NEWARK – Renee Lamarre-Sumners walked slowly into a federal courtroom. Her steps were labored, her face gaunt, as her cancer-stricken body eats itself from the inside. It took all of the slight woman’s might to lug around her designer handbag as she settled down next to her attorney, Jerome Ballarotto.

The frail former Trenton municipal judge, who was ousted from the bench in 2010 amid disclosures of financial issues, spent the night before her Wednesday sentencing in a hospital, getting treatment. The doctors wanted to keep her but she said she couldn’t stay.

Now she sat in U.S. District Court wondering whether she would be sent to federal prison for extorting former clients who sought her help with immigration matters out of more than $17,000 over several years.

She faced a maximum 18 months in jail under a plea agreement negotiated between Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark McCarren and her attorney for posing as a fictitious official from the Department of Labor, demanding clients pay penalties to remain in the country or risk deportation. Her own attorney called her decisions “egregious.”

The judge was more strident.

“I don’t want this sentence to be misunderstood by the legal profession,” U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Chesler said. “Without blinking an eye, you’d be spending a year in jail” if it were not for her failing health.

Instead, Chesler ordered Lamarre-Sumners to serve a year of house arrest and five years of probation. She must repay $33,050 in restitution to her victims and cannot work in the legal profession in any capacity.

While New Jersey online attorney records show her license has been suspended. Lamarre-Sumners says she has surrendered her attorney license. As part of her sentence, she is also not allowed to work as a paralegal or provide legal advice while she is on probation.

“I can tell you what you have done has disgraced our profession,” Chesler said. “What you did was to make a mockery of the oath you took as an attorney. You used that opportunity to squeeze money out of [your victims].”

Ballarotto convinced the judge to spare his client from federal prison, saying it would be akin to a “death sentence” for a terminally ill woman suffering from a host of diseases.

The list of Lamarre-Sumners’ health complications includes lymphoma, seizures, a brain aneurism, a heart attack and an unspecified “neurological condition,” caused by her myriad bouts of chemotherapy and radiation, that contributed to the decision to bilk her clients,Ballarotto said.

The well-known defense attorney said his client’s conduct was “inexplicable,” considering her contributions to her community as an attorney.

Those impacted by the former Trenton judge’s decisions include Martha Franco Merino, an undocumented immigrant who sought out Lamarre-Sumners for help obtaining legal status in the U.S.

Merino was accompanied by her children to court. She spoke through a translator, recounting the pain Lamarre-Sumners’ actions wrought on her family.

“I had placed my confidence and trust in her in hope she would help me get my papers,” she said. “My children have been victimized. I had to sacrifice food” to pay Lamarre-Sumners’ fees.

“All of this has damaged my whole life,” Merino said.

Despite her anger, Merino said she felt bad for Lamarre-Sumners, wishing her well as she battles health problems.

“I hope the result may be a positive one,” Merino said.

For her part, Lamarre-Sumners was too weak to speak. She had her attorney read a statement on her behalf in which she apologized to her victims. She pledged to “pay back every cent” of restitution to her victims, whom she admitted she failed.

“I am so ashamed,” said Lamarre-Sumners, once a rising star in the legal community who had been appointed to the bench by now-convicted former Mayor Tony Mack. Now she joins him in the inglorious pantheon of convicted felons.

“You victimized the most vulnerable,” Chesler said. “What you did is simply horrendous.”

TRENTON – The difference between defense attorney Jerome Ballarotto inside a federal courtroom and outside of one is the difference between a wordsmith and a word sniper.

Outside the courtroom, the former Secret Service agent penned a novel about a Secret Service agent. While Ballarotto’s flair for fiction solidified him as a wordsmith, it’s probably not what made him worthy of the trust and confidence of New Jersey Army National guardsman Ioannis “John” Karazoupis, 28.
Ballarotto’s actions as a word sniper during the second day of his client’s sexual assault trial is most likely what did.

Karazoupis is accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old guardswoman May 4, 2014 while the two were at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst for training. He maintains the encounter was consensual while federal prosecutors contend the woman was blackout drunk and unable to consent.
The legal marksman’s pinpoint parsing of witnesses’ words Friday would have made Chris Kyle proud.

Ballarotto’s precision might be the difference for Karazoupis.

That the woman was inebriated doesn’t appear in dispute as FBI toxicologist Marc LeBeau testified he estimated the woman’s blood alcohol level at the time of the incident at .21, or nearly three times the state’s presumed level of intoxication. Several witnesses have bolstered this by saying they saw the woman drinking heavily in the hours before the assault.

LeBeau explained how people with those levels of alcohol in their system can experience anterograde amnesia. LeBeau compared it to a VCR and said the brain essentially fails to record events despite even if someone is still conscious. Ballarottowanted to know whether LeBeau could say for sure if that was the case here. LeBeau said that while the “classic signs of intoxication” could alert someone to the possibility another is blackout drunk, it might not be obvious to everyone. “You can’t say, as a scientist, ‘They blacked out,” LeBeau said.

