| Can Durham learn from New Jersey? | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 24 2008, 10:31 AM (139 Views) | |
| Quasimodo | Nov 24 2008, 10:31 AM Post #1 |
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http://markgribben.com/?page_id=20 Long Branch, N.J. The City Manager After a noteworthy career as assistant city manager of a number of communities, followed by increasingly large city manager positions, Richard J. Bowen, a sturdy Mainer, agreed to take on the role as city manager of Long Branch. In the city manager form of government, the mayor and city council are elected by the people and hire a manager who performs the day-to-day business of running the community with the oversight of the mayor and council. [sound familiar?] (snip) “He [Russo] indicated to me that he controlled the majority of the city council and that the job was mine for the asking,” Bowen continued. “I was just to keep my eyes straight ahead of me, not be too much concerned about what’s happening on either side.” Standing in the aisle of a city drug store, the speechless former city manager in front of him, Russo went on to explain how things worked in Long Branch. “He indicated that there was money for everybody, there was a little piece for everybody, and that the job was mine for as long as I just adopted that posture,” Bowen testified before the SCI. For emphasis, Russo then told Bowen how he kept his city council in line. Little Pussy said he “would not pull a sneak on me. I remember this very clearly,” Bowen said. “I had never heard the expression before. And that I would under no circumstances be permitted to consider pulling a sneak on him because I had a wife and six very lovely children.” (snip) The Crooked Judge (snip) There was a leak in the process. Bowen and police chief - then captain - Thomas Pesano believed the leak started at the source: “He thought it was at the source, at the point of obtaining the warrant itself,” Bowen said. Bowen and Pesano agreed to test the theory by setting up the judge who signed the warrants, who is identified in the report only as “Baldino.” “I placed a call to Judge Baldino’s court clerk asking that when Judge Baldino was through with his morning session, would he drop by my office,” Bowen told the committee. He did. “I locked the door and placed a call to (Pesano asking him) to come to my office,” Bowen continued. “He produced an unsigned warrant which I asked Judge Baldino to sign.” Baldino protested, but when shown that the warrant was good and correct, he relented and signed. The judge then tried to leave, but Bowen asked him to stay. “He stayed long enough for Capt. Pesano…to make on two different occasions relatively small, but good, arrests for illegal gambling activity.” Chief Pesano (snip) The heart attack came after Pesano received a phone call from an anonymous man who, according to Pesano’s wife, threatened his family. After Pesano went public with his charges against the mob, his daughter was threatened over the phone, his wife received a threatening phone call and an anonymous caller tried to have the junior high school release Pesano’s daughter from school and put her in a cab that was being sent. [Can I think of another police chief whose daughter might have been threatened? Pure speculation, of course.] Epilogue Following a March and April 1970 public hearing, the SCI referred to the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey its findings, data and fiscal records relating to corporations formed by Russo. These materials were the basis for a 1971 indictment of Russo for failure to file corporate income tax returns. Russo pleaded guilty to that charge and was sentenced to three years in jail, to run concurrently with a New Jersey court sentence for perjury. (Russo subsequently was murdered). Additionally, a police chief whose conduct was targeted by the SCI´s probe resigned from office, and Long Branch voters at the next municipal election following the public hearing elected a new administration. Subsequent investigations into the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s office resulted in the suicide of the chief of county detectives after he received a subpoena, and changes in the auditing and election of the local district attorney. The best warning about the mix of politics and organized crime came from Long Branch City Manager Richard Bowen who told the SCI: “It’s seldom that many of us in the business of government get a second chance. New Jersey has certainly gotten more than a second chance and if they don’t do something with it, they certainly deserve everything they have had before and a lot worse, which I am sure they will get. |
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| Quasimodo | Nov 24 2008, 10:37 AM Post #2 |
