For observers of the trial in which Freeholder Nidia Davila-Colon has been accused of passing bribes, this is an old fashioned Hudson County love story.
It is a tale thick with elements of passion and pain, tearful remembrances and fervent denials.
For several hours, the jurors got to hear Davila-Colon lay out her distressing side of a story that put her in the middle of agreements of greed. As laid out by representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s office, Union City Dr. Oscar Sandoval allegedly paid bribes to former County Executive Robert Janiszewski to renew $2 million in contracts for psychiatric services to several county facilities, using Davila-Colon as the delivery person of the funds. While the two of them got rich, Davila-Colon got charged with a crime from which she apparently received no gratuity.
She denies knowingly cooperating in the corruption, and racked with emotion, she broke down under the pressure of early testimony Tuesday and had to be rushed to Christ Hospital in Jersey City. Visibly shaken, she complained of chest pains.
Davila-Colon, who has been charged with passing bribes between Dr. Sandoval and Janiszewski, claimed she knew nothing of the contents of the envelopes. Sandoval, who began cooperating with the FBI in May or June of 1999, secretly taped Davila-Colon during alleged discussions to bribe Janiszewski and later during the alleged passing of bribes.
Sandoval was seeking Janiszewski’s renewal of $2 million worth of contracts to provide services to the Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny and the Hudson County Juvenile Detention Facility in Secaucus.
Davila-Colon said she often did not see eye to eye with Janiszewski, partly because she was independent from him. She said that as chairman of the Democratic Party in Hudson County, he had threatened repeatedly to dump her from the ticket.
Although she rarely saw him in the context of her position as a freeholder, she frequently had contact with him as a member of the Democratic party, saying that with an election cycle every year, she often attended the same cocktail parties, rallies, and meetings he did.
The spy who loved me
During her testimony last week, Davila-Colon said she met Sandoval in the middle of 1992 shortly after the death of a dear friend over whom she said she was extremely distraught. She sought out a psychiatrist to help her deal with the emotional turmoil.
She said she saw Sandoval first in a small office he had in St. Francis Hospital in Jersey City, and later in his office on Washington Street in Hoboken. She saw him once a week for a total of about 25 sessions. He prescribed Xanax almost from the start, and continued to prescribe it, she said, even after she had ceased seeing him as a patient, and after she eventually began a romantic relationship with him. In fact, she claimed in response to her attorney’s questioning, Sandoval continued prescribing increasingly more potent doses even after he had begun to work as an undercover operative for the FBI.
She said she had stopped going to him as a therapist because she felt uncomfortable.
Davila-Colon said that after she stopped being Sandoval’s patient, she noticed him attending political functions she had not seen him attend previously. He already had some contracts with the county, and had disclosed that to her during her first session.
At the time that she was Sandoval’s patient, Davila-Colon was married and not having an easy time of it – the details of which she had divulged to Sandoval during her therapy.
In mid to late 1994, after Davila-Colon stopped seeing Sandoval as a patient, he apparently asked Davila-Colon to dinner and she accepted. She said she was still confused and felt lonely. She said she realized she loved him on St. Valentine’s Day, 1995, and recalled his buying her flowers and taking her to New York City for dinner and a Broadway show. He even called her "my queen."
Davila-Colon could not put a date on when they first discussed marriage, but said it may have been in February or March 1995.
"He used to call me four or five times a day at all hours of the day and night, telling me he needed to hear my voice," she said. "I used to call him. We were very much in love."
Because her son was so attached to her first husband, Davila-Colon said she put plans for marriage on hold until her son got used to the idea.
"Keith was very upset with our relationship," Davila-Colon said, breaking down into tears on the stand.
Davila-Colon said she based her plans on the presumption that Sandoval was separated. In fact, she said, he had an apartment in the attic of his Union City office building loaded down with clothing and other personal effects indicating this was true.
"We talked about marriage all the time, but he said it would take a long time to get a divorce, because he would have to split his assets with his wife," Davila-Colon said.
She described Sandoval as "a happy-go-lucky" man who always smiled and seemed in a good mood. Indeed, she recalled him living the high life, wearing expensive and often exotic clothing – all of which was tailor-made – and drove a hand-built Bentley.
Under questioning from her attorney, Davila-Colon said that when they established a romantic relationship, she knew to abstain when Sandoval’s contracts came before the freeholder board.
Apparently, Sandoval persistently had difficulties getting paid from the county, bureaucratic red tape in which Davila-Colon had to routinely intercede. This was not a special service for Sandoval, she said, but something she often did for various people doing business with or getting grants from the county.
Davila-Colon said passing envelopes to Janiszewski was not an unusual detail, and said people routinely gave her things she was told were resumes, raffle books and other materials to give to the county executive. She did not open any of them. But she specifically denied any knowledge of carrying money to Janiszewski and said was not aware of Sandoval’s attempts to bribe the county executive until July 1999, when Sandoval asked her specifically to carry a cash bribe to Janiszewski.
"I was shocked," she said.
She said she repeatedly refused to carry the bribes, even though – she claimed – Sandoval kept after her, calling her on the telephone, leaving her messages she refused to answer.
Apparently, at some point during this time, Sandoval revealed his role as a secret agent for the FBI. But he did not inform her that he was taping her at the time. She said that as he professed to love her, he was gathering evidence that would eventually be used against her.
Secret meetings?
Willis talked Davila-Colon through each of the prosecution’s claims against her, giving her the opportunity to deny several of the secret meetings the U.S. Attorney claims Davila-Colon had with Janiszewski, or to offer some alternative reasoning for the meetings and what transpired at them.
One of the more disturbing disclosures of Davila-Colon’s testimony was her stating that Dr. Sandoval prescribed stronger and stronger doses of Xanax for her during the months of therapy, and later, continued after therapy ceased and the two became romantically linked.
"Are you telling me that Dr. Sandoval issued these prescriptions even after he began to cooperate as an agent for the FBI?" Willis asked, glaring back at the U.S. Attorney’s table.
"Yes," Colon responded.
Willis told the court that drug store prescription records verified the continued prescriptions and increasing dosages.
Davila-Colon also testified that Sandoval had also prescribed drugs in 1999 to her mother, then dying of cancer – even though he was not her physician.
Financial troubles
Sandoval, according to Davila-Colon, had significant financial problems.
"He told me he had made a bad investment in a New York City restaurant," she said. "He was desperate to get his contracts renewed."
Davila-Colon apparently also gave Sandoval her own life savings to invest, about $14,000, which she said she had not seen since.
During two hours of emotional testimony, Sandoval paced outside the court room, waiting for his moment to testify – if he ever would. It is unknown whether the defense will call him. For nearly a week and a half, his secretary had scribbled down notes on the trial, apparently reporting back the details behind what other witnesses were saying.
When she was discovered, Judge William Bassler banned the secretary from taking additional notes.
Although encouraged to defend himself through various efforts, Sandoval declined to comment to the Reporter because of the chance that he may still be called to testify as a witness. Sandoval, who spoke with reporters briefly during intermissions, said he could not discuss aspects of the case under court rules, but did say he was a bit nervous about testifying.
"Any time you testify, you’re bound to be nervous," he said.
Sandoval, however, was no longer outside when Davila-Colon finished her first round of testimony. Indeed, when his secretary – whom he had driven to the Newark federal court house – sought out his car in a local parking lot, she found he had left without her.