TRENTON - Convicted Mayor Tony Mack is in violation of state law and can no longer hold office, Judge Mary Jacobson ruled today.

Granting the request to remove Mack filed by the state Office of the Attorney General, Jacobson said Mack is no longer able hold office effective immediately.

"Once you are found guilty by a jury of your peers not only does the presumption of innocence disappear but with it comes the stigma and the shadow ... of being found guilty by a jury of your peers of crimes of dishonesty," Jacobson said.

The full text of Jacobson's order is available online.

Mack had argued that he should not be removed from office until he is sentenced in federal court – where he faces 20 years in prison – or until motions filed by Mack’s attorney for a new trial are considered by the federal court.

But Jacobson said it would make no sense to wait for a period of several months before removing Mack from office. She said the state statute to remove him clearly says the removal would be effective at the time a jury returned a guilty verdict.

"While we certainly could wait until sentencing, there is absolutely no reason that we have to," Jacobson said.

"It is a mandatory forfeiture in terms of the way that the statute is written," she said.

Deputy Attorney General Steven Yomtov argued that state law requires that a convicted official cannot hold public office and asked Jacobson to recognize the federal conviction as a violation of that law. If Mack were convicted in state court he would have been removed from office immediately, Yomtov said.

Jacobson agreed saying it makes sense that if a public official is found guilty in state court the judge would be the one to remove him from office because the judge is well aware of the strength of the verdict and the likelihood of an appeal. When the verdict is in federal court, it must be more closely examined, she said.

In this case, Jacobson noted that the conviction came from a jury of Mack's peers and occurred in Trenton. She said the offenses for which Mack was convicted clearly touch on his office.

A jury found Mack guilty on February 7, 2014 on six counts of bribery and extortion following a five-week trial in federal court. He refused to resign and maintained his innocence, so the Office of the Attorney General asked the state court to remove him from office.

Jacobson gave Mack two weeks to respond to the state’s request to have the first-term mayor removed. Today at the hearing, she acknowledged the arguments of both Mack, and the state before making her decision.

Replacing Mack in the office of the Mayor will be City Council President George Muschal, who will hold the post until council meets to vote that either he should stay in office until the June or appoint someone else to serve the remainder of Mack’s term. A municipal election is set for May when voters will elect a new mayor.

Mack was first elected to the post in 2010 and his time in office was filled with controversy. In July 2012, the FBI raided Mack’s home and City Hall in an investigation connected to a downtown parking garage project, which was in reality an FBI sting operation. Mack was arrested alongside his brother Ralphiel Mack and campaign supporter Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni in September 2012 and the trio were charged with receiving bribes from the purported parking garage developer.

Despite the charges against him and calls for him to step down, Tony Mack stayed in office continuing during his trial that began in January.



Mack's federal court sentencing is scheduled for May 14, 2014.

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