Once again, thanks to Al Sullivan for breaking this bombshell:
But this fad of secretly recording conversations seems to be taken hold in other parts of the county, especially in Hoboken. People may soon start hugging each other, not out of love or friendship, but because they want to check for wires. This differs from Bid Rig III or any legitimate law enforcement effort. This is straight out political spying, the kind of which has friends taping even friends, and has the potential to make enemies out of former allies.
Doesn't Hoboken just have it all? Villains, superheroes, now... spies.
Or is it spy. As in one.
The rumors converge on one person who has allegedly been taping conversations with friends and foes. GA was told- and this is unconfirmed, naturally- that this person has been taping all these conversations since last January. That's 2013.
Of course, gossip- particularly mean stuff- has a way of circulating about any person in the public eye, particularly a person who may hold an appointed or elected office. If you listen to the doofus blogging as Dov A./ Daria Gluck on Patch, then you know Mayor Zimmer went to New Hampshire last week to smoke weed.
That's politics, right?
But, in this case there is more to back it up than wagging tongues. There's a transcript.
One of the recorded conversations was transcribed for purposes unknown. For perhaps, a legal matter. Unless... the transcription serves other purposes.
Intriguing, no?
This Mile Square has it ALL: an ongoing FBI investigation focused on stealing the Mayor's email, a NJ Attorney General investigation into Occhipinti 2010 campaign election fraud, secret FBI recordings of a City Council member (Russo) accepting a bribe, another City Council member (Mason) giving $1,000 to a prosecutor the week before she represented the Councilwoman's paid political operative employee (Matt Calicchio) against an online critic (wears horse shoes), a conspiracy to sue nearly 2 dozen bloggers between a City Councilwoman (Mason), a Weehawken political operative and two 'underground' operatives, a lawsuit by 4 Council members (Mason, Russo, Castellano, Occhipinti) which has halted businesses, developers and residents from getting zoning approvals costing untold financial damages and logjams into the forseeable future, a political operative run amok- reading our City's private communications, losing a BoE campaign with a Nazi Truck, behaving like an unhinged adolescent on Patch threads, 7 tons of goods from Louisiana's Train of Hope' are picked up in Newark by Occhipinti and Mason, who drive them to Bayonne, and are never seen again... and so much more.
Now, someone who (I am told) is a person in a powerful, public position has been taping "everyone".
Why?
We'll know more if and when this transcript surfaces.
It will. Because GA hears it is "getting around"...
And Al dropped a curious clue.
Note, that although the individual taping is Hoboken-based, the item appeared in the 'West New York' Section of his column, not Hoboken. That says to me that the tentacles of this scandal go beyond Hoboken into Hudson County.
And beyond? Different states have different laws for taping another party without notifying them. This is going to get very interesting.
Does anyone else out there wonder what secrets this transcript holds?
Did the confessed email thief, Mr. Riccardi ever wear a wire? Tomorrow, he is to be sentenced in Federal Court. Word on the street is that 'many individuals are sweating'. And, don't be disappointed if this event is postponed again. The Feds may want him to testify first before he gets his break of a reduced term. Be reminded that Mayor Zimmer has stated that she wants ALL INVOLVED TO BE HELD FULLY ACCOUNTABLE!!!
ReplyDeleteFrom your lips...
ReplyDeleteGA, Where is the story on the SKY CLUB MASSACRE
ReplyDeleteDo you mean the Drinking and Diving fiasco at the Sky Club gym?That is a police story. When was the last time you saw such a story here about a health club posing as a night club that over sold the door 2x resulting in an over crowded venue and some of the people in the crowd acted like assholes and morons. This is a political blog.
DeleteSo whats the difference when GA blames Carmelo Garcia for everything that happens in the private apartments of HHA residents? Political matter? I think the sky club is a political matter...Did Dave Mello and Greg Lincoln turn a blind eye this this event and others of the past?
ReplyDeleteBecause Carmelo is in charge of the HHA - the buck stops with him. Everyone reports to him. He runs the show.
ReplyDeleteMello isn't in charge of the privately owned gym that just so happens to be attached to the building he lives in. If mello was the manager or owner or board member of that gym then you might have a point.
Don't bother trying to explain concepts of property ownership and business entity relationships that are obviously way over his head. His stupidity is breathtakingly sad. I actually did not see this profound lack of knowledge coming when I answered the first time and gave him the benefit of the doubt.
DeleteDarn, came a little too late to zap the Troll. Please don't feed him.
ReplyDeleteThis article did not mention any names; our Troll is pulling "Carmelo Garcia" into a discussion which, so far, has nothing to do with him. Does it? Unless the Troll knows something we don't- so far.
Our Troll misstates that I "blame" Mr. Garcia for "everything that happens in the private apartments of HHA residents". Absolutely FALSE. If the apartment was not properly remediated and tested for safety after the cooking of meth, THEN I "blame" Mr. Garcia.
