The federal trial of Guttenberg Mayor David Delle Donna and his wife, Anna, on corruption, mail fraud, and tax fraud charges began Monday in U.S. Federal Court in Newark, with vivid opening statements from the prosecuting attorney and the defense attorneys.
The jury also heard testimony for three days from a former construction code official, and was prepared to hear from a bar owner who allegedly gave gifts to the Delle Donnas.
For Mayor Delle Donna, his job presiding over the tiny 4-by12-block waterfront town of Guttenberg is part-time, and he earns $7,700 per year.
It was expected that the key witness in the case, bar owner Luisa Medrano, would begin her testimony Thursday on the final day of the trial for the week. The trial is expected to resume on Monday morning with Medrano still in the witness box, testifying with the assistance of a translator, as she only speaks Spanish.
Medrano was in the courtroom late Wednesday afternoon, but the testimony of former construction code official Robert “Yogi” Rogers Sr. carried into the close of Wednesday’s session.
The charges
Before the proceedings began Monday in front of U.S. District Court Judge Harold Ackerman, Delle Donna leaned over to his wife, kissed her on the forehead, touched her hand, and took his seat at a separate table adjacent to her.
Delle Donna was joined by his attorney, Ralph Lamparello, while Anna was seated next to her attorney, Brian Neary.
In the early stages of the proceedings, Anna Delle Donna, dressed in a black business suit, was issuing a nervous smile to the people in attendance. Some, like several people from the Hudson County Schools of Technology, where David Delle Donna works as a supervisor of custodial work, appeared to be there to support the Delle Donnas. Others, like former West New York police officer turned whistleblower/activist Richard Rivera, loomed as simple curiosity seekers.
Delle Donna’s parents were seated in the front row, along with Anna’s son and the couple’s daughter.
The Delle Donnas have been accused of accepting small gifts from Mendrano, a bar owner who herself faced charges for allegedly employing Honduran illegal aliens at her bar and forcing them to perform illegal acts for customers. It is believed that Mendrano will get a lighter sentence for testifying.
The Delle Donnas are also accused of accepting a few other small campaign donations that they did not report.
Ackerman told the jury that the Delle Donnas faced five counts of corruption, committing mail fraud by mailing inaccurate campaign contribution statements, and committing tax fraud for failing to submit accurate federal income tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service in 2004 and 2005.
Case about ‘trust’ of officials
When the jury entered the room, Judge Ackerman addressed the eight men and six women.
“The government [prosecution] has the burden or obligation to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that David and Anna Delle Donna are guilty of each and every charge against them,” he said.
He added, “There are generally two sides to every story and we don’t want you to make up your mind until you heard all the evidence,” Ackerman told the jury. “It’s important to keep an open mind because the case is important to all sides.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Calcagni, one of two attorneys trying the case (the other being Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Constable), said in his opening statements that the case is based on trust.
“It’s the kind of trust that we place in public officials, the people who are committed to serve the public,” Calcagni said. “We trust that the public officials will abide by the law and never put their own financial interest above anything else. Elected officials are only supposed to be raising funds for campaigns, not personal use.”
Witness a ‘local business owner’ or felon?
Calcagni then painted a picture of Medrano as the “local business owner who was more than happy to establish a friendship with the defendants.”
“She thought that they were people who were willing to help her,” Calcagni said of Medrano. “So she paid thousands of dollars to the Delle Donna campaign. When those funds weren’t reported, that’s extortion. When they agreed to accept the stream of gifts, that’s extortion.”
Calcagni said that Medrano, the former owner of two bars in Union City and Guttenberg, both called Porto de la Union I and II, gave a total of $12,000 to Delle Donna’s campaign. He said that $5,000 “never made it to the list of campaign contributions.”
Calcagni acknowledged that Medrano is “a convicted felon, who was guilty of evading $263,000 in taxes and dealing with illegal immigrants.”
“You’ll hear that she’s cooperating with authorities, but as troubled as her history is, her testimony still bears weight,” Calcagni said. “It’s your decision to trust her testimony.”
Medrano faces a sentence of 24-to-32 months for her crimes.
Medrano also allegedly gave Anna Delle Donna an assortment of gifts, like cash, trips, jewelry, expensive liquor and even a Terrier named “Toby” who was mentioned by all three attorneys in their opening statements.
Some of the cash was allegedly used for cosmetic surgery.
“There was no record of any of the contributions or any of the gifts that Luisa Medrano [allegedly] gave to Anna Delle Donna,” Calcagni said. “They didn’t report the full source of their income. Piece by piece the evidence will show a consistent account of corruption as they took advantage of the public trust for their personal gain. When all the evidence is presented, you must return a verdict of guilty on every count.”
Mendrano may get ‘deal of a lifetime’
Lamparello was the first of the two defense attorneys to give his opening statement and his approach was electric.
“Every witness has to be scrutinized,” Lamparello said. “You have to ask, ‘What is their motive by testifying, and what are they trying to gain?’ Luisa Medrano was arrested and you’ll hear testimony that she faced 255 years in jail for [alleged] human trafficking with girls as young as 14 and kept them as virtual slaves in a bar. But thanks to the government, she was able to get a deal, a deal of a lifetime.”
Added Lamparello, “The government realizes that David Delle Donna is a mayor and that’s all they care about. This is New Jersey. We all read newspapers. Politicians are bad.”
Look at who David is
Lamparello then instructed Delle Donna to rise.
“Stand up, David,” Lamparello said. “This is David Delle Donna, a man who is a blue-collar person, a pipe fitter by trade. He also coordinates cleaning of classrooms and the maintenance of the facilities. That’s who the mayor of Guttenberg is, making less than $8,000 a year. He’s going to stand here, naked before you and expose everything about his life.”
