For 20 years, Sharpe James wielded immense power as mayor of New Jersey's largest city, a political boss who eventually held a dual role as a state senator.
But Tuesday, he will be just another criminal defendant in federal court as he begins the first of two federal corruption trials.
While Newark is moving forward without James, a lot is at stake for the 72-year-old former power broker, notably his legacy and his pension — not to mention the chance of years in prison if he's convicted.
"He happens to be a larger-than-life figure," said Alan Zegas, one of James' attorneys. "He has done an enormous amount for the city in a very public way."
Today's Newark is laden with projects championed by James, including the decade-old New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Prudential Center, a hockey arena that opened in October after James' longtime support.
But his actions, called corrupt by prosecutors, will also be aired in public, over two trials that are likely to last several months each.
The first trial centers on whether he arranged for the sale of nine city-owned properties at discounted rates to Tamika Riley, a woman nearly half his age with whom he traveled. Prosecutors said they will present evidence to show the two had an intimate personal relationship.
Prosecutors said James improperly steered properties to Riley, 38, and that she, with James' help, quickly resold them at much higher prices. Riley was able to buy the properties though she lacked real estate, construction and financial experience to rehabilitate the properties, according to the indictment.
Riley raised and donated campaign money for James and traveled internationally with him, enjoying vacations and meals partly funded by city credit cards, the indictment charged. She will stand trial with him for land fraud charges only.
After being indicted in July, James and Riley pleaded not guilty to all charges and are free on bail. Prosecutors have said they expect the first trial to last as long as three months, with 40 to 50 witnesses expected.
Jury selection, which Zegas said he expects to take between one and two weeks, begins Tuesday.
The first trial likely won't have the salacious details of the second, where James is accused of using city-issued credit cards to pay for $58,000 worth of personal expenses while he was mayor, including trips with several women other than his wife, to Martha's Vineyard, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Rio de Janeiro.
The charges in the first trial are more serious because he is accused of abusing his office to provide Riley with unfair financial gain, said Robert A. Mintz, a former federal prosecutor with U.S. attorney's office in Newark
"This is the case that really matters to prosecutors," he said. "This is the case that goes to the heart of the government's allegations of corruption. That's why we're seeing it tried first."
Under federal advisory guidelines, James could face seven to eight years in prison if he is convicted on all counts. But a judge could impose a much stiffer penalty — as much as 20 years on some individual counts.
The trials will open a window into the inner workings of City Hall, which James ran from 1986 to 2006 before deciding not to seek a sixth term. He also served as a state senator from 1999 to January 2008, when he left office after not seeking re-election.
The trials could overshadow James' accomplishments as mayor, said Clement Alexander Price, a professor of history at the Newark campus of Rutgers University.
"For some people, Sharpe James will always be remembered as the most significant mayor after the near collapse of Newark in 1967," he said, referring to the city's deadly riots. "He helped to stabilize the city. His articulate rhetoric of optimism was infectious."
While the charges are severe, Price said they are "small potatoes" compared to other urban mayoral corruption cases.
"They strike me as more clumsiness on his part than deeply endowed corruption, like on the scale of the Addonizio administration or the boss Hague years," he said. Hugh J. Addonizio, who was Newark mayor in the 1960s, was convicted of extortion and conspiracy and served five years of a 10-year prison sentence; Frank Hague, a boss of Jersey City for much of the first half of the 20th century, never went to jail.
James is at least the fourth former Newark mayor to be charged with wrongdoing in the last 70 years. Only one, Addonizio, has gone to prison.
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