Ballarotto’s nitpicking was more evident in his cross examination of guardsman Steven Grill.

Grill testified on direct examination Thursday he was with the woman, only identified in court by her initials, most of the day and watched her consume several alcoholic drinks. He said she had numerous shots of hard liquor while a group of people played a drinking card game inside a fellow guard member’s room.
Grill said when he decided to return to his shared 12-man barrack on the third floor of the barracks to take a nap, the woman followed him to his room.
Ballarotto wanted to know how the woman understood to follow Grill to his room if she was so inebriated. Grill shrugged. He wasn’t sure why anybody followed him up to his room, he said.

The attorney turned author also made a big deal about Grill’s word choice, pointing out the guardsman had testified before the grand jury that the woman appeared “alert.”

Ballarotto said Grill initially described to investigators the woman’s alcohol consumption as a “not a whole lot, but a decent amount” and described seeing her consume a “couple of shots,” not eight as he testified earlier.

Ballarotto then ratcheted up the intensity, asking Grill why he believed the woman choose to sleep in his bunk when several others were unoccupied. The twin-sized beds would have made it difficult for Grill not to notice the woman curled up next to him,Ballarotto said. “I sleep like a rock,” Grill responded.
Pointing back to Grill’s grand jury testimony,

Ballarotto challenged the guardsman over his characterization that Karazoupis was hounding him with questions about whether Grill had sex with the woman.

He contended his client wasn’t alone in posing “guy questions” and one of Grill’s superiors actually had to instruct the men to stop prying after Grill denied the two were intimate.

Ballarotto proceeded to press Grill about why he and another guardsman assumed his client had raped the woman when they decided to confront Karazoupis upon learning about the encounter. “He confessed to doing it,” Grill shot back.

Ballarotto nearly came unhinged, pointing at Grill and saying that while his client admitted having sex with the woman, he has adamantly denied sexually assaulting her.

The point, as Ballarotto hinted at in his opening statement, is others forced the word “rape” upon the woman to describe the encounter. He alleges federal prosecutors have done the same thing by bringing “outrageous charges” of sexual assault.

HAMILTON – Former township Mayor John Bencivengo could have picked anywhere to live after being released from prison.
But the 61-year-old ultimately chose Hamilton, the township he ran from 2007 until he resigned in 2012 due to his federal corruption conviction.
“I love Hamilton,” Bencivengo said Monday in his first interview since being released from custody on Friday. “My heart has always been here.”
The former mayor was convicted in November 2012 of taking $12,400 in exchange for influencing two school board members so that insurance broker Marliese Ljuba could keep her lucrative health insurance brokerage with Hamilton School District.

Beginning to serve his sentence of 38 months on May 30, 2013, Bencivengo was released early from a Pennsylvania federal prison due to good behavior.
He was initially transferred to a halfway house in Philadelphia in December after serving 18 months, then restricted to home confinement in February, which allowed for work release.

“I was able to get a job doing some bookkeeping and scheduling for a friend that owns a trucking company,” Bencivengo said of his current occupation. “My intention is to try to slowly get back into the community life and trying to see what I can do to contribute to the community the best that I can.”
Bencivengo is also in the process of writing a book about his life.

When shopping in Hamilton, Bencivengo said he feels good. “Whatever store I go in, people stop me and they say, ‘Welcome Back,’” he said. “It’s been a great feeling of acceptance here.”The general consensus when he runs into residents is they tell him he did a good job and that his administration helped turn the township around, Bencivengo said. “There has never been one bad spoken word to me in the community,” he said.
The former Republican mayor of a township controlled by the GOP said some from his party have reached out to him, some have not.
“That is their prerogative,” he said, noting Hamilton Mayor Kelly Yaede has yet to contact him. “Basically, I’m going to deal with that as I may. As time goes by, we will see what that brings. But for the most part, I’m living my life the best that I know how now in Hamilton.”

Bencivengo said he hopes the current administration follows the policies that he put in place, in addition to incorporating new ones that serve the people.
“The most important thing is when you’re in office: You have to remember that you work for the people, the people don’t work for you,” he outlined. “They pay you to do the job.”
Bencivengo declined to talk about the case against him. His attorney Jerome Ballarotto previously told The Trentonian the former mayor was his “most wronged” defendant ever.
While serving his sentence in prison, Bencivengo said it was difficult.

“It was tough because my entire life, I had a very clean record,” he said. “I never did anything wrong in my life. And this came along, and I never really experienced any kind of prison.” Bencivengo said it gave him a firsthand look of what happens to people that break the law and end up in prison.
“It’s not a pretty sight, I can tell you that,” he said. “It’s not a comfortable feeling. I really couldn’t wait to get home.”

In between his stint at the halfway house and home confinement, Bencivengo’s mother died in January.
“I miss her deeply,” he said. “I was hoping to come home to her and spend my home confinement with her. But it turns out, I ended up staying in here without her. It was a tough thing.”

