NJ political boss George Norcross' attorney: He's 'emphatically' not guilty

Lawyers for George Norcross and his associates indicated on Tuesday that they will try to undermine racketeering charges alleging that the South Jersey political boss used his vast influence to extort businesses and political leaders while enriching himself and his associates.

Speaking outside an arraignment for most of the defendants, Norcross attorney Michael Critchley said nothing described in the 111-page indictment — which details yearslong campaigns by what it calls the “Norcross Enterprise” to coerce and bully public officials and business rivals — is actually illegal.

“The indictment has a lot of words, a lot of pages, a lot of allegations,” Critchley told reporters after the arraignment. “But one thing it does not have — it does not have elements of a crime.”

All the defendants present, including Norcross and his younger brother Philip, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to the various charges in the sprawling indictment, issued last month by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin. Another defendant, trucking company CEO Sidney Brown, will be arraigned on Aug. 7 because his attorney also represents a party in U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption trial.

“The indictment stretches the RICO [racketeering] statute beyond recognition,” attorney Kevin Marino told Judge Peter Warshaw in court, representing George Norcross’s brother, Philip Norcross.

The indictment describes how companies tied to George Norcross benefited from a tax program he and Philip Norcross, a public finance attorney, helped design. Prosecutors say the Norcross brothers were part of a criminal enterprise that used their political power over elected officials to help them extort properties and the right to redevelop the Camden waterfront from other property owners and developers.

Once they had the land and development rights, the Norcross brothers and companies aligned with them were able to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax credits that could be sold for cash, according to the indictment.

Platkin alleges that Norcross and his allies broke the state’s racketeering laws, which target any kind of business or organization that engages in a set of illegal activities to make a profit.

“My client emphatically states he is not guilty,” Critchley told the court. He and the attorney for Philip Norcross, Kevin Marino, told the judge that they would file a motion to dismiss the charges.

The indictment alleges that the Norcross brothers were able to control Camden City Hall and former Mayor Dana Redd, who is also charged in the case. That control enabled them to threaten Carl Dranoff, a real estate developer, to give up valuable development rights for less than their market value, it says.

“If you f*** this up, I’m going to f*** you up like you’ve never been f***ed up before," Norcross allegedly said to Dranoff in a phone call. "I’ll make sure you never do business in this town again."

But that was just tough talk that happens routinely in business negotiations, said Critchley.

“They were hard bargaining between Mr. Norcross and someone else who was trying to manipulate the pricing of a project,” he said. “This was a conversation amongst many people, including Mr. Dranoff and his attorney and multiple attorneys. This is not a conversation where someone was in the dark alley threatening somebody.”

In the recent special episode of the WNYC podcast “Dead End: A New Jersey Political Murder Mystery,” Ed Stier, a former prosecutor who has worked on several racketeering cases in New Jersey, said criminal enterprises can often look like legitimate businesses.

“An enterprise under the RICO law can have both legal and illegal objectives," Stier said. "It can be multifaceted. And in fact, as if you apply it to the classic political machine, a political machine typically wants to do lots of things that benefit or appear to benefit the public in order to sustain itself in power.”

The podcast had previously described documents that are key to a land deal described in the indictment and that were found on the table of health care executive John Sheridan and Joyce Sheridan after they were found dead in their home. The documents detail how the Norcross brothers sought to wrestle rights to purchase an office complex away from the nonprofit Cooper’s Ferry Partnership, where Sheridan was board chairman. Sheridan was also CEO of Cooper University Health Care, where George Norcross was board chairman.

Another allegation of extortion in the indictment surrounds the sale of the office complex as well. It says the Norcross brothers told the leadership of Cooper’s Ferry Partnership, now known as the Camden Community Partnership, that they would be fired if they didn’t give up the valuable rights to purchase the buildings.

For decades, George Norcross has been considered the most powerful unelected figure in New Jersey, as described by the WNYC and ProPublica collaboration “The Real Bosses of New Jersey.” A third Norcross brother, Donald, is a member of Congress, representing the 1st District.

Prosecutors say they have a massive trove of evidence in the case — 2.5 million pages of documents, and a terabyte of data that includes 150 recordings and other media files. The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office sought a protective order to keep the evidence private as it distributes the material to the defense.

Warshaw, the judge overseeing the case, issued a 60-day order giving the parties time to negotiate over what must be kept out of public view.

“I understand you’re concerned about nefarious uses of it,” he said.

Norcross’ attorney said he planned to challenge the legality of some of the recordings in the prosecution’s possession.

On the day of his indictment, George Norcross said the charges were a political vendetta by Platkin, the attorney general.

“I want to go to trial in two weeks," he said at the time. “I want Matt Platkin to come down here and try this case himself because he's a coward because he has forced people in this building to implement his will.”

The case will take considerably longer. The next hearing is set for Sept. 9 and is expected to kick off a long period during which both sides will file motions with the judge.

Norcross’s personal attorney Bill Tambussi; former Camden Mayor Redd; and John J. O’Donnell, an executive at Camden-based development company the Michaels Organization also pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.

This story has been updated to include more information about Tuesday's arraignment and comments made by attorneys for George Norcross and his associates.