Paterson councilman again seeks pretrial relief in 5-year-old election fraud case
The state Attorney General's Office has rejected Mendez's PTI application — just as it did in 2021 — but the councilman is appealing that decision, officials said.
Superior Court Judge Sohail Mohammed has said he will decide on the appeal on Sept. 10, according to officials.
Mohammed was the judge who denied Mendez's appeal in 2022 regarding the initial election fraud case filed by the Attorney General's Office."There is a strong societal need to deter candidates for public office from unlawfully submitting voter registration applications and mail-in ballots they know to be materially false," Mohammed wrote in his previous ruling on Mendez's PTI application.
"In short, the court finds that there is a societal need to have a fair and untainted election," the judge wrote.
Defendants who successfully complete PTI — which is monitored by New Jersey probation officers — can emerge with clean criminal records. But in most cases, accused criminals cannot get PTI unless the prosecutors agree to it.
Allege Mendez team stole mail-in ballots, trashed votes
Mendez's most recent PTI application focused on the superseding charges that the attorney general's prosecutors filed against the councilman.
Those accusations say investigators have witnesses, video and photos of wrongdoing by Mendez and his campaign workers, including allegations they stole mail-in ballots from people's mailboxes, trashed votes for his opponent and replaced them with Mendez votes.
The superseding charges expanded the case to include other defendants: the councilman's wife, Yohanny, and campaign workers Omar Ledesma and Iris Rigo. Officials said Mendez's co-defendants also are seeking PTI.
Mendez, who officials said appeared in court on July 21, did not respond to messages seeking his comments on his PTI application. William McKoy, Mendez's opponent in the 2020 City Council election that triggered the charges, called Mendez's PTI application 'disingenuous' and 'despicable.'
McKoy cited the extensive evidence that the Attorney General's Office has said it has against Mendez.
'There's no question of his guilt,' McKoy said. 'The only question is whether he's going to be man enough to take responsibility for his behavior.'
Bribery indictment against developer and influencer
Mendez this month has come under scrutiny as the result of a separate federal indictment filed by the United States Attorney's Office accusing real estate influencer Cesar Pina of making $50,000 in bribes to a Paterson official for help in trying to get a development project approved by the city zoning board.
Pina allegedly paid the city official with cash, checks, campaign contributions and bogus real estate commissions in exchange for the official's influence over the Paterson zoning board to get approvals to convert a long-vacant school building on Totowa Avenue into 60 apartments, the indictment said.
Mendez, who repeatedly has professed his innocence of all accusations, used a building then owned by Pina as his campaign headquarters in 2024.
Mendez is the only elected official in Paterson who works in real estate, political insiders have said.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson councilman seeks pretrial relief in election fraud case
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