Bencivengo will be on probation for three more years, but he hopes to extend his stellar prison record.
“In prison, that’s pretty hard to do,” Bencivengo said, noting a lot of things could go wrong. “I intend to continue that all the way through probation with hopes that I might be able to get an early release from probation.”

Bencivengo said he gave all he had when he was mayor.“I gave the best that I could give and I intend to continue giving and helping people like I did when I was mayor,” he said of the future. “The only place that I know where to do that better is here in Hamilton.”

TRENTON Former city municipal Judge Renee Lamarre-Sumners, ousted from the bench in 2010 amid disclosures of financial issues, is accused of extorting more than $17,000 over a four-year span from clients who sought her legal help on immigration matters, according to a criminal complaint.

Lamarre-Sumners, once a prominent city attorney who was appointed to the bench in 2010 by now-convicted former Mayor Tony Mack, was arrested last month on fraud-related charges, unbeknownst to some of her alleged victims who fear being deported. She retained high-profile attorney Jerome Ballarotto, has already made a first appearance in federal court in Trenton and is negotiating with prosecutors to resolve her case quietly without going to trial, court records show. A resolution could be in place as early as this month, The Trentonian has learned.

The case, which is being prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorney Mark McCarren, has not been indicted by a grand jury. Lamarre-Sumners faces 20 years in federal prison if a grand jury were to indict her on of a single count of felony extortion and she were convicted. Ballarotto said his client, who has been inundated with medical bills as a result of an ongoing battle with cancer, has not yet plead in court and accusations in a criminal complaint are still unproven. “It’s a very sad story,” he said. “This is a woman who dedicated her life to public service for many years and has done a lot for the community. It’s just a very sad situation, but we’re dealing with it in due course.”

The allegations
Interviews with some of the victims, court documents and letters reveal Lamarre-Sumners allegedly posed as an official from the Department of Labor, demanding payments from clients and threatening further financial sanctions and deportation if her demands were unmet.Under the guise of case worker E. Dormastat, Lamarre-Sumners allegedly wrote in letters obtained by The Trentonian the penalties were due to employment of undocumented workers or because those undocumented workers were residing in the country illegally. Victims didn’t recognize signs they were being duped, unwilling to believe Lamarre-Sumners, personable, frail and cancer-stricken, would jeopardize their stays in the United States.

“I felt sorry for her,” said Kenneth Forgash, owner of 99 Cent Plus in East Windsor. He paid the Trenton attorney $6,750, money that was supposed to go toward helping his employee, Martha Franco Merino, obtain legal status. “You get chills in the back of your neck. Your hair stands up. This person who seems like an angel was putting one over on us.”

Despite records showing she is in financial ruin, Lamarre-Sumners is free on $100,000 unsecured bail and has hired Ballarotto, whose retainer is as much as $50,000, sources have said, leaving some victims wondering where she got money to mount her defense. Attorneys routinely reach agreements with clients to charge less than their normal rates. Ballarotto declined to say how Lamarre-Sumners afforded his services. She has surrendered her passport to the court and is restricted to travel within the state and Pennsylvania, unless approved by federal probation officials. In court papers filed earlier this month, prosecutors said they expect Lamarre-Sumners to plead guilty and have asked for a monthlong continuance of the case, court records show.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois H. Goodman granted the extension based on federal prosecutors’ “desire [for]additional time to undertake any plea negotiations and to enter a guilty plea, which would render any grand jury proceedings and any subsequent trial of this matter unnecessary.” State ethics officials have lodged a complaint against Lamarre-Sumners as a result of the fraud allegations, which appear to stem from ongoing financial issues that stretch back several years but didn’t become public until 2010, when she was appointed to the bench.

She was pressured to resign after several newspaper stories revealed she wrote rubber checks for renewal fees of her law license, had IRS liens placed on her home and had a warrant out for her arrest. Last August, Lamarre-Sumners, who was admitted to the state bar in 1994, was placed on a list of attorneys ineligible to practice law in New Jersey after she failed to pay license renewal fees. A portion of those fees go to the New Jersey Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection, which reimburses clients like the ones Lamarre-Sumners is accused of stealing from.

‘I thought she was my friend’
As Lamarre-Sumners’ and her husband’s financial situation grew increasingly dire, she looked for ways to keep creditors at bay. This included allegedly preying on Forgash, Merino and two other undocumented workers who went to her for help on immigration issues. According to a criminal complaint filed by special agent Zachary Meisenheimer in U.S. District Court in Trenton, Lamarre-Sumners’ ruse began in August 2011 and continued through June 2013. During this time, she convinced clients to hand over several checks, totaling $17,050. Forgash paid an additional $3,000 not reflected in the criminal complaint. State grievance officials say the fee was excessive for filing a “routine” immigration application for Merino which went nowhere.

Some checks were written out to the Department of Labor; others were made out to the attorney, according to the criminal complaint and interviews.
The clients are not named in the complaint but are described as a business owner, employee, fast-food worker in Mercer County and a Guatemalan man employed in Ocean County.