Troll can ask his brother who, I believe, has a 5th floor apartment on the same floor as the meth lab. Troll can find out if a licensed environmental cleanup service was called to clean and test the apartment, adjacent apartments and hallway for contamination by deadly toxins produced from the cooking of meth.
Troll will ask those questions, too unless he is more interested in Hoboken's political antics than the health and safety of residents of 501 Marshall Drive, including the health of his own brother.
GA IS concerned about the health and safety of the residents there- even Troll's brother- because exposure over time to these deadly chemicals can cause cancer, blood and nervous system disorders and children are especially susceptible. Other than the ED's 'word', where is the proof (certificate of inspection) that the building is clean and safe?
And cooking meth makes an odor. Troll can ask his brother if the fumes went into the hallway.
And does Troll care that 501 Marshall had no working generator until the fire department inspection caught it? How many meth lab fires are there in the US? Data from a few years ago showed 17,000. Fires and explosions are common results of cooking meth with propane and other explosive chemicals. Does Troll care about the lack of fire suppression in that building and 5 others?
Who is responsible for maintaining the HHA and keeping residents safe? Not BLOGGERS.
Moving on, I suppose today all eyes turn to Ricciardi's sentencing. Which will not be secretly taped by someone wearing a wire.
Having flunked H.S. chemistry to such an extent that it's uncertain whether the course was ever on the schedule. Maybe it was just the imagination of the certitude of flunking chemistry that somehow psychologically tricked this mind into believing a chemistry course was taken and flunked.
DeleteAnd to admit also of receiving a pretty elite-level "toy" chemistry set which contained substances of compelling curiosity, with exotic names and symbols that just cried out to be mixed, lit on fire, mixed with still more mysterious and one supposes perilous items.
Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed and nothing untoward happened. And it's not surprising in today's litignous lawyer-infused society that toy companies - or ANY company - would peddle "toy" chemistry sets the likes of which nearly included, in one well-planned but poorly executed, "experiment." Yeah, like this 12-year-old juvie delinquent was a smart Christmas tree recipient of one of those excellent "wow, wonder what happens when you mix this curious substance, with that one, and then put fire to the combined mixture?" Thankfully, things didn't go, KABOOM, but the spreading flames, fortunately nipped in the bud and confined before burning down a pretty sizable (and again fortunately) UNINHABITED garage. Will cop to some pretty routine juvie dee idiotic youthful acts, but thank goodness, setting a pretty nice garage ablaze didn't make an otherwise somewhat impressive, "idiot list," of lunkhead, loutish juvie misdeeds.
But never mind those yore be-gone kiddies-at-play-with-scientifically/adult-authorized substances. An "innocent," and for this appreciative now-grown-up-wiser fellow looking back. That "substance abuse," did minimal damage, if at dicey times playing completely innocent "mix-n-match" with an elite "toy" chemistry set did produce some impressive and utterly pointless "scientific results." Albeit avoiding burning down a nice garage, whew, "that was close..."
But it's NO JOKE otherwise to imagine a METH LAB operating for who knows how long, with evident impunity. For heaven's sake a METH LAB operating in a dense and a likely pretty-demanding to evacuate public housing structure?
Never mind the completely thoughtless and downright EVIL "output" of such an "in-house" chemical factory?
But it's pretty sure that creating home-made "meth" involves highly perilous substances, highly flammable, highly combustible, altogether EXCEEDINGLY DANGEROUS. And who knows how many time the "tinhorn chemists," doubtless operating with the barest knowledge required to create the meth? How many "close calls," were there in a densely populated building?
And as noted, were the actual and highly necessary "clean-up" as described actually take place? Or was the undoubtedly jacked-up clean-up contract actually carried out scrupulously to ensure the residents, who undoubtedly at some points avoided being blown sky-high?
And now these same residents have to wonder if the notoriously lax contacting episodes engaged by the HHA. Can these poor folks feel assured they're not living in what's now maybe a deadly, toxic-waste building?
What's the prediction for how long the truly evil perps will get a justified lengthy prison-stay?
Call this former playhouse chemist otherwise NOT creating an evilly abusive substance such as meth. But if this former tinhorn "scientist" was on the bench dispensing justice for the toxic-substance perps. How about "life + ten years?"
And please heaven help that the undoubtedly super-costly contract was actually properly engaged that those residents who avoided being blown to smithereens. Need not wander their hallways and every now and then encounter unpleasant and uneasy aromas, or glowing carpets, etc.
A meth lab in public housing, "Life + ten?" and THEN SOME.
