Home
Trial of ex-State Sen. Wayne Bryant set to start
By Troy Graham
Inquirer Staff Writer
Sep 07, 2008
With more than 100 public officials convicted for corruption in the last seven years, New Jersey residents have gotten used to politicians passing through the criminal dockets. But the trial of former State Sen. Wayne R. Bryant, scheduled to begin tomorrow with jury selection in federal court in Trenton, could top them all.
The Camden County Democrat - the man who once held the state's purse strings - is arguably the most powerful and well-known New Jersey politician to be indicted in recent memory. And witnesses could include former cabinet officials, Senate staffers, and other Trenton luminaries.
"It's going to be a spectacle," said Brigid Harrison, a political-science and law professor at Montclair State University.
Prosecutors plan to lay out a familiar theory of a politician who used his considerable influence for his own benefit.
"The story is about the pervasiveness of corruption in the state," Harrison said. "It serves to underscore the cynicism voters already have about the self-interestedness . . . of elected officials."
This kind of drama has played out before, but Bryant's case remains unique.
Former State Sen. Sharpe James was convicted this year of corruption, but the charges related to his actions as mayor of Newark.
Former state Senate President John Lynch also went down, but years after he left politics, and he pleaded guilty before he was indicted.
In Bryant's case, the trial could provide a long - prosecutors estimated six weeks to present their case - and rare glimpse into Trenton machinations.
It's not known if Bryant has been offered or is considering a last-minute plea agreement. His attorney, Carl Poplar, did not return phone calls, and the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.
Proving the type of bribery alleged at the heart of the case can be difficult, legal experts said.
"There's a feeling of inevitability in this that may not be fair," said Ingrid Reed, director of the New Jersey Project at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. "It could be that Wayne Bryant does feel like he has a good case."
A conviction could bring a long sentence. Guidelines are based on the loss to taxpayers, and U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie estimated last year that Bryant, 60, could face at least 24 years in prison.
Bryant is accused of holding three no-show jobs that nearly tripled his public pension. He faces pension-fraud charges for misrepresenting how much work he did in two of those jobs.
Prosecutors said Bryant had solicited one of those jobs in 2002 from the president of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. A few months later, he was given the position of "program support coordinator" at UMDNJ's School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford.
The osteopathic school's dean, R. Michael Gallagher, has been charged with arranging Bryant's job and then "cooking the books" to make the job appear legitimate.
Prosecutors said Bryant had done almost no work, spending most of his limited time on campus reading newspapers.
Instead, prosecutors said, Bryant was paid to use his influence as chairman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee to direct millions of dollars to UMDNJ.
The indictment details a number of instances when Bryant lobbied public officials and used his Senate office to the university's benefit, without disclosing that he was on its payroll.
He also did not tell his fellow senators, including those on the budget committee, prosecutors said.
Bryant did not include his UMDNJ employment on the financial-disclosure form he submitted in 2004. He listed the job in 2005, but prosecutors noted that he had done so eight days after the university announced it was hiring a former state Supreme Court justice to examine "a breakdown in financial controls at UMDNJ."
Many of Bryant's activities were uncovered and reported by a federal monitor that UMDNJ had accepted to avoid Medicaid-fraud charges.
The indictment said Bryant had lobbied a former state commissioner of human services, a former commissioner of health and senior services, and a former state treasurer for funding for the university.
All three of those former officials could be witnesses.
Bryant also signed a letter in 2002 supporting Gallagher's promotion to dean. Three other Camden County legislators - Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, and Sen. John Adler - signed the letter, as did Gloucester County Sen. Stephen Sweeney.
The FBI interviewed all four about the letter, but it's not known if any will be called to testify.
Neither side has filed public witness lists with the court.
Three of the four legislators said last year that their involvement with the letter had been innocent, and that Bryant hadn't been the one to ask them to support Gallagher's promotion.
They said Gallagher, a nationally known headache expert, had been an excellent candidate for dean.
In court motions, Bryant's attorneys said the charges do not accuse him of taking any action that he wouldn't have taken if UMDNJ hadn't employed him.
And other experts have noted Bryant has been accused of lobbying for funding for some worthy projects, including a children's support center and a cancer institute at UMDNJ.
Bryant's attorneys said the indictment "charges bribery without a bribe."
There are no wiretaps in the case, and prosecutors have not alleged that there was an explicit agreement for Bryant to aid the university in exchange for his employment.
Edwin Stier, a former federal and state prosecutor in New Jersey, said the bribery often could be inferred, but "these issues are very fact-sensitive."
"A lot of times in these cases, it depends on when these conversations took place," he said. "If it was all part of the same conversation, it's very easy to infer quid pro quo."
He said prosecutors may compare what kind of funding Bryant directed to UMDNJ before and after he became an employee there. But the defense can argue he had independent reasons.
"I'm sure, knowing Carl Poplar, he's going to have a very cogent argument . . . about how you can take the same facts in the indictment and say, 'Wait a minute. It's not so sinister,' " Stier said.
Defense attorneys have told the prosecutors that they don't have evidence or exhibits to share before the trial. That could mean they plan to rely solely on attacking the government's case to create reasonable doubt.
Bryant did not run for reelection last year after he was indicted, and Reed said the case "feels like old business."
"The sense of loss and disappointment has passed," she said.
But Reed and Harrison agreed that Trenton insiders would pay close attention to the trial. Harrison said many probably were "hoping that their name's not mentioned."
"On some level, I think this might temporarily check some elected officials' behavior," Harrison said, "but it would be a rare scenario that someone extraordinarily corrupt would clean up their act because Wayne Bryant has been put on trial."
Contact staff writer Troy Graham at 856-779-3893 or tgraham@phillynews.com .
Copyright 2008
Powered By Zebra Mobile
