In the end, after the jurors on June 23 pronounced County Freeholder Nidia Davila-Colon guilty of helping a vendor bribe County Executive Robert Janiszewski twice in 1999, her own words caught by the FBI say it all.
“You know, I said my career is on the line, and his is too. So, if we go, we both go down,” Davila-Colon told Dr. Oscar Sandoval during the taped 1999 exchange, according to federal transcripts. “He is not going to get involved with you. He knows that if I go down, he goes down. I go down. Period.”
A jury of seven women and five men convicted Davila-Colon on all five counts last week. This tape and others recorded in an investigation designed to snag Janiszewski seemed the most damaging evidence in convicting her.
Davila-Colon was charged with bringing bribes from former county contractor and ex-lover Dr. Oscar Sandoval to Janiszewski while Janizewski was in office. Sandoval, who has been cooperating with the government, has not been charged.
Davila-Colon’s sentencing, which could be from 3.5 to five years in federal prison, is scheduled for Sept. 29.
“This is a very important verdict in our continuing effort to stem the tide of corruption in New Jersey,” said U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, who heaped praise U.S. Assistant Attorneys Jeffrey Clark and Phillip Kwon, who prosecuted the case.
Christie called the verdict “a major victory” in his office’s war on corruption.
“This verdict reaffirms our belief that if you break the law as a public official, you will be held accountable,” Christie said. “We will continue our fight to give New Jersey a clean and honest government at all levels.”
Davila-Colon, who once served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from New Jersey and has been the longest serving freeholder in Hudson County history, was pronounced guilty after the jury deliberated for a little over 10 hours. Davila-Colon was found guilty on two counts of aiding and abetting extortion and three counts of mail fraud.
Defense attorney Peter Willis, who could not be contacted by press time, was reported as having said, “I’m very disappointed, and it’s the nature of this business that there’s got to be a winner and there’s got to be a loser. I hope that somewhere along the way, Robert Janiszewski gets his justice and Oscar Sandoval gets his.”
Willis had argued against the conviction, claiming that Sandoval had “begged and cajoled” Davila-Colon into carrying one bribe to Janiszewski. According to press accounts, Willis said an appeal would be filed.
The five-count indictment said that in 1999, Colon acted as the conduit for bribe payments to Janiszewski from a vendor (assumed to be Sandoval), who had contracts to provide psychiatric services at county-owned facilities. At the time, Davila-Colon was in her fifth term as an elected freeholder representing Jersey City.
According to the indictment, Colon passed $5,000 cash payments to Janiszewski at events in September and October 1999. She also had discussions with both Janiszewski and the vendor about the cash payments and the vendor’s contracts, which were coming up for renewal. At one point, according to the indictment, Colon suggested including in an envelope, with the cash, a note to Janiszewski inquiring about the status of the vendor’s contracts.
The tapes revealed a lot
Federal tapes, recorded during a period from Aug. 16, 1999 to Oct. 15, 1999, painted Davila-Colon as a fellow conspirator rather than the victim she attempted to portray herself as, and in the final hours before the ruling, it was the tapes that the jury asked to hear again.
As with all conspiracies, many of the conversations remained vague, not mentioning cash but calling it “the stuff,” “the thing,” or even “three zeroes.”
Sandoval, who cooperated with the government and was responsible for many of the tape recordings used in evidence against Davila-Colon, has not been charged by the government with any wrongdoing.
A FBI agent testified that the doctor voluntarily approached the agency to complain about the corruption. The bribes, which Sandoval claimed started as extortion in 1997, were given to Janiszewski to secure $2.3 million in contracts for counseling services at two Hudson County facilities.
Janiszewski pleaded guilty last year to tax evasion and extortion, admitting that he took more than $100,000 in bribes during his 13.5 years as Hudson County’s top elected official.
Davila-Colon in her testimony claimed she had been shocked about knowing about Sandoval’s attempts to bribe the county official – but the tapes often revealed her as talk as calm, sometimes easing into humor or gossip.
The conversations were played for the jury during the three-week trial, and included a video from a Hudson County Democratic Organization fundraising event at the Harborside Financial Center in Jersey City on the night of Oct. 15, 1999.
