Five defendants charged separately in criminal complaints with second-degree bribery in official and political matters: Sudhan Thomas, Jersey City school board president; John Cesaro, former Morris County freeholder; Mary Dougherty, former Morris County freeholder candidate; Jason O’Donnell, former State Assemblyman and former Bayonne mayoral candidate; John Windish, former Mount Arlington council member | New Jersey Attorney General's Office Bags, envelopes and a coffee cup stuffed with cash: New Jersey's latest corruption bust

PHILADELPHIA — Five current and former local elected officials from New Jersey — including a former state assemblyman and a school board president — were charged Thursday in a corruption sting in which they allegedly promised to steer public work to a cooperating witness in exchange for thousands of dollars in bribes.

The bribes, authorities say, were delivered to the bipartisan group of North Jersey politicos in paper bags and envelopes filled with cash, in campaign checks from straw donors and even a coffee cup stuffed with $10,000 in $100 bills.


The bust is the latest colorful chapter in the state’s long and sordid history of political corruption.

Three of the five charged in the sting, which was orchestrated by the state attorney general‘s office, held public office at the time they allegedly accepted the bribes. They came from urban Hudson County, notorious for political corruption, and wealthy, suburban Morris County, which has a cleaner reputation.

“We allege that these political candidates were all too willing to sell the authority of their public office or the office they sought in exchange for an envelope filled with cash or illegal checks from straw donors,” Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said in a statement. “This is old-school political corruption at its worst — the kind that undermines the political process and erodes public faith in government.

“We are working through the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability to create a culture of accountability in New Jersey, where public officials know they must act with integrity or else face the consequences,” Grewal said.

Charged were: former Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell, Jersey City Board of Education President Sudhan Thomas, former Morris County Freeholder John Cesaro, former Mount Arlington Councilman John Windish and former Morris County freeholder candidate Mary Dougherty.

In addition to bribery, the three officials who were in office at the time — Thomas, Cesaro and Windish — were charged with “second-degree acceptance or receipt of unlawful benefit by a public servant for official behavior.”

All five defendants face up to 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine. The charges against Thomas, Cesaro and Windish carry a five-year mandatory minimum sentence.

According to Grewal, the biggest bribes went to Thomas, whose position on the school board office is nonpartisan in a heavily Democratic city. He allegedly took $35,000 in two cash payments from the informant — a tax attorney — in May and July of this year while running for reelection to the school board.

The informant wanted Thomas to appoint him as the board’s special counsel for real estate, Grewal said.

“Yeah, nobody questions anything,” Thomas said in response, according to Grewal. “Nobody questions all of that stuff.”

Thomas lost his reelection bid last month.

O’Donnell allegedly accepted a $10,000 cash bribe to pay for "street money" — the term typically used for a canvassing operation — for his unsuccessful 2018 mayoral campaign in Bayonne. A Democrat from Hudson County, O’Donnell served in the Assembly from 2010 to 2016, having succeeded Democrat Anthony Chiappone, who resigned after pleading guilty to falsifying campaign finance reports.

“I just wanna be your tax guy,” the informant allegedly told O’Donnell after handing him the cash in a paper bag.

“Done,” O’Donnell responded, according to the attorney general’s office.

Cesaro, a Republican, allegedly accepted an envelope from the informant filled with $10,000 in cash and $2,350 in checks. However, he returned the cash and allegedly asked for checks instead, which ultimately came from “straw donors” — people whose names are used on checks to hide the true source of the donations.

Cesaro, who lost reelection to the Morris County freeholder board in 2018, had wanted to use the money for his planned campaign for mayor of Parsippany-Troy Hills, Grewal said.

When the tax attorney said he was looking for tax work in the town, Cesaro allegedly responded, “I become mayor, I got your back,” according to the attorney general’s office.

Windish, a former Republican councilman in the small Morris County borough of Mount Arlington, allegedly took $7,000 in cash in an envelope for his 2018 reelection campaign in exchange for supporting the informant for reappointment as borough attorney. Windish lost reelection that year.

"I need you to, I need your commit that I’m your borough attorney and I need more work, John," the informant told Windish, according to the attorney general's office.

"You got it," Windish allegedly responded.

Dougherty, the unsuccessful Democratic Morris County freeholder candidate, allegedly met the informant in a restaurant in August 2018, where he passed her a take-out coffee cup stuffed with $10,000 in $100 bills, Grewal’s office said.

She later allegedly returned the cash and asked the informant to cut her checks from four straw donors for her campaign fund. Dougherty, a real estate agent, allegedly accepted the checks at the same restaurant in October 2018.

According to the attorney general’s office, after delivering the checks to Dougherty, the informant asked that she support his reappointment as Morris County counsel.

“Don’t forget me,” the informant says, according to the attorney general’s office.

“I won’t. I promise,” Dougherty, who is also a member of the Democratic State Committee, allegedly responded. “A friend is a friend, my friend.”