Bob Janiszewski’s trouble with the law can be blamed on his wife, Maribeth. Had she noticed the undusted cabinet in their Jersey City condo, she might have stumbled upon the money and questioned him as to where it came from, and in the end, set him straight before the FBI did in 1999.
Janiszewski, in a cross-examination, told the court his wife knew absolutely nothing about his taking bribes over the years.
This is a woman who served as Janiszewski’s campaign manager, treasurer, and soulmate for his entire political career. But she never noticed anything wrong. No secret meetings. No bundles of cash left carelessly in Bob’s pockets.
This is a fact that Nidia Davila Colon’s attorney, Peter Willis, hammered on.
Janiszewski told the court he routinely brought bribes home and dumped them in a filing cabinet. These envelopes contained bundles of cash, usually $100 bills, and usually in the original envelopes issued to him by scurrilous characters seeking to win his favors and contracts with the county.
"I came home and put them in the cabinet," Janiszewski told Willis.
On Nov. 17, 2000, the FBI found $88,000 in cash in Janiszewski’s home filing cabinet – money he said had accumulated there for years.
"You mean to tell me you had $88,000 in your cabinet at home, some of it there for years, and your wife never noticed?" Willis asked, grilling Janiszewski about whether or not Beth knew about his additional income when she signed the joint tax return for the federal and state government.
"That’s right," Janiszewski replied. "She never went into that cabinet."
This is news to many people who worked closely with Janiszewski over the years and knew the cabinet at home was likely the only place in the entire county that Beth did not poke her nose. She was involved in every aspect of Bob’s career. She often met with department heads to discuss county business, many times acting as the unofficial county executive. She even used Bob’s office in the Brennan Courthouse, calling in various county workers to discuss (or scold them about) county business, according to sources.
But she never noticed the cash Janiszewski collected at home or the envelope in his courthouse desk where he routinely kept a few thousand dollars in bribe money for pocket change. This is the same desk Beth that later, after Janiszewski resigned, had hauled out of the courthouse under the nose of the FBI and county sheriff, according to various sources, some published. Perhaps, after finally discovering that Janiszewski held out on her, Beth wanted to explore the desk more closely?
Since Janiszewski admitted to taking cash since he first got into office in 1988, he must have struggled to explain how he could afford to go out to dinner so often, or why he never seemed to be without a pocketful of cash. Did Beth ever question her finding one of the many envelopes he admitted to stuffing into his back pocket during routine bribe payoffs in the Rotunda of the courthouse? One can understand overlooking a few quarters, but 50 one hundred dollar bills?
It is clear that Beth’s inattention to these small details, missing that one filing cabinet and Janiszewski’s pockets full of cash, led to his demise. Had she been a more observant wife – who in other circumstances balanced his campaign books and filed many of his campaign contribution forms – he might not be in the trouble he is in today.
Of course, one of the questions about Beth is why she has not been called to the stand to testify, since she had handled many of the family finances. In fact, she disappeared in August 2001 when Janiszewski did, but never reemerged. She has not been charged with any crime, which suggests she might be among the most inattentive, unobservant, and foolish people on the planet, someone who for 14 years did not notice her husband putting supposed envelopes of cash into the family filing cabinet.
Interestingly, U.S. Attorney Jeffery Clark strongly objected to Willis’ questions about Beth’s participation in Janiszewski’s filing of possibly misleading joint tax returns. After a long private session with both Willis and Clark, U.S. District Judge William Bassler ruled Beth knew nothing about the illegal tax returns.
The peanut gallery comments
In remarking on the recent accidental fall of County Freeholder Sal Vega into the Hudson River, one local reporter quipped, "There’s nothing dirtier than a Hudson County politician clinging to a sewer pipe."
Another added, "I guess Union City can say that a big advantage of their not having a waterfront is that none of their officials can fall into the river."