Deal, NJ – The success of New Jersey’s recent corruption sweep figures to come down to how a jury interprets secretly taped conversations between a government informant and various public officials.
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The government’s case relies heavily on the tapes made by Solomon Dwek, who posed as a developer seeking to pay officials who would help him get building and zoning approvals.
Federal prosecutors say the tapes clearly show the officials acted illegally. But attorneys with experience in similar cases say many of the conversations can be interpreted differently.
Besides attacking Dwek, who was arrested for bank fraud in 2006 before agreeing to help the government, defense attorneys will likely try to portray any illegal activities as the product of his imagination.
They should be lucky enough to find a sympathetic Jury, unfortunately a lot of people don’t like us and they don’t care much about the evidence. God bless!
Please give me a break. Stop with the Anti-Semitism already. These people knew exactly what they were doing, and have to take personal responibility for their own actions.
When will people wake up and stop the blame game. We become our own worst enemies, trying to find the bogeyman in everything.
If these people don’t know the difference betwenn what is legal, and what is a crime, then let them all consult a Talmud!
What have they been doing for all these years, twiddling their thumbs.
They can find any naswer they want, but let them look into theirown hearts, and you will find, they all see greed!
When a man takes a commision of / pct, for laundering money, its a crime. Especially when he knows, or doesns’t want to know were the money came from!
#3, that doesn’t make it legal or right that the rabbis took the money. you can’t steal money from the government, or take “dirty” money, just because it’s going to unfortunate individuals. you can’t rob peter to help paul….
everyone goes on and on about what a chilul hashem all this is (which it is!). however, i don’t hear enough people saying that stealing and tax evasion is wrong. if you are taking money away from the government, you are stealing from hard-working american tax-payers.
The success or failure of the sweep will depend largely on how 12 citizens sitting in a jury box interpret what is said on the tapes — and that is a prospect that can be fraught with uncertainty for both sides,
Tapes are useful to the prosecution because the jury gets to hear the defendant’s voice on the tape. But for defense attorneys, it provides an opportunity because thewords are subject to multiple interpretations.
Excerpts released by the government are chosen to put the case in the most favorable light and tell only a small part of the story,
Words and phrases can be interpreted in different ways as well; for instance, none of the public officials are quoted using the word “bribe” in the excerpts released in July. Instead, there are references to getting “help” and “contributions”.