Lamparello then told the tale of how David met Anna and married her, although she was nine years older and with a young son from a previous marriage.
“He’s standing by his wife, believing in his vow,” Lamparello said. “Anna is psychologically unstable and on medication, under therapy and psychiatric care. When they met, when he was 21 and she was 30, she was under care. But they got married and raised their son and had two children of their own. He stands by his wife and lot of this case is based on him standing by his wife.”
Lamparello also spoke of the Delle Donna’s lifestyle.
“They don’t live in a penthouse; they don’t own a mansion; they don’t have a yacht,” Lamparello said. “They have a modest existence. It’s very simple and very plain.”
Lamparello said that the totals listed in the indictment for back taxes are $1,835 for 2004 and $6,900 for 2005, which includes the cash gifts Anna Delle Donna received from Medrano.
“Most people would receive a letter saying that they owed back taxes, not come before a federal grand jury,” Lamparello said. “But he’s a mayor, he’s an elected official and they think that, ‘We got to go get him.’ ”
Lamparello then went to lengths to discredit Medrano.
“In 2005, the ‘local business owner’ Luisa Medrano was arrested for trafficking human beings,” Lamparello said. “She’s not a local business owner. She’s the ringleader of a human trafficking ring. That ringleader is in a whole lot of trouble, staring at 255 years and $4.5 million in fines. She’s lived a life of lies and deceit.”
Lamparello pointed toward Calcagni and Constable.
“Their boss [U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie] called what Luisa Medrano did as, and I quote, ‘The most inhumane and sadistic treatment I remember and one of the most vile crimes I’ve ever seen,’ ” Lamparello said. “And yet she’s their star witness.”
Lamparello then also cut down Medrano’s claim of dealing with Delle Donna.
“Luisa Medrano speaks Spanish and doesn’t speak English,” Lamparello said. “David Delle Donna doesn’t speak Spanish. Anna was the friend to this woman, not David.”
Dog was annoying
In representing Anna Delle Donna, Neary portrayed his client as being “a mother, a wife and a friend.”
“Who would believe that being those three things, having that status, would end her up in court today, a defendant charged with five serious charges?” Neary said. “This is a case of friendship with no link to criminality. Anna thought she had a friend, a special kind of friendship that you never would expect an act of betrayal between friends. Anna seems to befriend everyone. They became friends, exchanged gifts, traveled together, doing the things that women do. Anna didn’t know her friend was living a double life. She didn’t know that Luisa Medrano was actually a mistress of human misery.”
Neary attacked the gifts, even claming that the terrier “was such an annoyance that they had to get rid of it.”
“But the way the dog is treated by the prosecution, you would think that it was a pure breed show dog, ready to win at the American Kennel Club,” Neary said.
Added Neary, “This woman was willing to trade her friendship, not just for 40 pieces of silver like Judas, but for 40 years of freedom. The government apparently has a blind spot and is turning a deaf ear to what she did. Because let’s face it, she’ll do anything to save her skin, including testifying against and betraying the trust of someone she considered a friend. We’re worried about gifts of dogs and Grand Marnier, and Luisa Medrano owed $729,000 in back taxes and made two deals.”
First witness
The first witness was Rogers, who testified that he collected a total of $6,000 from Medrano on three occasions in 2001 and 2003, in increments of $2,000, $3,000 and $1,000 in envelopes, and handed those envelopes directly to former Guttenberg Councilman Javier Inclan (now the deputy chief of staff to Gov. Jon Corzine) and clearly wrote the totals on the outside of the envelopes.
However, Rogers testified that he never directly gave money to Delle Donna.
“In 2005, Dave told me not to collect cash anymore, that he didn’t want cash,” Rogers said.
Rogers was then examined by Lamparello, who asked him if he ever lied to the grand jury. He admitted that he did lie to the grand jury investigating Delle Donna because he didn’t want to get into trouble.
“So which is the lie and which is the truth? I’m confused,” Lamparello said. “In the first session, you said the mayor knew about the money. Now you say he didn’t. Which one is it?”
At the close of the first day, Ackerman said that the testimony would continue the following day at 10 a.m.
Rogers blurted out, “I’m not coming. I have [medical] tests scheduled for tomorrow.”
“I’m ordering you to be here,” Ackerman scolded to Rogers.
“Obviously, you don’t care about my health,” Rogers said under his breath, loudly enough for everyone to hear.
“You’ll be here tomorrow at 10 a.m.,” Ackerman said.
Unusual witness
The next day, Lamparello tried to have Rogers dismissed as a witness, because he claimed that Rogers allegedly admitted to the government that he had extorted $1,000 from a current North Bergen resident who lived in Guttenberg in an illegal apartment.
“We believe that the testimony that Mr. Rogers will provide is biased,” Lamparello said.
But Ackerman allowed Rogers to remain and he testified for two more days.
At one point, tapes that were made by former Guttenberg police officer Elvin Negron were introduced as evidence, tapes that had Rogers telling Negron that he accepted money from Medrano for Delle Donna.
Negron also has a checkered past. He was fired from his job as a Guttenberg police officer nearly two years ago for insubordination and had a restraining order placed against him after he allegedly assaulted his girlfriend, who happens to be Delle Donna’s niece. Negron currently has a lawsuit against the town of Guttenberg for unlawful termination.
Inclan, the former councilman and former county clerk who now works as Gov. Jon Corzine’s deputy chief of staff, is expected to testify sometime this week after Medrano’s lengthy testimony (complete with translator) is finished.
Jim Hague can be reached via e-mail at either OGSMAR@aol.com or jhague@hudsonreporter.com