The FBI isn’t a stranger to Trenton, and Trenton isn’t a stranger to outlandish stories.
Former Mayor Tony Mack and many of his cronies went to prison as part of a parking garage bribery scheme. The number of outlandish things that have happened at city council meetings this year alone has filled these pages. Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and truthful reporting is often stranger than fiction in the capital city.
But this? Even this takes the cake in a city where the famous “Trenton Makes, the World Takes” bridge celebrates its proud roots of industrial manufacturing. Nowadays, Trenton officials are manufacturing criminal allegations against local media and likening reporters’ actions to the mafia.
The very person who is tasked with providing information to the public is now, instead, fighting against its release.
In an email obtained by The Trentonian – lawfully, we might add – city clerk Matthew Conlon alleged that Trentonian reporter Isaac Avilucea “committed felonies” as part of an “ongoing RICO Conspiracy” at City Hall.
RICO stands for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a federal law adopted in 1970 that has been described as the “ultimate hit man” in mob prosecutions.
These wild and baseless accusations are another attempt to criminalize basic journalism and should not be okay for any city employee, no matter his personal feelings for a reporter’s previous work or reputation for being tough on public officials.
Mayor Reed Gusciora said he got a “good laugh” about the RICO allegations. But for some people, it’s no joke.
Previously, the clerk filed a report with Trenton Police on Nov. 13. Conlon alleged the same reporter had harassed him by calling him on a personal cell phone for comment on a daily story involving the clerk. This is standard practice for any reporter to call the subject of a story to get their side of things, or at the very least, give them the opportunity to “no comment” for the record.
What triggered Conlon – an armchair attorney who went to law school and passed the bar but, for whatever reason, decided not to become a licensed lawyer in the state – this time to allege such high crimes and misdemeanors (in the Garden State they’re actually called indictable and disorderly persons offenses) against the reporter?
A lawful request for some of the clerk’s emails, made under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA).
Perhaps more shocking is that Conlon, the city’s records custodian, tried to pressure another city official, IT director Joseph Rivera. Conlon wrote that Rivera should suppress the release of the requested emails – claiming there was an “active criminal intake” being “conducted by the FBI.”
Conlon has included an FBI special agent on some of his correspondence with city officials. The Trentonian did not receive a call back from the FBI’s New Jersey media relations office to confirm Conlon’s claim that a reporter is the target of an alleged federal probe.
Conlon told Rivera that the IT director would be committing a crime solely by searching for the emails to fulfill the records request. He further claimed that The Trentonian was “working in concert” with deposed law director John Morelli.
“Mr. Avilucea among others committed felonies and those criminal complaints are detailed in the emails you intend to release to that party,” Conlon wrote. “By providing those emails, and bypassing my office as the record custodian, you are contributing to an ongoing RICO Conspiracy. Those emails detail a criminal complaint made to the FBI among other [sic] about that very party. …You are endangering yourself and providing information which may obstruct justice.
“You have been forewarned. Do not provide the emails to Mr. Avilucea, the Mayor or Mr. Morelli. I have asked for special counsel to be appointed. I am the records custodian by law. You are illegally bypassing my office.”
If Rivera didn’t get how serious Conlon was about this, the clerk let him know with all-caps emphasis.
“MOREOVER THIS IS AN ATTACK SPECIFICALLY TARGETED AGAINST ME IN RETALIATION FOR BEING A WHISTLEBLOWER. DO NOT PROVIDE THE RECORDS. WAIT FOR SPECIAL COUNSEL TO BE APPOINTED. THIS INDIVIDUAL HAS AN ONGOING CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION AND THESE DOCUMENTS DETAIL THAT. THERE ARE OTHERS HERE INVOLVED WITH HIM. CEASE AND DESIST.”
Mike Ranallo, a resident who makes plenty of records requests of the city, said he was concerned about his own OPRA requests being properly fulfilled after reading Conlon’s comments.
“I think that anybody who submits a OPRA would have to have it in the back of their mind,” he said, adding that Conlon was better served focusing on putting a dent into the backlog of OPRA requests.
Ranallo wasn’t alone with his concerns.
City leaders, public records advocates and experts from New Jersey and across the country said Conlon was allowing his personal animus of the Trentonian reporter to interfere with his ability to act as impartial records custodian.
At-large councilman Jerell Blakeley, who has had his own run-ins with Conlon, called the clerk’s attacks on the press “Trumpian.”
“I’m not always a fan of what The Trentonian prints, but to threaten a reporter for doing his job is beyond the pale and dangerous,” he said.
Adam Marshall, a staff attorney who specializes in public records litigation for the Washington D.C.-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, called Conlon’s suggestion that city officials were engaging in RICO by fulfilling an OPRA request “troubling and outrageous.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “I do not understand what that is about in the slightest. It’s a very, very just bizarre claim.”
Inflammatory and baseless comments like the ones Conlon made could backfire if he denies The Trentonian’s OPRA request.
Marshall pointed out that, per state law, public officials who “unreasonably deny” access to records that should have been provided can be fined $1,000 for the first violation, and then $2,500 and $3,000 for second and third violations occurring within 10 years of the first.
Moreover, C.J. Griffin, an attorney and OPRA expert who represents The Trentonian, said Conlon’s request for the FBI to investigate his claims doesn’t qualify as a valid OPRA exemption.
Conlon seems to suggest the records should be blocked from release because he claims, without proof, they’re part of an ongoing investigation.
However, state law says, “This provision shall not be construed to allow any public agency to prohibit access to a record of that agency that was open for public inspection, examination, or copying before the investigation commenced.”
“It should not take the hiring of special counsel to respond to a simple OPRA request for email correspondence, nor does the mere fact that someone has filed a complaint with the FBI render emails subject to any exemption,” Griffin said.
At the end of the day, Gusciora said it’s not Conlon’s call to make about whether the city hires special counsel to process The Trentonian’s OPRA request.
Hiring an outside firm costs taxpayers more money, enough of which has been spent on Gusciora and council’s legal skirmishes.
And the law department is perfectly capable of reviewing the emails and determining whether any of them are exempt from disclosure or should be released with redactions, said Gusciora, who is also an attorney.
“When somebody like Isaac wants emails, we go to IT and say, ‘Run it,’” the mayor said, outlining the process the city takes to fulfill these types of records requests. “Then the law department decides [what’s releasable], not someone who doesn’t practice law or claims to be a lawyer. … If the Trentonian took us to court, they’d win. You’re not going to get an argument out of me.”
Open government advocate John Paff said it might be wise for Conlon to recuse himself from processing the newspaper’s OPRA since it involves his emails.
“He is conflicted. He has an interest,” Paff said. “Obviously, he considers you an adversary. He has actually gone to the police about [Avilucea].”
When The Trentonian tried to ask Conlon about all of this on Friday, he launched into another vicious round of attacks and allegations that a reporter had committed unlawful computer activity, apparently by publishing articles and documents.
“You have committed multiple felonies against me. I have reported it to law enforcement,” Conlon said. “You are going down.”
As for those four-letter acronyms, Jerome Ballarotto, a former federal prosecutor turned criminal defense attorney, couldn’t imagine a scenario under which the feds might charge a reporter with RICO offenses for asking city officials to comply with OPRA.
“I mean, really, you’d have to go a long, long way in lots of directions to establish that conduct constitutes a RICO Act,” he said. “Sounds like to me he’s trying to intimidate you.”
Time has come to stop with the games and the nonsense and just govern Trenton.
