10 notable N.J. officials in the politician Hall of Shame

When New Jersey was a colony in the early 1700s, Gov. Edward Hyde (aka Lord Cornbury) was accused of embezzlement, fiscal mismanagement, and accepting bribes.

That was the beginning of a tradition of political corruption so embedded in daily life that the University of Chicago has listed New Jersey among the country’s 10 most-corrupt states.

The trial of Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez is only the latest in a long line of legal proceedings for alleged Garden State malfeasance.

What follows is a by-no-means definitive catalog of notable New Jersey officials convicted of political corruption, including five Atlantic City mayors:

» READ MORE: From gold bars to a pricey car: All the bribes Sen. Bob Menendez has been accused of accepting over the years

All Democrats, the three were caught in the FBI sting known as Abscam that started 47 years ago this month. A bogus company in Long Island named after one of several fictitious Arab sheikhs, Abdul Enterprises was set up to pay for casino licenses and building permits. Williams was convicted of nine counts of bribery and conspiracy to use his office to aid business ventures, serving two years of a three-year sentence.

Thompson, of Trenton, was sentenced to a maximum three years in jail and a $20,000 fine after being found guilty in 1980 of bribery and conspiracy along with Sen. John Murphy (D., N.Y.) for sharing two $50,000 bribes. A federal judge recommended that he be paroled after three months. Errichetti, a popular mayor credited with easing racial tensions in Camden, was convicted of bribery and served nearly three years in prison. Actor Jeremy Renner played a character based on Errichetti in American Hustle, a movie about Abscam.

» READ MORE: Top Democrats call on on Sen. Bob Menendez to resign following guilty verdict

A former Democratic member of the U.S. House and two-term mayor of Newark, Addonizio was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and fined $25,000 for conspiracy and extortion in 1970. Linked to organized crime, Addonizio went on trial on charges of conspiring to obtain $1.4 million in kickbacks from contractors on city projects. In court during a mayoral election, he tried to campaign from the federal courthouse, but went down to defeat. A prosecutor told the jury that Addonizio was ‘’a man of easy conscience and flabby pride’' and a ‘’frequenter of casinos.’’

» READ MORE: Bob Menendez verdict: Will he have to resign? How much prison time is he facing? What happens next?

A former Democratic state senator representing Camden, Bryant was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison in 2009 for unlawfully using his power and influence to obtain a paid, low-show job at the now-defunct University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in exchange for lobbying and bringing millions of dollars in extra funding to the school, and for using that job and others to fraudulently triple his state pension. Bryant had served 26 years in the legislature. He was released from prison after serving 40 months.

The Democratic mayor of Newark from 1986 to 2006, James was convicted in 2008 of helping a girlfriend gain access to a city-sponsored program meant to redevelop Newark’s struggling South Ward and to buy nine city-owned properties at a low price. She was able to resell them at a profit of more than $600,000. Found guilty on fraud charges, James was sentenced to 27 months in jail, far short of the 20 years prosecutors had demanded.

Called by the New York Times “a powerful, yet sometimes vindictive man,” James was credited with bringing to town the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the Prudential Arena, and the Newark Bears.

A former Democratic New Jersey Senate president and mayor of New Brunswick, Lynch pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion charges in 2006. He admitted he’d accepted more than $25,000 from a mining company that he’d helped win permit approvals while he was in the state Senate. Lynch was once the most influential power broker in the state and a potential candidate for governor.

In a court statement, Lynch apologized for doing injury to New Jersey’s reputation, saying, “I deeply regret it, not merely because it will irreparably stain my reputation but, more importantly, because it will further erode both the citizens’ faith in their public officials and the country’s perception of this great state.”

A former Marine and Democratic Camden mayor, Milan was convicted in 2000 of taking mob payoffs, using city contractors to perform free work on his home, laundering money from a drug dealer, committing insurance fraud, using vehicles supplied for free by a towing contractor, and selling a stolen computer to an intern. He allegedly used some of the money he obtained to take a trip to Puerto Rico. U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano told Milan he was “more enamored of the trapping of his office than his duties,” according to the Camden Civil Rights Project. Milan was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Musto, a former Democratic state senator and Union City mayor who started public life in 1946, was sentenced in 1982 to seven years in prison for sharing in hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks from a contractor who was building additions to two city high schools. Of particular note, one of Musto’s Senate aides — Bob Menendez — helped put him in jail.

Johnson had been a titanic Republican power broker and criminal in the city, according to the Eagleton Institute of Politics Center on the American Governor at Rutgers University. Convicted in 1941 of income tax evasion, Johnson was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $20,000. He would live on in criminal history thanks to Steve Buscemi’s portrayal of him in the HBO show Boardwalk Empire.

As an aside: The Senate Ethics Committee in 2002 “severely admonished” U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli for accepting gifts, including a television and stereo CD player, from a campaign donor. But Torricelli was not charged with a crime.

Corruption has flourished in the sea air, felling several Democratic city leaders, and one Republican, some of whom include:

A combative figure, Gilliam was sentenced to 30 days in prison in 2021. That was significantly less time than the term of 15 to 21 months prosecutors sought to punish him for defrauding AC Starz, the nonprofit youth basketball team he founded. He was charged with using the proceeds to bankroll a lavish lifestyle of designer suits and pricey dinners. “I stand before this court as a fractured human being,” Gilliam told U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez via Zoom. “The mistake that I made is not something that I am proud of.”

Jackson admitted in U.S. District Court in 1973 that he had been involved in a scheme to shake down contractors who did business with the city. The then-64‐year‐old Jackson made the admission after changing his plea from not guilty to guilty to conspiracy to extort money from contractors.

Elected mayor in 2006 after serving as chief of the Atlantic City Beach Patrol, Levy had exaggerated a military career in Vietnam. He pleaded guilty to defrauding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for receiving benefits for which he wasn’t entitled. Levy was sentenced to three years probation and fined $5,000. He resigned as mayor on Oct. 10, 2007. Levy made national news in 2007 after disappearing from Atlantic City for two weeks without a trace. It was later revealed that he had checked into a rehabilitation facility to receive treatment for a dependence on prescription drugs.

In 1984, Matthews was indicted on federal charges of using his office to extort $10,000 in bribes from an undercover FBI agent who was posing as a developer, according to the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers. Matthews was charged with trying to benefit himself and alleged Philadelphia and South Jersey organized crime figures Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo and Philip “Crazy Phil” Leonetti. He entered prison later in the year and served more than five years.

In 1989, Usry, a Republican, and 13 other political leaders and business executives were arrested and charged with influence peddling, corruption and official misconduct following a seven-month state investigation. In 1991, Usry admitted taking $6,000 in campaign cash without intending to report it and entered a pretrial-intervention program, which subsequently allows his record to be expunged, according to the Eagleton center.