The Trentonian spoke to Forgash, an East Windsor business owner who agreed to wear a wire in order to help federal authorities build their case against Lamarre-Sumners; and his employee, Merino, a Mexican immigrant who came to the U.S. two decades ago. She has worked at the 99 Cent Plus store for about eight years, supporting her two daughters and son, ages 11, 15 and 18. Merino couldn’t contain her excitement when her boss offered to front $6,750 to help her obtain citizenship while she paid off the loan in installments. Forgash began searching for an attorney. A friend recommended Lamarre-Sumners.

When Forgash and Merino met the Trenton attorney, they felt at ease. Lamarre-Sumners was sharp and candid — the perfect blend of personal and professional. She shared details about her life, including an ongoing battle with lymphoma.The lawyerly mother would ask Forgash about his family and invite him out for sushi. He recalled wishing Lamarre-Sumners a “Happy Mother’s Day.”“She was a friend of mine, I thought,” he said. Merino said through a translator she was initially impressed by the attorney.

“When I first met her, she had a good vibe,” she said. “She made me comfortable. I’m very disappointed things aren’t working out that way. I work very hard; I sacrificed a lot for that [money], saving, not buying food or things the kids needed.” Merino patiently waited more than four years as Lamarre-Sumners repeatedly filed error-filled applications, documents show. Lamarre-Sumners told Merino her status was approved, she said. In truth, Merino’s last application, submitted in May 2013, was rejected and Lamarre-Sumners never corrected it or resubmitted it. State ethics officials in their complaint criticized Lamarre-Sumners’ inability to complete “routine application documents.” Merino is fearful she will be deported before she can hire another attorney. “I’m planning to continue the struggle,” she said. “I’m going to move forward, save some money up and I want to hire another attorney.”

The Guatemalan man, referred to as “Victim 3” in the complaint, went to Lamarre-Sumners for help in 2012. He received the first of several letters, purportedly from labor officials, in March 2013 demanding $3,000.The letter stated: “To further avoid the need to return to his native country of Guatemala several penalties will be imposed until such time that the employee obtains a valid work permit authorization from the Department of Homeland Security.” Lamarre-Sumners followed up in a text message that she had gotten the penalty reduced from $5,000. A month later, she claimed to have gotten another letter requesting $2,300 more. “Can you have the money to me by today?” Lamarre-Sumners wrote in a text, according to the complaint.

‘Make her talk’
Forgash became suspicious of Lamarre-Sumners in 2012, when 15 minutes after he cut her a $2,500 check for labor penalties, he got a call from someone at his bank. An attorney had shown up trying to cash a check, and they were ensuring he issued it.“I felt it would be irregular for an attorney to be cashing checks,” Forgash said.When he asked to see receipts from the Department of Labor, Lamarre-Sumners became incommunicado. Forgash contacted numerous state agencies, including the Department of Labor. He found no trace of E. Dormastat, the name of the purported case worker.That’s when he called Rep. Chris Smith with his concerns. The congressman’s office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, contacted labor officials, who, in turn, launched an investigation.

Forgash was asked by investigators to set up a meeting at his store with Lamarre-Sumners. Authorities set up a camera inside the store, hidden inside a Scotch tape dispenser, and strapped Forgash with a wire. They instructed him to “make her talk” and let her “dig her own hole” while they surreptitiously listened to the conversation from an unmarked vehicle in the parking lot of the East Windsor shopping plaza. Forgash remained behind the checkout counter, fearful Lamarre-Sumners would hug him and discover the wire.“I felt like I was doing something wrong to her,” he said. Then he realized she was the “backstabber – she’d look you in the eye, smile, hug you and act like nothing was wrong.”

Financial ruin
According to court records, something was seriously wrong. Lamarre-Sumners and her husband, Jeffrey, were broke. They filed for bankruptcy in June 2012, claiming more than $424,000 in debt and only $187,112 in assets, court records show. More than a third of the debt was from student loans. The couple was unable to keep up with tuition payments for their son, Austin, who was attending Chapin School, a private school in Princeton, after Jeffrey Sumners underwent a hip replacement and was on disability for several months.In February 2010, he was laid off from his job as project manager at a New York-based construction company, records show.

Jeffrey Sumners wrote to creditors, asking for time as the couple tried to avoid having their Abernethy Drive home in Trenton foreclosed. The 2,732-square foot residence, recently valued at $136,600, is being auctioned off, records show.

‘The Maestro’

Ballarotto is portrayed by clients and in colorful newspapers excerpts plastered on his website as the cowboy boot-wearing “maestro of the courtroom.” He is known for his defense of Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni, co-conspirator turned cooperating witness who admitted accepting bribes on behalf of former Trenton Mayor Tony Mack.

