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EX Democrat Boss Ferriero’s corruption trial will go ahead; judge sees no conflict for U.S. attorney in case

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EX Democrat Boss Ferriero’s corruption trial will go ahead; judge sees no conflict for U.S. attorney in case

FEBRUARY 20, 2015, 2:43 PM    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2015, 11:04 PM
THE RECORD

A federal judge on Friday rejected claims that U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman has a conflict of interest that would deny former Bergen County Democratic leader Joseph Ferriero a fair trial on racketeering charges.

In a decision delivered just days before jury selection, U.S. District Judge Esther Salas refused Ferriero’s request that she either dismiss the racketeering indictment or remove Fishman and his office from the case.

The conflict of interest claim was based on the fact that Fishman, before he became U.S. attorney in 2009, represented James Dausch, a real estate executive who is expected to testify as a prosecution witness at Ferriero’s trial.

There is “no evidence beyond conjecture that Mr. Fishman received any information from Mr. Dausch during the course of representation that would prejudice Ferriero in this case,” Salas said in her ruling.

“In fact, there is no evidence that Ferriero was ever mentioned in the presence of Mr. Fishman during the course of representation, or that Mr. Fishman knew of any relationship between Ferriero and Mr. Dausch,” Salas said. “Ferriero has not been deprived of his due process right to a full and fair trial.”

Ferriero, 57, of Hackensack, was indicted in 2013 on charges that he ran the Bergen County Democratic Organization through a pattern of racketeering that included paying kickbacks to a public official, soliciting and accepting bribes as a party official, and extorting a developer. He is also charged with conspiring to promote bribery and to distribute bribe proceeds, and committing mail and wire fraud.

Ferriero’s lawyers had argued that Fishman had an “irreconcilable conflict” because he once represented EnCap Golf Holdings, a real estate developer that proposed to transform Meadowlands landfills into residential golf communities, and Dausch, a former EnCap executive. Prior to joining EnCap, Dausch was an executive of the Virginia-based Mills Corp., which was seeking to develop a proposed retail and entertainment complex on land owned by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/judge-refuses-dismissal-of-ferriero-s-racketeering-indictment-1.1275417

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