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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| FBI visited Jersey City mayor's shore home |
| 2009-09-13 |
| JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Mayor Jerramiah Healy, whose administration has been tainted by a federal corruption sting that's netted seven city employees, disclosed Friday that he's been questioned by FBI agents who have visited his vacation home and City Hall. However, Healy said he was not among the city employees federal investigators interviewed at City Hall on Thursday. "They went to the house in Bradley Beach," said Healy, head of the state's second-largest city. "They never searched it." In an interview earlier Friday, Healy had said: "I didn't speak with (the FBI), and they did not search my office. They did search my home in Bradley Beach three weeks ago." But he contacted The Associated Press a few hours later and said the FBI didn't search the house. His spokeswoman called the confusion an "apparent miscommunication." FBI spokesman Bryan Travers confirmed Friday that agents "went to Mr. Healy's home in Bradley Beach to interview him as part of our ongoing investigation." Healy's comments come two days after two members of his administration pleaded guilty to charges connected to the corruption probe. Healy has acknowledged meeting twice with the cooperating witness and former developer at the center of the sting but has repeatedly said he's done nothing wrong. Former Jersey City zoning official Maher Khalil and former city planning aide Guy Catrillo pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges Wednesday. They are the first of 44 suspects arrested in the sting to do so. Prosecutors have accused the government officials of trading the promise of special treatment in development matters for cash and political contributions. The developer at the center of the sting started cooperating with the FBI after his 2006 arrest for bank fraud. Healy, 58, commented Friday about his FBI dealings before and after a memorial for the victims of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. There are political ramifications surrounding the federal corruption investigation. Incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, who trails Republican Chris Christie in polls, asked for and got the resignation of state Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria Jr. after his home and offices were raided by the FBI. Doria, the former mayor of Bayonne, has not been charged. And, while Corzine has said all elected officials implicated in the federal sting should resign, Republicans have accused him of political gamesmanship for not targeting Healy in Jersey City, a city with 162,000 registered Democrats and 25,000 registered Republicans. Corzine's office declined to comment Friday. |
| Posted by:Fred |