Ballarotto’s peers describe him as a zealous advocate whose legal knowledge, combined with connections he made as a Secret Service special agent and criminal chief of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Trenton, make him a “first-rate federal deal-maker.”
The so-called “criminal attorney for the stars,” who once remarked Giorgianni was a part of “Trenton lore” for taking down a crooked politician, is usually a fire-breathing dragon of hyperbole and braggadocio.

For Lamarre-Sumners, the task appears trickier, evidenced by Ballarotto’s subdued tone. For all the evidence the government had against Giorgianni, he had an enormous bargaining chip named Tony Mack. Lamarre-Sumners, indigent and in poor health, is seemingly penniless.

“I don’t know what to say at this point,” Ballarotto said. “This is obviously very upsetting for Renee. She’s enduring all of this trying to defend herself of these charges and maintain her health.”

By David Foster,
The Trentonian
Wednesday, October 8, 2014

HAMILTON – The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to pass on hearing former township Mayor John Bencivengo’s corruption case did not sit well with his attorney.

“It just goes to show you that even our guys in Washington can be so terribly wrong,”attorney Jerome Ballarotto said Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Trenton. “Of all of the cases that I’ve ever handled, I think John Bencivengo was the most wronged by the law than any other defendant I’ve ever seen.”

On Monday, the country’s top court denied the former mayor’s request to have his case heard before the nine justices, ultimately ending his appeals process.

Bencivengo is currently serving a 38-month sentence on corruption charges at the Lewisburg, Pa. federal prison. He is scheduled to be released on June 6, 2015.

The former mayor was convicted in November 2012 of taking $12,400 in exchange for influencing two school board members so that insurance broker Marliese Ljuba could keep her lucrative health insurance brokerage with Hamilton School District.

He began serving his sentence on May 30, 2013.

Ballarotto said his client will most likely be transferred to a halfway house to serve out the remainder of his term after he is released from Lewisburg in June 2015.

“He’s doing great,” the attorney said of an email he received a couple of weeks ago from Bencivengo. “He’s going to come out and he’s going to do just fine.”

In March, Ballarotto unsuccessfully argued to have the conviction overturned in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on the basis that his client had no authority as mayor to do what was asked of him for the bribes he accepted.

At the hearing, Ballarotto claimed Bencivengo had “tremendous influence,” but not the power to carry out the task.

“I don’t think there was a rational basis Ljuba believed he had the ability to do this,” the attorney said at the time. “By the time she testified, she was bought and paid for by the government and had no credibility.”

The attorney had hoped the Supreme Court justices chose the case as one of its few they allow for oral arguments to be heard.

“This law needs to be clarified more than any other law I’ve ever seen,” Ballarotto said. “The Supreme Court really should have taken this case and set it straight, but … it’s not something people are talking about, it’s not something that’s political enough in nature.”

According to the court documents, Bencivengo received two payments from Ljuba to fix his ailing finances; he was going through a divorce and needed to support his girlfriend. In June 2011, Ljuba was approached by the FBI to cooperate against the then mayor. She began tape-recording their conversations, which led to his indictment and eventual conviction.

Ljuba made millions doling out bribes for lucrative contracts. She was also allowed to keep her money and walk.

Mike Davis | Times of Trenton
on October 07, 2014 at 3:00 PM, updated October 07, 2014 at 3:06 PM

HAMILTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied former Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo’s petition for the court to hear oral arguments on his 2012 corruption conviction.

The Supreme Court justices met at a Sept. 29 conference to review thousands of cases and denied Bencivengo’s petition, revealing their simple one-word decision — “denied” — on Monday. According to the Supreme Court’s public information office, the odds were stacked against Bencivengo: Of the 10,000 cases filed with the court each eight-month term, only about 100 are granted review.

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to take the case is just an example of their interest in pursuing political agendas — the things politicians want to talk about — rather than legal matters that affect the little guy every day,” saidJerome Ballarotto, Bencivengo’s attorney.

“John Bencivengo is going to do eight more months in jail and survive. He’s going to do just fine, but it’s justice and liberty that have to pay the price,”Ballarotto said.

In November 2012, Bencivengo was convicted on charges of extortion, bribery and money laundering after he accepted $12,400 in bribes from his close friend Marliese Ljuba, the school district’s former health insurance broker who needed his help in retaining her lucrative school contract. Ljuba was cooperating with the FBI at the time, wearing a secret recording device and eventually testifying against Bencivengo as the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s key witness in the case.

Bencivengo is serving a 38-month prison sentence in Lewisburg, Pa., and is scheduled to be released in June 2015. Ballarotto said he has weekly email exchanges with his client, who he said has been a “model prisoner.”

“He’s looking forward to getting out and moving on. I don’t think he’s going to leave the (Hamilton) area,” Ballarotto said.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bencivengo’s request for a new trial after ruling that, though he had no authority over the school board, the influence he wielded as mayor was enough to convict him.

“It is enough that Ljuba believed Bencivengo’s position gave him influence, and not ‘effective power,’ over the school board’s decision with regards to the insurance contract,” Judges Marjorie Rendell, Thomas Hardiman and Brooks Smith wrote in their April decision.

