The Field Of Criminals Posing As Politicians Just Got Bigger

Newark's Ex-Mayor Guilty Of Fraud

Newark, New Jersey has some issues. No, not the soaring crime rate, the disturbing unemployment numbers, or the deteriorating schools.

We're talking about the original gangsta, Sharpe James, who was pimpin the city for his own selfish benefit. Now pops and his jump-off, co-defendant Tamika Riley, find themselves facing 3 hots and a cot for charges related to property fraud.

Prosecutors said James, 72, hijacked a program designed to encourage urban renewal by offering developers land at low costs, and approved the sale of city-owned properties to Riley, 39, then his girlfriend, at a fraction of their actual value from 2001 to 2005.

Yes that's right, homegirl was thirty-three years Sharpe's junior! And she was selling city property while improperly receiving about $27,000 in federal housing subsidies for her apartment in Jersey City. Clearly no shame in Tamika's game.

With hizzoner "steering" land to her, Riley bought multiple discounted properties and resold them at market rate without attempting to first rehabilitate them, as required by the program, prosecutors said. Riley collected about $500,000 in profits from the transactions, they said.

When it was the defense’s turn to try to rebut the prosecution’s case, lawyers for Mr. James called just two witnesses — two former councilwomen who tried to bolster the assertion of Mr. James that he could not approve property sales unilaterally.

Mr. James stood stony-faced and Ms. Riley appeared stunned as the jury foreman delivered the verdict, then quickly left the courtroom. Mr. James then took an elevator to the first floor of the federal courthouse, where he kissed his wife, Mary, on the cheek. They then drove off with his attorney.

What a tawdry fall from grace for a black man who was the powerful Democratic mayor of New Jersey’s largest city for 20 years, until 2006, and a state senator from 1999 to 2008. And to think that folks we're telling current Mayor Cory Booker that he needed to wait his turn and let this older, wiser, vetted politico stay in office.

Sound familiar???

Under federal guidelines, prosecutors say the two face up to about eight years in prison. For now, both are free on bail and will face sentencing on July 29. Mr. James’s lead attorney, Thomas Ashley, said he intended to appeal the verdict. Legal experts are predicting that the two will probably face four- to five-year sentences, district attorney spokesman Mike Drewniak said.

In a separate case, da mayor is accused of charging nearly $60,000 on city-issued credit cards between 2001 and 2006 for vacations for himself and several women other than his wife in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and the Dominican Republic.

The brotha claims that his visit to Rio de Janeiro in 2006 was to meet with the region's consulate general on city business and that a trip to the Dominican Republic was to "assess the tropical gardens on a resort property there to determine if those gardens could be replicated near Penn Station in Newark."

Yeah, and I got swap land in Palm Springs that I can get you on the cheap. Disgraceful! [CNN]

BLACK VICTIMS OF HEINOUS N.J. SCHOOLYARD MURDERS LAID TO REST

Saying goodbye to slained Delaware college students

Residents of Newark turned out to remember the lives of three African Americans in a brutal crime that has shocked a nation and a tri-state area city already used to violence.

When these three bright young people with their lives ahead of them died on August 4, it struck a nerve. Forced to kneel on the ground in a schoolyard before being shot in the back of the head, each funeral on Saturday reveiled, to the surprise of many, joy.

It came in wistful smiles, when the mayor spoke of the young man who admired his dad and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It came in wild applause, when friends talked of the other young man, who had become an ordained minister, or of the young woman, who loved to sing, rap and dance.

Dashon Harvey, 20, Terrance Aeriel, 18, and Iofemi Hightower, 20, became the 58th, 59th and 60th homicides in this city of 240,000 people this year, almost equal to the 63 that had taken place in the same period a year earlier. Their funerals were held one after another at different churches, giving mourners an opportunity to grieve for each of them separately.

Cory Booker, the mayor of New Jersey’s largest city, pounded a podium yelling “Enough is enough, we need to raise our children!” in between applause at the Metropolitan Baptist Church service for Harvey. Services were also held for Aeriel at New Hope Baptist Church, and Hightower at Grace Temple Baptist Church.

Our prayers continue to be with the family and loved ones.

MSNBC has more on this story, along with video.

CARRANZA ENTERS INTO NOT GUILTY PLEA IN BRUTAL EXECUTION STYLE MURDERS OF BLACK NEWARK COLLEGE STUDENTS

Jose Carranza is one of two individuals currently being accused of killing in cold blood three college students at an elementary school out of Newark.

According to Fox News, Carranza has just stood before a judge and entered into a not guilty plea.

The latest twist on this horrific crime out of New Jersey is that this 28-year-old, who will remain in custody on bail set at one million dollars, is actually here ILLEGALLY!!!!

Indicted twice, including a 31 count charge of witness intimidation and aggravated assault on a 5-year-old child believed to have been repeatedly raped, media reports are now indicating that Carranza is actually a citizen of Peru.

With a fake and forged social security card, this cat should not even be here from the jump!

A Latino immigrant accused of taking the lives of innocent citizens, particularly young African-Americans trying to better themselves by going to college, will only add fire to the raging debate about illegal immigrants destroying this country.

