Joe Malinconico

Paterson Press

PATERSON — Three city workers indicted on corruption charges would avoid jail time if they cooperate with the criminal case against Mayor Joey Torres under a plea deal that state authorities offered them during a court hearing Monday afternoon, officials said.

In contrast, Torres would have to serve a minimum of five years in prison if he accepted the offer made by Deputy Attorney General Pater Baker. Torres also would have to resign from office and make restitution under the proposed deal, in which he would plead guilty to a second-degree conspiracy charge.

Torres, who was accompanied during the court appearance in Hudson County by his wife, Sonia, declined to comment on the state’s offer.

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The mayor’s lawyer declined to say whether he thought the difference in the deals was designed to get the employees to testify against the mayor. “Clearly, the offer made to my client is more aggressive than the offers made to his co-defendants,” said Torres’ lawyer, John Azzarello.

“We’re not talking about taking any deal at this point,” Azzarello said.

The three indicted Public Works Department employees — Joseph Mania, Timothy Hanlon and Imad Mowaswes — would plead guilty to third-degree conspiracy and get probation instead of jail time, under the offer made by Baker. They also would lose their jobs and be banned from taking any other positions in the public sector under the deal. The three employees have been accused of getting paid overtime by Paterson taxpayers for doing personal work for the mayor.

“I expected the state to make an offer like this for the three co-defendants,” said Robert Galluccio, Hanlon’s attorney. When asked if his client had decided to take the deal, Galluccio said, “Absolutely not.”

The lawyers for Mania and Mowaswes said they had not yet discussed the proposed deals with their clients. Joseph Afflitto Jr., who is representing Mowaswes, said he wanted to review the evidence that the prosecution provided to the defendants on Monday. “I haven’t seen a stitch of paper other than the indictment,” Afflitto said.

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said the plea deals had been offered to the four defendants prior to Monday’s hearing before Superior Court Judge Sheila Venable in Jersey City.

“It wasn’t the first time it was offered — we traditionally send a plea offer to defendants shortly after indictment,” said spokesman Paul Loriquet. “But it was the first time it was put on the record.”

When asked if the three employees would be required to testify against Torres, the spokesman said, “The plea offers to the employees do include cooperation as a condition.”

One of the defense lawyers said Mania, Hanlon and Mowaswes would have until Sept. 1 to decide whether to take the deal.

The indictment charges the three men with conspiracy, theft, official misconduct, and falsifying and tampering with public records. The indictment also mentioned “one or more other persons … who are co-conspirators but not named as defendants herein.”

Defense lawyers said they expected to learn who the unindicted co-conspirators are from the evidence that authorities handed them on Monday. Authorities have not said whether the co-conspirators had provided testimony or other evidence against the mayor and the three employees.

The city suspended Mania, Hanlon and Mowaswes days after the indictment was announced in March. City payroll records from Feb. 1 listed Mania’s salary at $86,467, Hanlon’s at $40,040 and Mowaswes’ at $66,952.

In the aftermath of the indictments, Torres has continued serving as mayor, collecting his $119,000 salary. City officials said there was no provision in municipal law for suspending the chief executive. In a 6-2 vote, the City Council earlier this month rejected a “no confidence” resolution that would have asked for the mayor’s resignation.

Torres has been under a cloud for more than a year after NBC News in March 2016 broadcast video recordings showing Mania, Hanlon and Mowaswes doing various odd jobs at the mayor’s Arlington Avenue home and at the beer business owned by his daughter and nephew. The video was shot by a private investigator hired by a developer involved in an ongoing dispute with the Torres administration.

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The six-count indictment covered only the work done at the beer warehouse on East 15th Street. The Attorney General’s Office subpoenaed recordings at the mayor’s house but has not said why the charges did not involve the work on Arlington Avenue.

Last year, Torres told Paterson Press that the city employees were longtime friends doing him personal favors by helping out at his house. In some instances, the mayor said, he paid the men for their efforts. He repeatedly has asserted that the employees were not paid by taxpayers for their time at the beer business and his home.

The Attorney General’s Office has said the workers received city overtime payments while doing personal work for Torres.

City records show the three indicted employees received a total of more than $270,000 in the first two fiscal years of Torres’ current term in office. In fact, Mania was the city’s top overtime earner, getting more than $70,000 in extra pay during the 2015 fiscal year, when the crimes allegedly took place.