UPDATE: Undercover informant was well-known N.J. attorney

Five current and former public officials and political candidates were charged Thursday with taking tens of thousands in bribes disguised as campaign contributions in return for steering lucrative legal work to an unnamed tax attorney working as an informant.

Envelopes and paper bags filled with cash and even a coffee cup stuffed with cash were delivered by the unidentified cooperating witness in restaurants, parking lots, a political fundraiser, and a campaign headquarters, according to Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal, all as part of an undercover sting that began in early 2018.

Those targeted were both Democrats and Republicans, and included the Jersey City school board president and a former state assemblyman.

Prosecutors said the cooperating witness at the center of the investigation also offered checks from illegal “straw donors” — individuals reimbursed to write checks to the defendant’s campaign in amounts that complied with the legal limit on individual donations. The complaints alleged that overall, more than $70,000 in bribes were paid.

Charged were:

Sudhan Thomas – Jersey City school board president

Jason O’Donnell – Former state Assemblyman and a former Bayonne mayoral candidate

John Cesaro – Former Morris County freeholder

John Windish – Former Mount Arlington council member

Mary Dougherty – Former Morris County Freeholder candidate and wife of the current mayor of Morristown.

All were charged in separate criminal complaints with second-degree bribery in official and political matters. Thomas, Cesaro and Windish, who held office at the time the bribes were allegedly paid, were also charged with second-degree acceptance or receipt of unlawful benefit by a public servant for official behavior.

Grewal called the charges “old-school political corruption at its worst,” which he said undermines the political process and erodes public faith in government.

“Very little shocks me, but certainly it’s surprising to me … that people are still engaging in this conduct” said Grewal at an unrelated press conference in Newark, noting the Garden State’s “long and sordid history of public corruption.”

The complaints, he said, alleged that some remain all too willing to sell the authority of their public office.

"We intend to hold anyone accountable that betrays their office,” he said. “It’s not business as usual anymore.”

He declined to say what sparked the case, or name the tax attorney identified as the cooperating witness.

But the complaints filed in the case pointed to Matthew O’Donnell, a Morristown attorney, who was the Mount Arlington borough attorney in 2018. Two sources with knowledge of the investigation confirmed that the informant was indeed O’Donnell. A reporter who went to his office was told by a secretary that he was not there. The Attorney General’s office would not comment.

Court appearances for the five who were charged have not been set.

Who are the 5 N.J. officials facing public corruption charges?

According to criminal complaints filed in the case, conversations that appeared to have been part of surveillance recordings left no doubt about what was going down.

Jason O’Donnell, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Bayonne in 2018 and is not related to Matthew O’Donnell, was charged with accepting a $10,000 cash bribe in so-called “street money” for his mayoral campaign from the cooperating witness, who delivered the money in a paper bag at his campaign headquarters. In return, prosecutors said the candidate allegedly agreed to provide the attorney with tax work from Bayonne if elected mayor.

In the complaint, the tax attorney allegedly told O’Donnell “I just wanna be your tax guy.”

“Done,” replied O’Donnell.

The complaint said O’Donnell failed to file required campaign reports with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission disclosing the $10,000 contribution.

O’Donnell’s attorney, Leo Hurley, said he intended to contest the allegations and enter a plea of not guilty.

“Jason O’Donnell has dedicated his life to serving his community, has always conducted himself in a manner that makes his family and friends proud, and has consistently and vigorously fought for their best interests,” said Hurley.

Thomas, who was preparing to run for Jersey City Councilman in 2021, is charged with accepting $35,000 in cash bribes, $10,000 delivered on one date and $25,000 delivered on a second date, in return for his promise to hire the attorney as a special counsel for the Jersey City Board of Education.

“Make me special counsel for...” began the cooperating witness.

“Real estate,” finished Thomas.

“Yeah, real estate. That’s perfect.”

“Yeah, nobody questions anything,” Thomas allegedly told the lawyer, according to the complaint. “Nobody questions all of that stuff.”