After the appeal was rejected, another request for all 14 Third Circuit Court appellate judges to hear the case was also turned down.
“The issues we raised in this case are talked about all over the country, in various circuit courts. When we did the research, we saw there was a lot of controversy,” Ballarotto said. “It’s not the ‘John Bencivengo’ argument, it’s the big argument.”

Bencivengo’s former community planning director Rob Warney, who helped mask the bribe money from Ljuba to Bencivengo, pleaded guilty to money laundering and testified against Bencivengo as part of the prosecution.He was sentenced to an 18-month prison term at federal correctional institutions in Pennsylvania and was released on home confinement in July.

See Jerry’s blog entry on this event

Loannis V. Karazoupis, right, leaves Federal Court in Trenton with his attorney Jerome Ballarotto Wednesday Oct. 1. 2014. (Trentonian photo/Jackie Schear)

By David Foster, The Trentonian
Wednesday, October 1, 2014

TRENTON -While a New Jersey Army National Guard member was at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst for training, it is alleged he committed a sexual assault.

Ioannis V. Karazoupis, 27, of Flemington, made his first appearance Wednesday in Trenton federal court to answer to charges of engaging in a sexual act with a person on May 4 who was “physically incapable of declining participation and communicating unwillingness” at the base, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Sporting a T-shirt inscribed with the word “Loyalty” and wearing camouflage cargo shorts, Karazoupis was led into the courtroom shackled at the ankles before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois H. Goodman.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Fabiana Pierre-Louis and Karazoupis’ high-profile attorney Jerome Ballarotto, who represents former Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo and former Trenton Mayor Tony Mack cohort Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni, agreed to conditions to release the National Guard member on a $250,000 unsecured bond co-signed by the defendant’s parents.

Under the conditions, Karazoupis is restricted to travel in the Garden State and he must surrender his passport.

Furthermore, he must abstain from excessive use of alcohol and have no contact with the victim.

Karazoupis is also required to live with his parents, who will act as third party custodians to be the eyes and ears of the court, at their Flemington residence.

“If I allow your son to go home today, you’ll keep an eye and him and make sure he’s following the conditions that are being set?” Goodman asked his parents who agreed to the terms. “If he violates any of these conditions … you need to let the court know.”

Karazoupis only responded “Yes, your honor” two times to questions from the judge about his bail.

“But understand if there’s a violation, you’ll be back here,” she warned him.

Karazoupis faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine for the sexual abuse charge.

As he was leaving the courthouse with Ballarotto and his family, Karazoupis briefly tried to put his shirt over his head to avoid being photographed.

Eventually giving up on concealing his face, Karazoupis made no comments, but briefly waived and smiled to the photographer as his picture was snapped.

0926JoJo_412375_03.JPG
Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni arrives for sentencing at the federal courthouse in Trenton, Sept. 26, 2014. (Martin Griff | Times of Trenton)
Jenna Pizzi | Times of Trenton By Jenna Pizzi | Times of Trenton
on September 26, 2014 at 9:30 AM, updated September 26, 2014 at 11:43 AM

Ballarotto Law note: Mr. Ballarotto successfully argued down Mr. Giorgianni’s plea agreement from a possible 12-1/2 year sentence to 6-1/2 years.

TRENTON – The man who accepted bribes on behalf of former Trenton Mayor Tony Mack is appearing in court Friday morning where he is to be sentenced on corruption and drug related charges.

Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni met with the purported developers of a downtown parking garage development — Lemuel Blackburn and Hudson County developer Harry Seymour — at JoJo’s Steak House in Trenton, accepting bribe money to give to Mack.

Giorgianni, 65, pleaded guilty in December admitting he took the bribe money and passed it off to Mack.

Mack and his brother Ralphiel were found guilty after a month-long trial in February and were sentenced to jail. Tony Mack is currently serving a four year and 10 month sentence at a West Virginia prison camp.

Giorgianni was also charged with running a painkiller distribution ring from the steak shop along with his longtime companion and caretaker Mary Manfredo. Giorgianni pleaded guilty to a charge associated with the drug scheme and weapon possession. An ex-convict, Giorgianni is not allowed to have a weapon.
Giorgianni was convicted in 1982 of debauching the morals of a minor in connection with the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl which occurred at JoJo’s Steak House. Giorignni was released from prison during that sentence after concerns arose that the then-565 pound Giorgianni would die in the prison cell with no air conditioning.

Co-defendant Charles Hall III is also scheduled to be sentenced Friday for his admitted role as a buffer between mayor Mack and the scheme. Hall eventually agreed to work with the FBI during the investigation and testified he had several failed attempts to pass off bribe money to Mack. Hall also pleaded guilty to drug offenses for his involvement in the painkiller distribution ring and lying to federal agents about taking bribe money.
Stay with The Times as we provide live updates from the hearing. Please refresh this page to see the latest.

