Court Says Former Mayor James Owes $94K

Sharpe James, the charismatic former mayor who was convicted on five counts of fraud and conspiracy in 2008, has been ordered to return $94,004 in funds to the campaign war chest he amassed while he was still active in politics.

James, 76, was sued by the state Election Law Enforcement Commission for violating state campaign finance law when he used the funds for his legal defense on the fraud charges. On Aug. 17, Essex County Superior Court Judge Harriet Klein found in favor of ELEC and ordered James to return the money and to pay a $30,000 fine, ELEC said in a statement Wednesday.

“As I said when we filed this lawsuit in 2011, candidates who disregard the law must face the consequences,’’ said Jeff Brindle, the executive director of ELEC.  “Sometimes it takes longer than we would like. But in the end, the commission aggressively enforces campaign finance law and that is what has happened here.”

James’ attorney told The Record of Bergen County that he intends to appeal the decision.

James, the city’s longest serving mayor, was in office from 1986 to 2006 and was succeeded by Cory Booker. In 2008, a federal jury convicted him on charges that he engineered sweetheart land deals for his mistress, Tamika Riley, who paid $46,000 for nine city lots before flipping them at a $665,000 profit. James and Riley served 27 and 15 months, respectively. The campaign funds were used in his legal defense on those charges. 

A political street fighter with a knack for connecting with average voters, James brought major downtown development to the city, including the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in 1997 and the Prudential Arena a decade later.

But he also played a particularly brutal brand of politics, as captured in the 2006 documentary “Street Fight,” which put a spotlight on James’s campaign against his opponent in the 2002 mayoral race, Booker, who was a member of the Newark Municipal Council at the time.

James still retained his appeal even after his conviction, with hundreds turning out in 2010 to welcome him home from federal prison in Virginia. James has said he has not ruled out a return to politics, which would require the charges against him be overturned. One of the five original charges was overturned a few years ago.

The James campaign account contained $706,372 as of late July, Brindle told Patch Wednesday. Since James is currently barred from holding elected office again, that money can’t be used on another James run for office, but James is free to donate the money to other political campaigns. The money can also be used for donations to charity or can be returned to the donors “on a pro rata basis,” Brindle said. The money can also be used to pay the $30,000 fine imposed by the court.