the staff of the Ridgewood blog
River Vale NJ, Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi said today she plans to introduce legislation banning public officials convicted of corruption from holding jobs with state and local governments.
“I believe in second chances, but not when it comes to putting corrupt politicians in positions of public trust,” said Schepisi. “This is a case about public bribery.”
Reports yesterday uncovered that the Murphy administration hired a former Passaic City councilman who served time in prison for taking bribes from undercover FBI agents. Marcellus Jackson was hired to work in the Department of Education with an annual salary of $70,000 over the summer.
It seems Jackson was one of 11 public officials statewide arrested in the FBI’s September 2007 corruption bust, dubbed “Operation Broken Records,” on charges of taking bribes in exchange for influencing the awarding of public contracts.
Jackson pleaded guilty that December to attempted extortion, and admitted to pocketing $26,000 of payments ranging from $2,500 to $6,000 in exchange for steering city insurance contracts toward an FBI undercover business.
As part of the scheme, Jackson voted against two Passaic City Council resolutions relating to insurance brokerage contracts, which had the effect of favoring the undercover company. Jackson also admitted to accepting corrupt payments in exchange for arranging meetings with other public officials to obtain insurance business for the undercover company.
U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson sentenced Jackson in 2009 to 25 months in federal prison plus three years of supervised release and ordered he pay a $15,000 fine. According to the federal Bureau of Prisons’ website, Jackson was released from prison in July 2011.
This comes less than 10 days after New jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced the creation of a unit within the Office of the Attorney General to combat corruption and strengthen public confidence in government institutions. To lead the effort, Attorney General Grewal has recruited Thomas J. Eicher, a longtime federal prosecutor who has led complex corruption investigations and obtained convictions against numerous public officials, including multiple congressmen.