10:51 a.m.: The hearing has concluded.
10:48 a.m.: Ballarotto asks Shipp to recommend to the Bureau of Prisons to place Giorgianni in a warmer environment. Shipp said he will leave the designation of prison to the Bureau of Prisons.
10:46 a.m.: Giorganni sentenced to 78 months in prison
10:45 a.m.: Shipp said he believes that Giorgianni should go to jail and disagrees withBallarotto’s suggestion that he will not reoffend.
“It is clear that Mr. giorgianni has a criminal propensity of a much younger man,” Shipp said.
10:41 a.m.: Giorgianni speaks briefly saying he is sorry.
“I am sorry I hurt my city,” he said.
10:40 a.m.: Moran argues that probation or house arrest are not appropriate.
10:38 a.m.: Ballarotto is again asking for Giorgianni to be kept on house arrest as an alternative sentence
“He has done everything that he could do to correct what he did,” Ballarotto said.
10:30 a.m.: Ballarotto said Giorgianni’s ailments are in every part of his body.
“Could the Bureau of Prisons take care of him? I’m sure they could,” Ballarotto said. “I’m sure they could find some place where he would survive –the question is, should they?”
10:24 a.m.: Ballarotto is now arguing for Shipp to consider Giorgianni’s physical health, saying when Giorgianni was sent to a federal medical prison in Massachusetts, he he’d swelling in his leg as a result of not getting his medication or begin properly cared for while in the prison.
10:21 a.m.: Shipp disagrees with Ballarotto’s request for a substantial departure, but said he will give him a slight reduction for putting himself at risk when pleading guilty.
10:18 a.m.: Ballarotto is asking for probation, but Moran says that is way to little of a punishment for Giorgianni.
“You don’t get to make statements that you want to convert the city of Trenton and run it like Tammany Hall and you don’t get to liken yourself to Boss Tweed and then say that you are singally responsible for the political helath of the city,” Moran said. “That is what is troubling to the government.”
10:14 a.m.: Ballarotto argues that without GIorgianni’s cooperation US Attorney Paul Fishman would have had to stand on the steps of the courthouse apologizing to the people of Trenton that they could not get a conviction against Tony Mack.
“Joe Giorgianni has the sole responsibility for cleaning this city of a crooked politician,” Ballarotto said.
10:09 a.m.: Ballarotto said Giorgianni was extremely helpful in the prosecution of this case, even if he didn’t take the stand.
Giorgianni was ready to testify as called, go under oath and tell the truth, Balarotto said. But even though he wasn’t called into court before the jury, Ballarotto said Giorgianni was still integral.
“His testimony is all over the record and what did it get him this is,” Ballarotto said holding up a picture of the rat sign that was placed near Giorgianni’s house, the steak house and Ballarotto’s office after he pleaded guilty.
10:02 a.m.: Ballarotto is arguing that Giorgianni deserves less time because of his “extraordinary extraordinary nature of Mr. Giorgiannis cooperation” in both the narcotics distribution and bribery case. Ballarotto said Shipp must identify the “sacrifice, the danger” that GIorgianni endured when pleading guilty.
“We explained to your honor, where we felt Mr Giorgianni was crucial to the cooperation of this case,” Ballarotto said.
“Going to jail, you go to jail 5 years 10 years, whatever,” Ballarotto said. “This is forever.”
“That is a real threat and that is forever especially for a man like Joe, who is part of Trenton lure, he has been here forever, his family has been here forever,” Ballarotto said.
9:55 a.m.: Both Moran and Ballarotto argue that Giorgianni was not a leader or organizer in the prescription oxycodone distribution ring, as the probation office determined in their pre-sentencing report. Shipp agrees that he was more of a manager, not a boss. This change will lower the “offense level” calculation which is used to determine the sentence.
9:50 a.m.: Judge Michael Shipp has entered the courtroom and is about to begin the hearing.
9:35 a.m.: Giorgianni is being brought into the court room and he is assisted as he walks to the defense table to be seated next to Ballarotto.
9:32 a.m.: Giorgianni’s attorney Jerome Ballarotto is in the court room. So are Assistant US Attorneys Eric Moran and Matthew Skahill. Giorgianni is not yet in the court room, but he is just outside in the hallway. He should be brought in shortly.
Jenna Pizzi may be reached at jpizzi@njtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter@JennaPizzi. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.

Ballarotto Law note: Mr. Ballarotto successfully argued down Mr. Giorgianni’s plea agreement from a possible 12-1/2 year sentence to 6-1/2 years.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus probably started with some high-falooting brain stormer like defense attorney Jerome Ballarotto spitting out mind bombs.

Sort of like yesterday morning as Ballarotto attempted to gain salvation for his client Joseph “JoJo’ Giorgianni who exchanged his role in criminal activity for an important cooperating witness position for the federal corruption case against former Trenton Mayor Tony F. Mack.

The boot-wearing cowboy Jerry Ballarotto pulled out all stops in a no-holds-barred appearance before U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Shipp.

