In the meantime Jersey City is governed by the Hon. Jerramiah Healy, Public Official 1 or 4 (so identified in indictments and criminal complaints), that fervent admirer of the presumption of innocence (for his appointed and indicted deputy mayor and former treasurer of his election campaign, in any event). Mr. Healy of course had utterly no idea that the fake bribes his deputy mayor took from the remarkable Mr. Solomon Dwek for the mayor's election campaign committee were illegal (even though Mr. Mayor was present on two occasions when Mr. Dwek offered the money to the deputy mayor in exchange for some help with a fake real estate development).
Oh yes, the indicted president of the Jersey City council also remains in office -- and votes on real estate tax abatement proposals for major developers and on other such unimportant matters. That's heartening too -- for it shows that he too believes in the presumption of innocence.
Well, let's see. I wonder how many unindicted Jersey City council members are left. One, two, ....
Mr. Putin should come to New Jersey and see how the rule of law works. He would find much to emulate here.
It's here (more or less): the law of evidence on Spindle Law. See also this post.
Browser-based evidence marshaling: MarshalPlan in your browser
8 comments:
Hater.
Stop being so Anti Hispanic!
Anti Hispanic??!!! howcome my great Hispanic friends with lot of integrity agree that 'Nidia is a shame to their community' !!!??!!!
Dear Anonymous (the one who called me a "hater" and "Anti Hispanic"),
Thank you for your thoughtful message.
Your message got me to thinking: Have I directed my barbs only, mostly, or too often against Hispanic politicians?
I decided to (self-)investigate.
On scouring my blog I found that the (perceived) shenanigans of the following politicians have aroused my ire: Jerramiah Healy (Irish-American), Leona Beldini (Italian-American, I would guess), George W. Bush (WASP), Mayor Bloomberg (Jewish)(for buying his election - twice), Prime Minister Putin (Russian), Stalin (Georgian) (for .. well ... you know ... mass murder & the like), Senator Schumer (Jewish)(for being too enamored of TV), Al Gore (WASP?)(for being, well, too all-knowing), and Barack Obama (African-WASP[mother]-American)(for mistakes & changes of mind falling far short of high crimes & misdemeanors).
The only Hispanic politician other than Ms. Lopez that I remember criticizing is Jersey City Councilman Vega (who was criminally charged with accepting or extorting bribes from the irrepressible Mr. Solomon Dwek (Jewish)).
I confess I have yet to criticize a Latvian-American politician. I worry about this (because I am Latvian-American). But I don't know any Latvian-American politicians. (There is Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, the former President of Latvia. But, wait, she is [or was] Latvian-Canadian, not Latvian-American.)
The best that can be said about Ms. Lopez is that she did her very best to avoid paying taxes. Indeed, Councilwoman Lopez has agreed to pay Florida back taxes because of the Florida homestead exemption she claimed and that she now INSISTS she mistakenly claimed.
"On her federal income tax return Ms. Lopez had declared that Florida was her residence."
Can Ms L be prosecuted for making a false statement on her fed tax return?
Or, more interestingly, will she be?
Felix, I am not a tax specialist, but I am pretty sure that knowingly making a false statement on a federal tax return about a material matter remains a crime. Of course, despite what the New Jersey judge recently said, Ms. Lopez may have been telling the truth -- I think she was probably telling the truth -- when she declared she was a _Florida_ resident. But if that's the case, Lopez may have committed perjury when she ran for the city council.
So one question is: Was she lying then or was she lying later?
Another question (probably a factual question for a possible jury in a criminal trial): Does Lopez's evidence support a reasonable doubt that she did not know either (i) that she was not a resident of Florida or, alternatively, (ii) that she was not a resident of Jersey City.
If I were a New Jersey state prosecutor, I would bet and try to prove that Lopez knew that she was not a resident of Jersey City when she filed her papers to run for the Jersey City Council. But can you find a New Jersey state prosecutor with jurisdiction who has the guts to prosecute Ms. Lopez? Consider that it took a federal prosecutor to uncover and charge, in 2009, various New Jersey and Jersey government officials with crimes that involved the redoubtable Mr. Dwek.
Perhaps governor-elect Christie will appoint an attorney general with a bit more courage, imagination, and determination than the present occupant of that state office seems to have. But can a crusading attorney general win confirmation by the New Jersey legislature? (I'm rusty on the law here, I assume that Christie's nominee for attorney general will have to be confirmed by the New Jersey Senate. But my assumption could be incorrect.)
Chrstie's nominee for attorney general is Paula Dow. See http://www.njn.net/newspublicaffairs/coverage/transition2010/christiepressconferencedec.html
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