To Christie, this case hits home

John Martin By John Martin The Star-Ledger
on April 16, 2008 at 9:16 PM, updated January 08, 2009 at 2:52 PM

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie had been in his Newark office about an hour yesterday morning when news broke that jurors in the Sharpe James corruption trial were ready to announce a verdict.

Within five minutes, Christie settled into a front-row seat in the Newark courtroom. Three of his top lieutenants and two FBI agents filled the bench to his left. The crowd hushed as jurors took their seats. Christie clutched his BlackBerry.

Then the word "Guilty" tolled like a bell, 18 times, across the room. As it did, Christie furiously typed the same word and hit "send."

One e-mail to a top assistant who couldn't attend. The second to his wife, Mary Pat. A third to his brother, Todd. Another to Stuart Rabner, former state attorney general and now New Jersey's chief justice. And lastly to his closest friend and political confidant, Bill Palatucci.

For six years, Christie's office had built a formidable record prosecuting corrupt officials and businessmen. More than 125 convictions, by some counts, without an acquittal.

The streak lives.

"The streak in and of itself is not really what's important to me," Christie said in an interview after the verdict. "I've always anticipated that at some point you'll lose a case."

But the streak has greater implications than a law-and-order scorecard.

Christie is widely considered a leading GOP candidate in next year's governor race. He has not disclosed his plans, but any platform would almost certainly be built on his success and a pledge to bring the corruption-busting attitude to Trenton.

It could be an easy sell to voters looking for villains behind higher taxes and inefficient government. It's a message Christie has honed in dozens of speeches and press conferences in the past five years, one he repeated yesterday.

"Our justice system today, through the resounding guilty verdicts which were rendered by that jury in the courthouse behind us, tells the people of the state of New Jersey one very important thing: There is no one beyond the reach of the law," he said.

There have been times when the streak seemed in jeopardy, almost derailed by a shaky witness or a particularly dazzling defense summation. The Sharpe James trial fit the bill.

First, the trial judge unexpectedly forced prosecutors to set aside for a second trial some of the most outrageous allegations, that James routinely billed taxpayers city for vacations with girlfriends -- including jaunts to Martha's Vineyard, the Dominican Republic and Brazil.

Then the team of three assistant U.S. attorneys watched one of their key witnesses implode: a housing official who suddenly testified to a different version of events than the one he told the FBI and a grand jury last year.

Even among law enforcement agents, pessimism crept in. Some privately said they were gearing for an acquittal.

Christie said he always had faith in the prosecution but he recognized the hurdles and the mounting "significant skepticism" about the chances for conviction.

"This was not a slam dunk case," Christie said in the interview. "This was not a case where you had someone on videotape, where you had someone taking an envelope of cash."


He declined to rank the importance of the victory among other corruption convictions, but he acknowledged he treated this one differently. He attended the proceedings only a few times, during the opening and closing arguments. He was on a family vacation for part of the trial and still was sporting a deep tan yesterday.

But most mornings during the past six weeks, he said, began with a briefing from James Nobile, the prosecutor who runs the corruption unit and who read trial transcripts nightly. And most days ended with another briefing, this one from the trial team, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Judith Germano, Phillip Kwon and Perry Primavera.

It was the only time, Christie said, he has had so many briefings during a corruption trial. But this was the only time during his tenure that his office had built a case against a mayor of Newark.

"We come to work here every day. We drive through this city and see both its successes and its failures," he said. "And we hear, as I walk to lunch, places around the city, we hear the complaints of people about the political leadership and whether or not they were really serving the people or serving themselves. And so there is a significance to bringing to justice someone who reigned over this city for so long."

After the verdict, prosecutors and agents gathered for a long lunch in a private second-floor room at Chateau of Spain, a restaurant across the street from the courthouse. Christie and Attorney General Anne Milgram offered a toast.

During the lunch, Christie fielded a congratulatory phone call from the man he might hope to unseat, Gov. Jon Corzine, according to two people who were aware of the call but said they could not be identified discussing it.

Back in the office, the U.S. attorney juggled phone calls and messages from friends and the media. Then it was off to Trenton, to give a speech and receive an award at the College of New Jersey for outstanding achievement in law enforcement.

"Listen, it's another case," he told reporters outside the courthouse. "And certainly it's a big and significant one that has great attention to it. But you know what, the 120 convictions or so that we accomplished before this were very important, too."