Cesaro, then a Morris County Republican freeholder, allegedly solicited contributions from the attorney for his 2021 campaign for mayor of Parsippany-Troy Hills, in return for promising to secure more tax work from Morris County for the unnamed tax attorney and make him tax counsel for the township if elected.

“Johnny, listen, all I want to do is the tax work. That’s all I’m looking to do,” the unnamed attorney told him, according to the complaint.

“I become mayor, I got your back,” Cesaro promised.

The complaint said the freeholder allegedly accepted an envelope containing $10,000 in cash and $2,350 in checks from the attorney, but later returned the cash, asking the cooperating witness to replace it with checks. It said the two allegedly discussed using straw donors, which refers to paying other people to make contributions to a candidate, which is illegal under state law.

At a later fundraiser, the complaint said Cesaro accepted two checks for $2,600 each — the individual limit for contributions in any given state election, per candidate — which the cooperating witness described as “my straws,” along with another check for $150.

During his election in 2017, the freeholder was charged with practicing law while ineligible for seven months, after he had failed to register for the Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts, also known as the IOLTA fund.

In the wake of Thursday’s criminal complaints, Cesaro’s attorney, Robert Dunn, declined to speak to the specific charges. “He denies the allegations and we will be aggressively defending the charges against him,” Dunn said.

Mary Dougherty, a real estate agent from Morristown, was charged with accepted a bribe of $10,000 that was initially delivered as cash but later converted to checks from straw donors for her unsuccessful 2018 campaign for Morris County freeholder.

During a meeting at a restaurant, prosecutors said she accepted $10,000 cash in $100 denominations that were delivered in a take-out coffee cup. She later returned the cash, asking that the attorney replace the cash with four checks, each within the state’s $2,600 contribution limit. When the met again, he gave here four checks, each in the amount of $2,500 payable to “Mary for Morris Freeholder.”

"These are my straws… so I just need your support for my reappointment. Don’t forget me,” he told her, according to the complaint.

“I won’t. I promise. A friend is a friend, my friend,” she said.

Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty, responding to the charges, said he “supported his wife 100%.”

“My wife Mary is a woman of unquestionable character and I have no doubt that the process now underway will demonstrate that,” said the mayor via text, adding that he would avoid any public comment during the of the legal proceedings.

Through her attorney, Matt Beck, Mary Dougherty said she intended to defend against the allegations in the courtroom and not the press.

“I am a person of great integrity and conscience and I look forward to presenting my side of the story, after which I expect to be vindicated,” she stated.

John Windish, a former Republican Mount Arlington councilman, was charged with accepting a $7,000 cash bribe for his unsuccessful bid for re-election to borough council in June 2018. According to the complaint against him, he took the money in an envelope. In return, Windish allegedly promised that he would support the reappointment of the cooperating witness as borough attorney.

“I need you to, I need your commit that I’m your borough attorney and I need more work, John,” said the tax attorney at the center of the probe, according to the complaint.

“You got it,” Windish allegedly responded.

The corruption scheme echoed the wide-ranging federal undercover sting known as Bid Rig, when an informant posing as a crooked developer with deep pockets ensnared dozens of elected officials — including mayors, legislators and municipal leaders — who agreed to take cash contributions in return for using their influence to further a fictional Jersey City development project on the site of a toxic waste site.

That case made international headlines in July 2009, when more than 40 people were arrested on corruption and money laundering charges. Of those charged, 33 pleaded guilty, four were convicted at trial, two were acquitted, charges were dismissed against four others, one died and one remains a fugitive to this day.

The head of the Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability, which handled the corruption investigation announced on Thursday, is Thomas Eicher, a former assistant U.S. attorney who played a major role in the Bid Rig case.

“We are determined to hold public officials and candidates responsible for their actions, no matter their political positions or alliances," said Eicher in a statement.

If convicted, those charged in the state case could face a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison and fines of up to $150,000. Those who held public office when the bribes were allegedly accepted face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison without eligibility for parole, under New Jersey’s enhanced penalties for official corruption, officials said.

Staff writers Rodrigo Torrejon, Blake Nelson, Joe Atmonavage and Katie Kausch contributed to this report.

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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