DickSheppard HCNJ
Bad individuals can be more dangerous to the public than meth labs at times. They are the ones that cause the volatile conditions. Bad politicians can put many people at risk financially and when they overlook public safety concerns. People that violate the law and lie for politicians are as bad as wicked leaders. By the way, my A in college chem. 101 was not required for me to render this opinion. l0l
DeleteThe "massacre" isn't in Patch or HR either. More stupidity. It has that Liebler mouth foam mixed with that Calicchio moral equivalency between, say, a parking ticket and running over a pedestrian on the sidewalk.
ReplyDeleteDo you have to flunk an intelligence test to work for the OGs?
Regarding the Skyclub, which I believe are condos. They will have a condo board and some kind of property manager. ALL condo owners are responsible for the use of the common area. They have to internally address this allowed use and if one of the owners is involved, they can discipline that party according to the bylaws. The City will investigate this regarding any ABC violations, fire code violations and such.
ReplyDeleteExcept it occurred on the privately owned gym property. The condo unit owners have no control nor rights to that area. Therefore, they're not responsible for it. The SkyClub Gym is in trouble and if someone died or if someone sues, they may get shut down.
DeleteRegarding Riccardi's date in Federal Court today, there are rumors that it will be posponed. If so, this may indicate that action against the others involved will soon be taken. Stay tuned....
ReplyDeleteheard Ricciardi sentencing was postponed until Friday at 11 AM in federal Court in Newark.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! Thank you.
DeleteNot for nuthin', that shop-worn scenario, encouraged by ancient & even contemporary gangsta/mobster films. Alleged "pals" & "allies," supposedly entangled with la-famiglia-level bonds that preclude even THINKING about tape-recording each other with "ratcha!!" motives.
ReplyDeleteToday's modern technology, one need no longer wire up the "rat" with tangles of wire, sizable recording devices, & other potentially "give-away" rat-revealing gadgets.
Nowadays, teeny, exceedingly miniature recording devices are deployed in ways that, absent a full-blown, "strip-search," aren't detected by a motivated, tech-UN-savvy lingistically-unintelligible gangsta-goon.
When it comes to prospective scenarios whereby a public official who has long been suspected - but never proven - to be a one-man, or multiple, party-wide, crime-spree.
Whenever these kinds of prospective scenarios of "so-n-so is UNTOUCHABLE, he/she always gets away with it!!" The frustration level of chiseled taxpayers observing highly suspected, sometimes even, FLOUTING public official getting away with crimes high and low.
For the frustrated onlooker & taxpayer who is being robbed of hard-earned wages. Scenarios arise where an "untouchable" official, through some overlooked, "I always get away with it, suckers!!" arrogance.
When such an official slips up. No longer under suspicion but facing bombshell disclosures of "hah hah if only the taxpaying suckers knew what I'm up to!!" back-office chicanery.
It remains to be seen apparently, whereby this scintillatingly "RATCHA!" tape blurts include bomb-shell vile revelations.
Given how more often sleaze-fisted officials do, "get away" with back-office & even sometimes, "in yer sucker taxpayer face," UNTOUCHABLE low & high crimes.
It's that well-deserved, long-overdue schadenfreude effect, an all-too-UNoften opportunity for taxpayers to see genuine, "GOTCHA" justice served-up in the broad sunlight of a jam-packed, media-crammed courthouse.
Is there anything more schadenfreude-able than gleefully & totally justifiably, "gotcha mofo!!!" yippeee-yahoo=hooray taxpayer joyification when the craven, the vile, the execrable, the foul-hearted & criminally-minded formerly untouchable taxpayer takes a visible nose-flop straight into the door-clanging displeasure of a steel-toilet & barely-there-window-less Big House jailbird nest? To envision formerly well-suited, Big Shot self-impressed crooks shuffling in trepidation in cheap, plastic shoelace-less booties. The dude (or dudette) has put off visiting the shower-zone for as long as possible, whereby fungus and fellow-jailie complaints of stinking putrid body odors are threatening bodily harm unless Mr. formerly wardrobe wonderboy MUST take a shower.
Who knows if it gets to that point? But if, as noted, there are "RATCHA/GOTCHA" self-and/or-other-incriminating tape recordings. Sufficient to indict, convict & jail-up formerly, "can't touch me!!" off-putting public officials who FINALLY have "slipped up," & didn't do the full-body search now required by technology advances. "Oh, I'll pat the guy down just to let him know I'm not trusting him & he knows I'm untouchable & will be too a'scared to play RATCHA/GOTCHA with Big Shot moi?"
Ask whats-his-face that Cammaranno fellow, or in JC, self-described "I love JC/man of the people" "populist"Guy Catrillo, for example, what happens when engaging with immutable "trust" among otherwise similarly execrable political "pals."
"We'll see," it's a schadenfreude wonder to envision Big Shot 800-dollar-suit & tie foul public officials take a visible nose-flip into the horror-shower hoosegow reality?
DickSheppard HCNJ