Neil Cohen

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State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, above, is unhappy with the way Attorney General Anne Milgram handled the prosecution of a Democratic Councilman from their district

ELIZABETH - Union County party allies of Gov. Jon Corzine are leveling hard charges at someone who's used to doing the charging herself: Attorney General Anne Milgram, whose pursuit of a voter fraud case against Roselle Council President Jamel Holley this month resulted in a virtual dead end.

"Disappointment is an understatement," state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) said of Milgram, the Corzine administration's attorney general, for bringing charges against Holley in the first place.

Already feeling antagonized by the presence of corruption buster former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie in the governor's race, Democratic Party operatives in at least two or three of their base voter-rich regions, including Unon, have for months felt dogged by Milgram, who indicted Holley by accusation on Aug. 27th with illegally filling out portions of fewer than 30 absentee ballots.

In a Thursday letter to the Union County Local Source, Lesniak and his legislative colleagues, Assemblyman Joe Cryan (D-Union Twp.) and Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Elizabeth), ripped Milgram over what they see as her unjust targeting of Holley, which might have had ruinous consequences for a young man seen by his allies see as a comer in Union County Democratic Party politics.  

The state Attorney General's Office today "charged by accusation" Roselle Borough Council President Jamel Holley with illegally filling out a portion of the absentee ballots of voters in the 2006 Democratic primary for Borough Council, according to Attorney General Anne Milgram.

Holley, 29, of Roselle, allegedly violated the state’s absentee voting law, a third-degree crime, said Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni.

The council president, a political protege of former Assemblyman Neil Cohen and a foe of Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith, waived his right to be indicted by a grand jury and agreed to be charged by accusation. The accusation was entered before Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier in Mercer County, according to the AG's Office.

The accusation charges that Holley "tampered with absentee ballots by completing portions of the absentee ballots of at least 20 voters, contrary to the absentee voting law, which seeks to ensure the secrecy of balloting and prevent any improper influencing of voters. The charge is the result of an investigation by the New Jersey State Police Official Corruption Bureau."

Indicted in March on one count of third degree theft by deception and six counts of third degree tampering with public records or information, the former campaign treasurer of former Assemblyman Neil Cohen (D-Roselle) has entered a Pretrial Intervention (PTI) Program with Mercer County over the objection of the state Attorney General's Office.

Under the provisions of the court-ordered program, which requires 50 hours of community service, the state charges against Rosemary McClave of Hillside would be dismissed.

With that in mind, Deputy Attorney General Erik Daab on July 21st wrote a letter to David Eberhardt, criminal division manager for Mercer, expressing the state's objection to the program for McClave, chief financial officer of Teterboro with longstanding ties to the Union County Democratic Committee.

Daab reminded Eberhardt that in an audeotaped interview with state police, McCalave admitted that between March of 2003 and November of 2006, she wrote ten checks to herself totaling $5,562.54 from the Election Fund of Neil Cohen.

Former Assemblyman Neil Cohen, was indicted today on a new count of child pornography possession,

The Attorney General’s office today said that the new indictment relates to multiple images found on Cohen’s computer in his law office in Montclair.  The new indictment adds a count to the four Cohen was already charged with.  Cohen shared the office with his law partner, State Sen. Nia Gill (D-Monclair).

Cohen, a Roselle Democrat, resigned one year ago, after his fellow 20th District legislators – state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) and Joseph Cryan (D-Union) – turned him in after a staffer found print outs of alleged pornographic images of minors.

Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith

Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith needed this one, and so did the Union County Democratic Organization.
 
Those two mutually exclusive desires added up to one thing: a war.
 
Ever since former Assemblyman Neil Cohen's (D-Roselle) career went belly up amid charges of keeping child porn on his computer, the battle lines for local party control intensified here in his town, which, depending on your perspective, is either a buffer for Westfield against the danger-zone of Elizabeth or a buffer for Elizabeth against the whitebread excesses of Cranford and Westfield.
 