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Some Durham City Council Candidates, 2005 http://www.pamspaulding.com/weblog/2005/09/crooks-thieves-and-homo-bigots-at.html Wednesday, September 28, 2005 We've got a good little story going on here in Durham. One of the mayoral candidates, Vincent Brown, seems incapable of telling the truth and has a mile-long rap sheet. (snip) You can't even get a clear basic background on the man. (N&O): Over the years, he appears to have used at least four variations of his name -- Vincent Brown, Vincent C. Brown, Vincent C. Brown Sr. and Vincent Cortez Brown. He has also used at least two birth dates -- one in 1960 and another in 1963. On a candidate's questionnaire Brown filed with The News & Observer, he wrote that he is 45. When asked his age in an interview, he said 43. Asked to explain the discrepancy, Brown gave the 1960 date used on his voter registration as his true birthday, which would make him 44. Though he says he has lived in Durham for 12 years, legal records, phone listings and credit reports indicate that Brown and his wife, Jennifer Brown, have moved often -- living in Greensboro, Hillsborough and Danville, Va., among other places. He pleaded guilty to 46 misdemeanor charges, under plea agreements after first being charged with felonies. A sample of what is on Brown's rap sheet and list of lies, revealed in court documents, police reports, prison files and other public records - there are over 100 charges. * writing worthless checks * simple assault * fraud * providing fictitious information to a police officer * possessing a weapon on school grounds * violating probation * failing to pay income tax * driving while impaired. * convicted of felony forgery in Pender County * numerous civil actions filed against him, mostly seeking payment. Earlier this month, an order was issued against Brown on behalf of one of his former attorneys for unpaid bills and interest totaling $70,810. * promoting the prostitution of a minor (with three charges involving the same victim!). * Brown actually drove to an N&O interview last week driving a late-model pickup truck -- even though criminal records indicate his driver's license was permanently revoked back in 1992. * Brown said he lived in Greensboro in 1988 as a student at N.C. A&T State University, where he said he earned a four-year degree in civil engineering. The university registrar's office said last week that no one under Brown's name or either of the birth dates he has used earned a degree or attended classes there. What does this dolt have to say for himself on the criminal charges? He claims it's all a case of mistaken identity. Hmmmm...how does that explain all the people that recognize him and that he has fingerprints on file? "That's not me," Brown said Thursday. "I don't know who that is. This is wrong. ... There are so many Vincent Browns." He then said the charges shouldn't matter anyway, because they were dismissed -- information not included on the documents he was shown. Asked how he knew the charges had been dismissed if he was not the Vincent Brown who had been arrested, Brown paused; then he laid out a scenario in which he was a victim of mistaken identity and had to hire a lawyer to help set the record straight. He reiterated that he had never been arrested. (snip) * Shawn R. Cunningham (Ward 3): arrested on a felony count of embezzlement in 1996 and a misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon in 1992.H e pleaded guilty to both, with the felony embezzlement charge being lowered to a misdemeanor count as part of a deal with prosecutors. Cunningham, whose resume says he has worked for banks and mortgage companies, also has been charged with at least 15 misdemeanor counts of writing worthless checks over an eight-year span. * Joe Williams (Ward 1): "I don't have any skeletons in my closet." Records show Williams was convicted in a 1986 trial for a single misdemeanor count of assault on a female. He was ordered by a judge to "pay for damages to teeth" in an amount to be determined by the clerk of court. When asked about the charge after the event, Williams said it resulted from an altercation with his sister. "Everybody has fights with their sister," said Williams, who was 44 when he was convicted. * John Holmes (Ward 2): told the crowd that he had been arrested once for driving with a revoked license, spending about an hour in jail before his wife bailed him out. Court records show Holmes has been charged for driving with a revoked license nine times since 1992, most recently last year. He pleaded guilty to those charges on four occasions. Holmes could not be reached Tuesday night to answer about the discrepancy. * Steven Matherly (Ward 3) acquitted on disorderly conduct and trespassing charges from his actions at a Durham school board meeting. But he did not mention five charges for writing worthless checks between 1990 and 1995, or a 1993 charge for driving with a revoked license. Records show Matherly pleaded guilty to two of the misdemeanor check charges, as well as the license charge. Asked about the charges, Matherly said: "They are what they are, and that is all I have to say." * John Best (already a council member): sent to jail for two days by a judge earlier this year for his failure to pay child support and alimony. According to the Durham County clerk of court, Best now owes his ex-wife $18,546. The council member has repeatedly said that the outstanding balance is alimony and that he has always paid his child support. But according to the clerk's office, $1,707 in child support is owed. Best also pleaded guilty to driving while impaired in 1998. Best said Tuesday that the conviction resulted from a "mistake in judgment" that had not affected his performance on the council over the past four years. * Jackie Wagstaff (running for mayor): charged with two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretense for doctoring city check requests from North East Central Durham Reinvestment Inc., a city-financed social services organization she ran. She later pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts in a deal with prosecutors. Edited by Quasimodo, Nov 24 2008, 10:38 AM.
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