HUDSON COUNTY — Former Assemblyman and one-time Jersey City Council President L. Harvey Smith was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury on charges of accepting $15,000 from a government informant posing as a developer who had a project to build in Jersey City.
Smith was among 44 political and religious leaders arrested after a government sting operation last year. Many of them were up for re-election last spring and met with Solomon Dwek, a government informant posing as a developer who said he wanted to donate to their campaigns and implied he’d like help with his developments. Dwek, who faced his own fraud charges, helped the FBI snare dozens of officials.
Smith was arrested last summer and resigned from his Assembly post the next month.
According to the indictment: “From in or about April 2009 to in or about July 2009, in Hudson County, in the District of New Jersey, and elsewhere,
defendant L. HARVEY SMITH [allegedly] did knowingly and willfully conspire and agree with [former Hudson County employee Edward] Cheatam, the Consultant, and others, to obstruct, delay and affect interstate commerce by extortion under color of official right–-that is, by obtaining corrupt cash payments and illegal structured campaign contributions for the benefit of defendant SMITH from the [cooperating witness], directly and indirectly, with the CW’s consent, in exchange for defendant SMITH’s official assistance, action and influence in State of New Jersey and Jersey City government matters as specific opportunities arose.”
An indictment is not a decision of guilt or innocence, but merely a jury decision that there is enough evidence to bring a matter to a trial.