Defendant Baroni Freed Amid Bridgegate Supreme Court Appeal

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — Bill Baroni, one of the defendants in the high-profile "Bridgegate" scandal, has been order freed from prison by a federal judge after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal of his and Bridget Anne Kelly's case.

The Supreme Court will review if federal prosecutors used criminal fraud statutes in their case against Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, former Gov. Chris Christie's deputy chief of staff. Baroni was the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority when the scandal occurred.

In the complaint filed with the Supreme Court, Kelly's lawyers argued that case involved"an official decision" and that decision "affected public resources." The complaint stated the jury found Kelly's and Baroni's "true purpose was political, not the public policy reason" they had invoked."

Baroni and Kelly were found guilty in November 2016 of wire fraud and misappropriating government resources. Baroni was originally sentenced to 24 months in prison. Kelly was sentenced to 18 months. They appealed their convictions to the U.S. Court Appeals for the Third Circuit, which affirmed five of seven convictions for both defendants. Baroni was resentenced to 18 months in prison.

A third conspirator, David Wildstein, the former director of interstate capital projects at the Port Authority, pleaded guilty in May 2015. He was sentenced to three years probation.

The "Bridgegate" scandal involved shutting down several local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee for four days in September 2013 as retribution against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for not endorsing Christie for reelection. A federal grand jury returned a seven-count indictment against Wildstein, Baroni, and Kelly in May 2015.

Sokolich said that Kelly and Baroni did what they did with "a callous disregard for public safety and the lives of many people."

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com