Halfway through the three-week trial, Davila-Colon, who had previously denied any knowledge of the contents of envelopes she passed, admitted knowing that the contents of the envelope she passed to Janiszewski on Oct. 15, 1999 contained a $5,000 cash payoff.
While Willis maintained this was the result of entrapment, Clark, the prosecutor, in presenting his case to the jury, claimed that Davila-Colon had a history of bribes, of which the Oct. 15, 1999 was among many.
The tapes revealed hints of such a history.
“I took the thing and gave it to him,” Davila-Colon said on a tape recorded Aug. 16, 1999. “The same thing happened in the [Brennan Courthouse] rotunda. I said, can I see you for a minute? I brought him in the back, all the way in the back, behind the post, those posts in the back. Then I went here, put it in his pocket, he kept looking around. There was never a conversation.”
The series of tapes include telephone taps as well as recordings made from a device carried by Sandoval. Locations of recordings included an Edgewater restaurant, Casino in the Park in Jersey City, the Harborside Financial Center in Jersey City, and other places. These included tapes from two occasions during which Davila-Colon apparently passed to Janiszewski two white envelopes containing $5,000 each.
These two payoffs were orchestrated by the FBI, who gave them to Sandoval.
“We expected that Dr. Sandoval could pass an envelope to Ms. Colon, and that Ms. Colon could successfully pass it to Mr. Janiszewski,” said FBI Special Agent William Sweeney, during the trial.
At the time, Davila-Colon was not the subject of the investigation; Janiszewski was, and the FBI wanted Sandoval to hand the envelopes directly to the county executive.
Davila-Colon apparently refused to be left out, according to the transcripts.
Davila-Colon was correct in saying that prosecution had nothing specific on tape in which she admitted knowing the contents of the envelopes, on the October 15, 1999 payoff, federal authorities had videotape leading up to the exchange, and FBI witnesses who testified against her. The FBI had given Sandoval an envelope with 50 $100 bills, which Sandoval apparently gave to Davila-Colon to give to Janiszewski. The FBI later found 31 of the 50 bills in a filing cabinet in Janiszewski’s home, they said.
Hopefully it won’t happen again
County Executive Tom DeGise reacted to the federal jury finding last week, saying the county was taking steps to avoid corruption in the future.
“While I feel sympathy for Nidia Colon’s family and friends today, I want all Hudson County residents to understand that the kind of behavior revealed during this trial will not be tolerated on my watch,” he said. “My first act after taking the oath of office was to create a County Ethical Standards Board. This September, county government employees will begin attending workshops run by trained professionals outlining how to evaluate possible improper behavior and report it to the Ethical Standards Board for investigation. The message should be clear: Now there is a clear, defined process to report violations of the public trust – and everyone who works in county government will be expected to know it.”
Davila-Colon was expected to resign, although local authorities have indicated if she does not, they will move to remove her.
Sen. Bernard Kenny, (D-33rd Dist.), who serves as the county Democratic chairman, has five days after Davila-Colon leaves office to schedule a meeting of Democratic County committee members in the 4th Freeholder District.
Jersey City officials said Davila’s district has a full slate of committee people who could select her replacement until a special election in November.
Nidia did some good
Although very few people wished to comment on Davila-Colon’s term in office, Jersey City Councilman and Hudson County Director of Public Resources Mariano Vega did.
“She did wrong, and the jury did not buy her defense, so she will have to face what is coming to her,” Vega said. “But I think back on her career, I think of some of the positive things she did, especially her involvement in volunteerism. She was very active in the Lion’s Club, where she served as president for one year. She was very dedicated to the eyesight program. She helped raise money for eye research.”
Vega also noted Davila-Colon’s part in the annual Puerto Rican Parade.
“She was responsible for establishing the banquet before the parade,” Vega said. “It was always a successful event. It brought many groups together raised money for scholarships and other things.”
Vega said he hoped Davila-Colon’s ill-advised activities for which she was convicted would not erase the contributions to the community.
“We’re all sorry for her loss of judgement,” he said. “It has scarred her career.”