Jimmy King

Former Jersey City council candidate Jimmy King, a veteran of the Hudson County political scene with a deep resume in government, pleaded guilty today to accepting bribes from a federal informant posing as a developer.

King, 67, took two $5,000 cash payments from FBI informant Solomon Dwek during his unsuccessful campaign for a Ward C council seat earlier this year and agreed to accept more money after the election.  He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit extortion and is set to be sentenced on January 5.

“Although we are pleased with the outcome in the case against Mr. King, we cannot declare victory in our fight against public corruption,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun. “We continue to ask the public to contact us with information about corruption, no matter how insignificant one may think it is. We will treat every lead with confidentiality and urgency.”

Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez will pay thousands of dollars the State of Florida claims she owes because she is, in fact, a Jersey City resident, her attorney argued in a brief submitted Friday.  

The attorney, William Northgrave, says that Lopez mistakenly continued to claim a homestead exemption on her Orlando, Fla. house that was intended only for permanent Florida residents after she moved to Jersey City in 2000.  She has “taken steps to correct that error” and will pay more than $30,000 the state says she owes in back taxes and penalties.  Even the letter informing Lopez of her mistake “recognizes that taxpayers are often not aware of the legal requirements for the exemption,” Northgrave wrote.

Lopez, who overwhelmingly won the May election to represent Ward C on the Jersey City Council – becoming the city’s first Latina councilwoman – is fighting to hold on to her council seat over allegations that she is technically a Florida resident.  In the brief, Northgrave seeks dismissal of the lawsuit on the grounds that Lopez has been a Jersey City resident since “at least” 2000 and that it was filed well past the 30 days statute of limitations for challenging election results.

The case is set to go to trial in Hudson County Superior Court on October 26. 

An attorney for an unsuccessful Jersey City council candidate says that the city's current Ward C Councilwoman has two identities: Nidia Lopez, the Jersey City resident and politician, and Nidia Boehringer, the Florida resident and taxpayer.

"She's gone to great lengths to maintain these different personas and make it look like she lived in both places," said Diana Jeffrey, who represents Norrice Raymaker -- the third place Ward C Council candidate in the May municipal election -- in her lawsuit that charges Lopez is actually a Florida resident.

Jeffrey's law partner, Howard Myerowitz, deposed Lopez on Monday, and while the transcript of the deposition will not be available until tonight, Jeffrey shared some of her findings.

Among the most startling, according to Jeffrey, was Lopez's disclosure that she files her taxes in Florida, where there is no state income tax, even though she says her business - Nidia Boehringer Consulting - is based in New Jersey.  Jeffrey said that Lopez has not paid New Jersey income taxes since at least 2006. 

"She avoids paying New Jersey income tax by relying on her Florida persona," said Jeffrey. "She maintained under oath that New Jersey is her primary residence, and admitted under oath that Nidia Boehringer Consultants operates exclusively in New Jersey, that she works exclusively in New Jersey, but that she files her tax returns in Florida under the name Boehringer." 

Lopez has been under scrutiny since June, when Jimmy King, the second place candidate for her council seat in the May municipal election, filed suit alleging that she was a resident of the Sunshine State.  The crux of his case was that Lopez took property exemptions on her Florida home that required her to be a permanent resident of that state.  Florida has since charged tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes that state authorities says Lopez owes for incorrectly taking the exemptions. 

A lawsuit aimed at removing Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez from office  is going to court.  Hudson County Assignment Judge Maurice Gallipoli refused to dismiss a suit filed by Lopez's former opponent, Jimmy King, and says he will hear evidence that she did not meet the residency requirements to run for office last May because she was actually a resident of Florida.  Depositions will be held in August, and a trial has been set for the first week in October. 

Lopez defeated King for the seat held by Steve Lipski, who did not seek re-election after he was charged with urinating on a crowd of people during a concert in Washington, D.C.

Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, who spent today in Orlando, told the local paper that she has lived in Jersey City since March, 2008.