Under the big top of the Clark S. Fisher Federal Building U.S. Courthouse and playing before a significantly small audience in Court Room 7W, Ballarotto stopped just short of singing the Ballad of JoJo Giorgianni, misunderstood narcissistic dreamer, conciliatory cooperator, and wracked with such physical infirmities that he deserved house arrest instead of a prison cell.

Judge Shipp sentenced Giorgianni to 78 months behind bars for his part in bribery, drug dealing, weapons charges.

Ballarotto said Giorgianni saved Attorney General Paul Fishman from a downtown Trenton mea culpa.

“If it wasn’t for Mr. Giorgianni, my friend and colleague of more than 20 years, Paul Fishman, would be standing on the steps of this courthouse apologizing to the citizens of Trenton for being unable to rid this city of a corrupt politician,” Ballarotto said.

No he didn’t.! Yep. At this point, had Lady Justice been an attendee, even she would have peeked out from her blindfold to connect bombast with Ballarotto.

Ballarotto, if not already considered the defense attorney for the criminal stars, could have made millions as a door-to-door salesman of encyclopedias, vacuum cleaners or insurance policies.

According to his world view of the U.S. government case against Mack, his brother Ralphiel, and a slew of dope dealers, the feds had nothing without the self-serving, ego-driven, Giorgianni.

Years after attempting with the Brothers Mack and Charlie Hall, another snake turned government witness charmer, to make more than $120,000 in a federal sting operation, Ballarotto pitched Giorgianni as a city savior. Judge Shipp appeared distressed as barrister Ballarotto spun sanctimony.

Ballarotto established that his client had suffered enough, especially after his turn produced posted signs that labeled Giorgianni “a scumbag rat, liar you are.”

“That’s a real threat and that’s forever,” Ballarotto continued. At one point, Ballarottodescribed Giorgianni as part of Trenton “lore.” No he didn’t! Yep.

Ballarotto believed Giorgianni’s narcissistic personality disorder caused all these problems of power, lust for money, and desire for anything that caused heart palpitations.

“He’s completely neutralized. (JoJo) can barely stay awake,” Ballarotto noted. Then, in his final pitch, Ballarotto said Judge Shipp’s decision would be more about message.

Obviously, not neutered. Giorgianni added a leer of a female attendee before a handler rolled his wheelchair into the courtroom.

The Ballarotto formula theorized that leniency would reward Giorgianni and that the “Halls of Justice recognized that (Giorgianni) when times were hard, stood up.”

Palms up, Ballarotto sarcastically suggested Feds might consider a pull out of his client’s fingernails and toenails. Ballarotto played every card, even that his 64-year-old client would be too old to engage in any further criminal activity.

Judge Shipp finally reframed all conversations with a summary that Giorgianni exhibited a “self-aggrandizing,” “conceiftul” character and that those traits make him “a threat to society.”

Shipp called incarceration “necessary and appropriate.” And for Ballarotto’s claim that Giorgianni moved beyond an age of criminal activity, Shipp stated that based on trial evidence, “Mr. Giorgianni has the criminal propensity of a much younger man.”

Ballarotto’s big tent imploded as Giorgianni offered a weary apology.

“Very sorry. … Sorry, I hurt my city,” Giorgianni whispered.

TRENTON – Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni is scheduled to report to a federal prison in North Carolina on Friday at noon to begin serving his six and a half year sentence for his role in a corruption scheme with the former Trenton mayor, his attorney said Wednesday.

Giorgianni, who admitted to accepting bribes on behalf of former Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, was originally scheduled to report to a Massachusetts facility on Wednesday, but was given a new assignment, said Giogianni’s attorney Jerome Ballarotto.
Ballarotto said the Federal Bureau of Prisons granted a request Giorgianni made to be housed in a facility in the southern part of the country. Ballarotto said Giorgianni, 65, had concerns about his health conditions in a colder climate.
Giorgianni was assigned to Federal Medical Center Butner in North Carolina and given until Friday to report. The facility for male offenders is part of a larger complex with low and medium security facilities.
Giorgianni was sentenced in September to the 78-month term. He admitted last year that he accepted bribe money from men he believed were involved in a development project in downtown Trenton and passed off the bribe money to Mack. Mack and his brother Ralphiel were found guilty after a month-long trial in February and were sentenced to jail. Tony Mack is currently serving a four year and 10 month sentence at a West Virginia prison camp.
Giorgianni was also charged with running a painkiller distribution ring from JoJo’s Steak House in Trenton along with his longtime companion and caretaker Mary Manfredo. Giorgianni pleaded guilty to a charge associated with the drug scheme and weapon possession. An ex-convict, Giorgianni is not allowed to have a weapon.
Manfredo was sentenced the same day as Giorgianni, but because she is hospitalized in critical condition Judge Michael Shipp granted an order delaying the start to her prison term until December.
“(Giorgianni) is concerned about Mary’s health,” Ballarotto said.