairman of the Democratic Party in Essex County, said that Mr. James’s friends and opponents alike are anxious about what awaits the man who for years was the city’s most visible public figure.
“Nobody’s happy about it,” Mr. Thigpen said. “People are concerned because they know him and his family for years and don’t want to see anyone go through that kind of ordeal. And it’s not only him; it indicts an entire community. So we’ll just have to see if there are charges and how they play out.”
Christopher J. Christie, the United States attorney for New Jersey, declined to discuss the case, and his spokesman, Greg Reinert, would not say when, or if, charges might be filed. But the grand jury hearing evidence at United States District Court in Newark meets only on Thursdays, and several political officials in Essex County said on the condition they not be named that they had been warned to prepare for a possible indictment this week.