The paper caught up with Lopez while she was in Orlando today, after she attended a city council meeting last night.  

According to the report, Lopez could owe Orange County, Fla. as much as $33,000 in taxes for claiming a homestead tax exemption meant only for that state’s residents.  

Lopez, the city’s first Hispanic councilwoman, was sworn in to her first term just last week.  She is facing a lawsuit over her residency from vanquished council opponent Jimmy King, who hopes to throw out the results of the May election.  

Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia R. Lopez got her license to drive in New Jersey last month.  

New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission spokesman Mike Horan said that Lopez was issued a digital driver’s license on June 15.  Two and a half months earlier, on April 1,  the state issued her a non-driver ID.  That was two months after she officially kicked off her campaign.

But Lopez was registered to drive in Florida until just last week, when the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles got word from the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission that Lopez got her license here.  The Florida agency was informed on June 30 – the same day that news broke of former council candidate Jimmy King’s complaint that seeks to invalidate Lopez’s election based on her residency.   

The license timing is relevant because former Ward C council candidate Jimmy King is challenging the validity of Lopez’s May election in court, arguing that Lopez has claimed her Florida house as her primary residence for tax purposes and that she had a Florida driver license.

What’s bad for Jersey City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez could be good for her predecessor, Steve Lipski.  

If former council candidate Jimmy King’s challenge to the validity of Lopez’s May election is successful in forcing her to step down, Lipski might be willing to replace her.

“That option – this is the first I’m hearing about it.  I’m somewhat dismayed that the election would be questioned.  I think the world of Nidia Lopez and if in the end the seat becomes vacant, I would have to consider whether I would want to step back in and take it,” said Lipski, who declined to seek another term after being arrested for urinating from a balcony onto a group of concertgoers in Washington, DC – an incident that made international headlines and became fodder for late night television jokes.  

Lipski said he barely caught wind of the controversy surrounding Lopez and her Florida house, for which she received a tax exemption meant only for permanent residents.  He had been vacationing in Maine, where he stayed in a cabin without electricity or running water.  He talked to PolitickerNJ.com on the phone from a hospital, where he was at the bedside of his wife, who broke her leg on the trip.   

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy today called former council candidate Jimmy King’s residency challenge to newly sworn in Councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez “sour grapes to the 10th power.”  

“This is an effort to achieve through the courts what couldn’t be achieved through the election process, and you know, the election wasn’t even close,” said Healy just after being sworn in to a second full term as mayor.  “Her not living here is a joke.  She of course lives here. She does have a house in Florida.”

Lopez, who ran on Healy’s slate, beat King, who ran on former Assemblyman Lou Manzo’s, on the first ballot.  Manzo and his at-large running mate, former Hudson County Sheriff Joseph Cassidy, tried to knock Healy out of the race through legal challenges, alleging that he tried to use his position as Jersey City Mayor to dissuade Bradley Beach police officers from arresting him for obstruction of justice in 2006.

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Nidia R. Lopez

An unsuccessful Jersey City council candidate claims that his former opponent is actually a resident of the Sunshine State.  

Jimmy King, who lost an election for Jersey City council for Ward C in May, has filed suit against the ward’s winning candidate,  councilwoman-elect Nidia Rivera Lopez, alleging that she has a residency issue that should keep her from serving.

King said that Lopez, who owns a house in Orlando, Fla.very recently claimed property tax exemptions that required her to cite Florida as her primary residence.  He also said she has a Florida driver’s license.

“In order to accept  that you had to be a resident of Florida and a homesteader in Florida.  She collected over 10 of them,” said King, who hired a private detective to investigate Lopez. 

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) will endorse Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy for re-election a rally today in Journal Square, and will announce his support for Healy's entire slate of City Council candidates.  Nidia Lopez will introduce Menendez, offering some valuable exposure to the Ward C Council candidate.  Lopez faces former Jersey City Park Authority Director Jimmy King, who is running on Louis Manzo's ticket.  The two are seeking the seat of Steven Lipski, who decided to retire after being charged with public urination.