Informant Dwek grilled in N.J. corruption trial

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

NEWARK — A defense attorney Tuesday sought to portray the government informant in New Jersey's largest corruption case as a con man with a penchant for spreading fiction and half-truths even in testimony under oath in federal court.

In exchanges that frequently became heated on the fourth day of testimony in the trial of Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, defense attorney Brian Neary hammered away at government cooperator Solomon Dwek, the man at the center of New Jersey's largest-ever public corruption bust.

Beldini is accused of taking $20,000 to help Dwek with zoning changes for a fictitious 750-unit condominium project and serving as a real estate agent for the building. She allegedly converted the money into campaign donations for Mayor Jerramiah Healy. Healy has not been charged.

Neary attempted throughout the day's cross-examination to distance Beldini from the late political consultant Jack Shaw and former Jersey City housing commissioner Edward Cheatam, whom Dwek testified he paid a total of about $100,000 for introductions to New Jersey officials in 2008 and 2009.

Posing as corrupt developer David Esenbach, Dwek secretly recorded meetings with public officials and members of Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Deal, N.J., that resulted in 44 arrests last July. Beldini is the first to go on trial.

Shaw introduced Dwek to Beldini, and the three and Cheatam met several times last spring in restaurants in Jersey City to talk about Dwek's condo project. But Dwek admitted Tuesday that he never recorded any calls to Beldini or visited her office, but instead only met with her when the other two were present, in meetings he secretly recorded.

Cheatam pleaded guilty last fall to extortion conspiracy and faces nine to 11 years in prison. Shaw was found dead from an overdose of Valium at his apartment five days after his arrest in July.

Dwek contradicted himself on occasion Tuesday. Early in the day, he claimed that whenever Beldini mentioned New York — as when she discussed Mayor Michael Bloomberg's support for Healy during a secretly recorded diner conversation — "it was cover for something corrupt."

But when Neary played another tape in which Beldini mentions that the development climate in Jersey City was different than in New York, Dwek said Beldini "was just trying to change the topic."

Dwek testified that he never actually gave money to Beldini, but said he gave it to Shaw and Cheatam to use for campaign donations to Healy, for whom Beldini served as campaign treasurer.

In exchange, Beldini allegedly was going to help Dwek get zoning approvals for the condo project and also serve as real estate agent for the building.

Neary replayed footage of several meetings that the government had screened for the jury last week. In one, Dwek spoke of possibly using Beldini's influence "on some other jobs" after the condo project — which included, he told the jury, projects to redevelop a former noodle factory and former sausage factory.

But under questioning by Neary, Dwek admitted he hadn't known about those two projects until about a week after the meeting in question.

On another tape, Dwek is seen following Healy to one exit of a diner, then following Beldini to another exit. Neary contended Dwek was pursuing them and initiating conversations that they appeared to show little interest in.

Neary asked Dwek why cash was never explicitly mentioned.

"I wasn't going to walk off with your client and offer a bribe. I'm not that stupid," Dwek said with a tinge of sarcasm.

Dwek became combative when Neary implied that Beldini wasn't interested in his entreaties.

"She could have walked out and never taken a dollar," Dwek said, adding later that "there were over a dozen politicians that people vouched for and they said, 'Esenbach, go to hell, we're not taking your money, we're not going to expedite your approvals.'"

http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime_cour...tion_trial.html