Former Newark Mayor Is Sentenced to 27 Months
By ALAN FEUER and NATE SCHWEBER
NEWARK — A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Sharpe James, Newark’s towering yet controversial former mayor, to prison for 27 months at a simmering five-hour hearing in which he rebuked the prosecution for “heartlessly” adhering to a bureaucratic form of justice.
The sentence was a fraction of the 20 years prosecutors had requested for Mr. James, who was convicted on fraud charges stemming from the sale of city properties to a former companion for a fraction of their cost.
In rendering the sentence, Judge William J. Martini of United States District Court blistered the prosecution, saying he was “shocked and disappointed” by the sentencing request and questioning the contention that the James administration had been corrupt for years.
“Don’t talk about a history of corruption unless you can prove it,” Judge Martini, a former Republican congressman, scolded Judith H. Germano, the chief prosecutor in the case. “I don’t want to hear these allegations of a corrupt administration, he’s all-powerful, he didn’t do any good. I’m supposed to throw out the history of a man’s life for misconduct he committed at age 69?”
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