The arrests were expected to become fodder in this year’s legislative elections, for which Republican Party leaders have built a campaign, in part, on allegations of systemic corruption in the Democratic Party.
Most of the defendants are Democrats.
Those charged include Assemblyman Alfred E. Steele, 53, who is also the pastor of a Baptist church in Paterson and was a Passaic County undersheriff; Assemblyman Mims Hackett Jr., 65, who is also mayor of the City of Orange; Passaic Mayor Samuel “Sammy” Rivera, 60; Passaic City Councilman Marcellus Jackson, 37; former Passaic City Councilman Jonathan Soto, 32; and Keith O. Reid, 48, chief of staff to the Newark City Council’s president.
Also charged were Pleasantville School Board President James A. Pressley, 22; board member Rafael Velez, 46; and former members Adams, 27, Callaway, 53, and James T. McCormick, 50.
Callaway is a member of the Pleasantville City Council. He is also a brother of Craig Callaway, the former Atlantic City Council president who was jailed in March in a similar, but apparently unrelated, corruption investigation.
Louis Mister, 56, a Pleasantville resident, was also charged. Mister is described as an associate of Maurice Callaway’s and is alleged to have accepted two cash payments for him.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20070907_Corruption_sting_crosses_N_J_.html