A former top official of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and a former member of Gov. Christopher J. Christie’s senior staff have been charged with a scheme to misuse Port Authority resources to facilitate and conceal the causing of traffic problems in Fort Lee, New Jersey, to punish the borough’s mayor for not endorsing the Governor’s re-election.
The charges were announced today by U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, along with Inspector General Michael Nestor of the Port Authority, Office of Inspector General, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard M. Frankel, Newark Division.
William E. Baroni Jr., former deputy executive director of the Port Authority, and Bridget Anne Kelly, former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Christie, were each charged by a federal grand jury in a nine-count indictment unsealed today. David Wildstein, the former director of Interstate Capital Projects at the Port Authority, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark federal court to a separate information charging him with two counts of conspiracy for his role in the scheme.
Baroni and Kelly are each charged with conspiring to misuse, and actually misusing, property of an organization receiving federal benefits; conspiring to commit, and actually committing, wire fraud; conspiring to injure and oppress certain individuals’ civil rights, and acting under color of law to deprive certain individuals of their civil rights.
All of the charges relate to the defendants’ alleged scheme to manufacture traffic problems in Fort Lee by, without public warning, reducing from three to one the number of local access lanes, located in Fort Lee, to the upper level of the George Washington Bridge, and the toll booths servicing those lanes. It is alleged this was done to punish Mayor Sokolich for not endorsing Gov. Christie’s re-election bid. Wildstein pleaded guilty to conspiring to misuse the property of an organization receiving federal benefits and conspiring to injure and oppress certain individuals’ civil rights in connection with his role in causing traffic problems to punish Mayor Sokolich.
On the count of conspiracy to misuse property of an organization receiving federal benefits, the defendants and Wildstein each face a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. On the count of misusing property of an organization receiving federal benefits, the defendants each face a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. On each of the wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud counts, the defendants face a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 per count.
On the count of conspiring to injure and oppress certain individuals’ civil rights, the defendants and Wildstein each face a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. On the count of acting under color of law to deprive certain individuals of their civil rights, the defendants face a maximum potential penalty of one year in prison and a fine of $250,000.
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