A mild-mannered wonk in Trenton, Cohen could get tough in his hometown as head of the local party. He wasn't beyond delivering full-blown, profanity-laced public dress-downs to recalcitrant committee members as he dealt with the ongoing headache of Smith, a charismatic independent Democrat, originally from Jersey City, who built his name as head of a thriving local basketball league before seeking his first term as mayor in 2003.
 
Smith and Cohen could grudgingly come together to beat on Republicans in presidential or gubernatorial general elections, but mostly they embroiled themselves in a Roselle battle-royale with themselves as chief antagonists.

UnionCountyDems.org

Union County Democratic Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo

Some prominent Democrats have set up a trust to pay the legal expenses of Union County Democratic Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo, who is under investigation by the State Attorney General's Office.

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth), Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union) and Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Victor Scudiery are organizing and administering the fund, according to two sources.

In November, 2007, The Star-Ledger reported that the Attorney General's office subpoenaed documents relating to DeFilippo's "public and private business dealings" - including documents from the Union County Improvement Authority, which she heads; information on her duties as a legislative aide to former Assemblyman Neil Cohen, who has since been indicted on child pornography charges; documents relating to the Union County Democrats' involvement in the 2006 Roselle primary; and a client list a financial records from Camelot Title Agency, in which DeFilippo and Cryan hold minority stakes.

Democrats do not view the race for State Assembly in the 21st district as winnable even with the death of popular Assemblyman Eric Munoz (R-Summit) and are unlikely to put up much of a fight in November against the winner of a special election convention to fill the vacant State Assembly seat.  Munoz and Assembly Minority Whip Jon Bramnick won re-election by more than 10,000 votes in 2007.

Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith

ROSELLE - Backing his own School Board candidates in what amounts to a larger ongoing war with the Union County Democratic Organization, Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith today challenged opposing School Board candidate Anthony Esposito to return $7,500 Smith’s old nemesis, disgraced former Assemblyman Neil Cohen (D-Roselle), contributed to the organization he once ran.

Now standing trial for keeping child porn images on his office computer, Cohen until last year headed the Roselle Democratic Party, an organization Esposito serves as treasurer.

“The integrity of the Democratic Party is called into question with this donation, especially with the treasurer running for the School Board,” said the mayor. “It’s hypocritical for him to deposit money from Cohen knowing the conditions behind it.”

Esposito objected to Smith’s characterization of his work as treasurer. 

Rosemary McClave the campaign treasurer was indicted yesterday on charges that she used Neil Cohen's campaign account to pay for clothing and toys from QVC.  The indictment, which carries a mandatory prison sentence if she's convicted, doesn't seem to bother the Borough of Teterboro, the Bergen County municipality with a population of eighteen that employs her as municipal treasurer.  The Borough Manager told PolitickerNJ.com today that the allegations against McClave are unrelated to her job as the official custodian of taxpayer funds, so she can continue to hold her local government post as she awaits trial.  State law does not require public officials who handle taxpayer dollars to step down while accused of corrupt activities.

Anne "Little Chris" Milgram has been on a roll lately, announcing six politically relevant indictments in the last two weeks.  With the exception of Assemblyman Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy), the others are relatively minor players: Antonio Santana, who allegedly falsified three absentee ballots in Newark; former Perth Amboy Democratic Chairman Raymond Geneske; two former Vas aides, Melvin Ramos and Jeffrey Gumbs; and Rosemary McClave, the Treasurer for the and Neil Cohen's campaign treasurer.

There is some speculation that the indictment of the 66-year-old McClave might be more about her longtime political alliance with fellow Hillside resident Charlotte DeFilippo than about allegations that she used Cohen's campaign account to pay for $5,562 in personal expenses charged to an American Express card.  According to published reports, Milgram's office has spent the last two years looking at top Union County officials, including DeFilippo, the Executive Director of the Union County Improvement Authority.