Dennis Oury

Former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero’s attorney has filed to have Ferriero's corruption conviction overturned.

Defense lawyer Joseph Hayden said he filed about a dozen arguments in federal court, chief among them challenging Ferriero's conviction for conspiracy to defraud Bergenfield of co-defendant Dennis Oury’s honest services.  Oury, who was Bergen County Democratic Counsel, was the Bergenfield Borough Attorney.

“The principle motions involve a challenge to the honest services theory of prosecution, which is presently being scrutinized by a case pending before the United States Supreme Court dealing with honest services,” said Hayden. “We believe the Supreme Court case will be decided favorably to the defense, and this will result in overturning Mr. Ferriero’s conviction.”

The conspiracy count was the most serious of Ferriero's three count conviction.  He was also convicted on two mail fraud counts and acquitted of five other mail fraud counts.  

Former state Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D-Paramus) reports to federal prison today to begin serving out his 2 ½ year sentence, The Record and AP remind us.

The 66-year-old Bergen County Democrat, who served in the state Senate between 2002 and 2008, was convicted for steering state grants to Hackensack University Medical Center, which employed him as a consultant.  Coniglio will serve out his term in a satellite camp next to the federal prison in Lewisburg – in central Pennsylvania.  

The Record reports that former Paterson School Board President Chauncey Brown III – who ran for Assembly as a Republican in 2007 – is serving a sentence in the same facility for his own corruption conviction.

Since Coniglio’s conviction, two other top Bergen County Democrats have fallen: former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero – who was convicted on three corruption counts last month – and the party’s powerful former counsel, Dennis Oury, who was indicted with Ferriero and pleaded guilty just before his trial started.  

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) and Assemblyman Gordon Johnson (D-Englewood) with Yaakov Friedman today in Bergenfield.

BERGENFIELD - Mayor Timothy J. Driscoll took another sip of his coffee and considered the political terrain.

With the battles he's weathered at the local level here the fact that the gubernatorial campaigns are storming through his town now comes with no particular irony. It's just a natural outgrowth of personalities that have been converging in Bergenfield for years, some of whom are now trying to connect with the 13,387 registered voters in this compact town, while others - pending appeal - appear headed for the federal pen.

How does it all play into the statewide race with seven days remaining?

"I don't think much at all," said the retired engineer, sitting in his second floor mayor's office in town hall. "It's all about the economy. The economy is the problem."

Days after a jury found former Bergen County Democratic Organization Chairman Joe Ferriero guilty of defrauding Bergenfield of the honest legal services of former attorney Dennis Oury (who had already pleaded guilty to fraud), the two candidates for lieutenant governor scrambled into the same senior daycare facility on the main drag, local state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), running mate of Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, first; followed by Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno, the Republican running mate of former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie. 

A PolitickerNJ.com cartoon by Rob Tornoe, after then-U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie announced the indictment of Joseph Ferriero

After a few days off, jurors in the federal corruption trial of former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero are expected to return this morning.  The Record reported yesterday that U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Chesler found conspiracy and fraud charges to be proper, but said that the indictment could have been more carefully prepared.  Ferriero's lawyer made a Rule 29 motion with the hope that Chesler will dismiss the charges. Chesler withheld judgment on that motion.

The Record is reporting that Dennis Oury is set to testify in the federal corruption trial of former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero is in its fourth day.  Oury, the former BCDO counsel, was Ferriero's co-defendant before making a surprise guilty plea last week -- just two days before the trial was set to start.

Click here to follow the trial on The Record's Live Blog.

For the second time in eight days, there are reports that U.S. Rep. Steven Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) is using his office to help out to campaign contributors.  Last week, the New York Times reported that Rothman and three other members of the New Jersey delegation asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve a medical device manufactured by one of his donors, even though science professionals at the agency felt the device was ineffective and dangerous.  Today, The Record reported that a witness in the federal corruption trial of former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero testified that Rothman wrote letters at the request of a grants writing firm owned by Ferriero and Dennis Oury, the former counsel to the Bergen County Democratic Organization.  Oury was to be Ferriero's co-defendant, but he pleaded guilty earlier this week.

Rothman was among the largest recipients of campaign contributions made personally by Oury to federal candidates - he took nearly $5,000 in recent years. His office has not responded to numerous inquiries seeking to determine if Rothman would return the money. 

Another Bergen County Democrat, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), announced that she would contribute the $1,000 she received from Oury to a local charity.  Weinberg did that on the day Oury pleaded guilty.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Chesler say that Dennis Oury "may in fact be testifying" in the federal corruption trial of former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero, according to a report in The Record.  Chesler said that "anything discussed in their preparation for the trial would be covered under the attorney-client privilege. Even information that would aid in Ferriero's defense would not be admissible," according to the report.

The federal corruption trial of former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero is scheduled to begin today in Newark.  Jurors were picked last month.  But there is speculation that the one-powerful party leader might seek a deal with prosecutors now that his co-defendant, Dennis Oury, has pleaded guilty.  Neither side will say if Oury, the former counsel to the Bergen County Democratic Organization and allegedly Ferriero's partner in a grants-writing business, will testify.  Ferriero's lawyer, Joseph Hayden, is one of the best white collar criminal defense lawyers in the state; Hayden gets that the U.S. Attorney's office has an undefeated record in political corruption prosecutions.  The sense among mere mortals is that if Oury - a man who must definitely knows stuff - testifies against Ferriero, the chances of a conviction go up.  So it's decision day for Ferriero, if in fact a deal is on the table.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) said she doesn’t need Republicans to tell her to donate the $1,000 she received in campaign contributions from Dennis Oury, the former Bergen County Democratic counsel who pleaded guilty to corruption charges today.

“I’ve instructed my campaign to donate that money to the Jill Fader Breast Cancer Endeavor at Englewood Hospital which helps to pay for mammograms for uninsured women,” said Weinberg, the Democratic lieutenant governor candidate.

The decision has political bite, since Weinberg today took the lead in hammering Republican gubernatorial nominee Chris Christie for supporting mandate free insurance that would allow health insurance companies to offer plans that do not cover mammograms, among other tests and procedures. 

Weinberg, a critic of Oury and Ferriero when they were in power, said she did not know why Oury made the two $500 donations to her campaign, which date back to 2004 and 2005. 

Republicans want State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor, to return $1,000 in campaign contributions she took from Dennis Oury, a party leader who pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges today.

"Today's guilty plea by Oury, the former counsel and right hand man of disgraced former Bergen County Democratic Party Joseph Ferriero, underscores the corruption problems in the Bergen Democratic machine under Ferriero and Oury," said Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for the New Jersey Republican State Committee.  "It also raises the question as to why Weinberg, who prides herself on her supposed distance from the Bergen machine, accepted these contributions, and why she would deign to be the running mate and unquestioning supporter of someone who enabled that machine with hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions - Governor Jon Corzine."