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Another One Bites the Dust

by: Thurman Hart

Fri May 09, 2008 at 02:31:15 PM EDT


Yet another Jersey politician is going to the slammer.  At least Samuel Rivera had the decency to admit he was caught:
"We made a careful evaluation of the evidence and the climate for a jury trial and the government made a fair proposal to resolve the case," attorney Henry Klingeman said after the proceeding.

Rivera was one of the local officials swept up in the sting that netted Mims Hackett and Alfred Steele.  At that time, he was defiant:

Mr. Rivera, 60, who has been mayor since 2001, after spending six years as a councilman, is accused of accepting $5,000 from a cooperating witness who represented the insurance brokerage in question.

During exchanges in a parked car and at a local diner, Mr. Rivera assured the witness he could make the Passaic City Council and the Passaic Valley Water Commission direct business his way.

"We can get you that easy, easy," Mr. Rivera is reported to have bragged, according to court papers.

In the days that followed the parade of handcuffed defendants with bowed heads, some of the officials, including the assemblymen, have resigned or been forced out of their jobs. Those still collecting paychecks have at least stayed out of public view.

Not Mr. Rivera, who came to work last week filled with defiance. "I'm not going down," he said from his City Hall desk, suggesting that the F.B.I.'s recorded evidence had been doctored. "I'm going to beat this."

Way to beat the rap, Mr. Bribery-is-cool Rivera.  Way to beat it.
Thurman Hart :: Another One Bites the Dust
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