Across the U.S., Black-Latino tensions are building family, and this powder keg is going to explode unless we start getting proactive.

BIZARRE, EXECUTION STYLE MURDERS OF NEWARK COLLEGE STUDENTS HAS A BLACK-LATINO RACIAL DYNAMIC

NEWARK, N.J. - Two Latinos males are now in custody facing murder and robbery charges Thursday in the stunning execution-style killings of three African American college students and wounding of another in an elementary school yard shooting.

MSNBC is reporting that two, if not three additional suspects are also being sought by police.

A 15-year-old teenager was arrested Wednesday night, and the 28-year-old surrendered Thursday, authorities said. Mayor Cory Booker said fingerprint and ballistics evidence tied the man, Jose Carranza, to the crime.

Carranza turned himself in directly to Mayor Booker and now is expected to be charged with three counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted murder, robbery and other charges.

At one point as many as 30 police investigators where out looking for Carranza, who is believed to have an extensive criminal record.

The juvenile, whose name was not released because of his age, was arrested on the same charges and will possibly be tried as an adult.

The four friends, ages 18 to 20, were attacked while they were talking outside a public school last Saturday night. While authorities are maintaining that they believe robbery appears to be the sole motive, others are speculating that crime may have been gang or even race related.

Shot at close range, three of the Black victims — Terrance Aeriel, 18, Dashon Harvey, 20; and Iofemi Hightower, 20 — were forced to kneel against a wall and shot at close range. The fourth, 19-year-old Natasha Aeriel, Terrance Aeriel's sister, survived a wound to her head.

Friends become murder victims

Despite being under sedation at times, Natasha Aeriel has been providing authorities with information about the shootings, Booker said.

The killings brought unwanted heat to Newark, and to the city's bright, ambitious, Barack Obama-like leader.

Booker, 37, promised to clean house when he rode into office on the hopes that change was a comin' Instead, Jersey's dark spot continues to struggle with violent crime.

"This is a defining moment for our city. The crime is not going to define Newark but our response to it," Booker said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

A particularly murderous week in America

All four victims were planning to attend Delaware State University this fall. Instead, three were to be buried Saturday in separate services. A friend of the victims, Samantha Williams, said she was overwhelmed by news of an arrest. "I can actually stop crying, I can sleep peacefully," said Williams, 18, of Orange.

3 BLACK YOUNG PEOPLE LINED UP AND KILLED EXECUTION STYLE BEHIND NEWARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

All Bright, College-Bound Kids Caught Up In Violence Plaguing The City

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is in a street fight with Black-on-Black crime in his city. With 60 murders this year alone, the brother's losing!

Forced to kneel against a wall behind an elementary school in New Jersey, three friends were shot to death at close range, and a fourth was found about 30 feet away with gunshot and knife wounds to her head, police said.

Natasha Aerial, 19, was listed in fair condition at Newark's University Hospital, authorities said. Police identified her companions as her brother, Terrance Aerial, 18, Ofemi Hightower, 20, and Deshawn Harvey, 20.

All were from Newark; and all would soon either start or resume their lives away from the violent city at a college hundreds of miles away.

Ofemi had been accepted Thursday to Delaware State University after two years of rejection letters. Terrance was a business major there and an ordained minister, while his sister Natasha was to depart for Dover after the weekend to return to summer classes and a job at a Subway sandwich shop. Deshawn was also due back at the university this week for his job in the school's administration building.

The killings brought the number of homicides in the predominantly Black city of less than 300,000 residents this year to 60, compared with 63 for the same time last year. The spate of gun violence has residents criticising Mayor Booker and the police department.

"They are not keeping us safe. It's appalling that [Booker] will allow bodies to keep falling on the streets of Newark," said Donna Jackson, president of campaign group Take Back Our Streets.

Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow said authorities didn't have any suspects or a motive in the killings late Saturday. None of the victims had any criminal record, she said. "They were good kids," Dow said.

The four had been listening to music in a parking lot behind Mount Vernon School at around 11:30 p.m. when they were gradually joined by a group of men, authorities said.

Newark Police Director Garry McCarthy said the four exchanged text messages saying they should leave, but were attacked before they could do so. These messages may hold the key to what actually took place.

Police said the attackers shot one young woman, then forced her three companions down an alley, lined them up against a wall, made them kneel and shot each in the head.

The Aerials' mother, Renee Tucker, said the last time she saw them was around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, when they told her they were going around the corner to get something to eat.

"They said they were going to come right back to the house," Tucker said.

Instead, sirens raced through her Vailsburg neighborhood just before midnight, because someone heard gunshots and screams behind the school and called police.

Carlos Holmes, a spokesman for the university, said Natasha Aerial and Harvey were to be juniors this year. He had little or no information on the other two, other than someone with a name spelled similarly to Hightower's had been rejected by the school several times in the last few years.

Authorities also reported a fourth homicide in the city Sunday morning, also in the Vailsburg section. Detectives believe the shooting death of Quintez Waller on Smith Street was in retaliation for a shooting hours earlier up the block.

FOX NEWS