The Jersey City Independent "

“Stop talking — just, I understand — you make me feel like I want to pat you down,” says federal prosecutor Jenny R. Kramer, quoting from a video recording of L. Harvey Smith at the start of her opening remarks. This parking-lot conversation, with all its sad irony, represents what the government contends was the culmination of a cash-for-favors deal made between the defendant and informant Solomon Dwek outside of a Bayonne diner.

As the federal corruption trial of former state Assemblyman, City Council president and acting mayor L. Harvey Smith gets underway, lawyers tangle over all-important semantics and the jury is selected.

- Smith Trial: Jury selection began yesterday, and will continue today, in the federal corruption trial of former Assemblyman and councilman L. Harvey Smith. – Liberty Humane: Brad Levy made his first appearance in court yesterday related to the criminal charges of harassment and making terroristic threats against board members of Liberty Humane Society. – [...]

- Dwek Won’t Testify in Smith Trial: The U.S. attorney’s office says that it doesn’t plan to call FBI informant Solomon Dwek to testify in the trial of L. Harvey Smith, which is scheduled to begin today. – United Water Lawsuit: Several Hudson County residents have filed a class action lawsuit against United Water on [...]

REMINDER: All City offices are closed today, and street sweeping is suspended. – Police Supervisors’ Contract: Jersey City police supervisors are set to get 2.75 percent annual raises but give up the traditional health care plan under a decision issued by an arbitrator. The raise, which is less than the 4.5 percent the Jersey City [...]

- Smith’s Entrapment Defense Falls Flat: A federal judge ruled yesterday that former Jersey City Assemblyman and councilman L. Harvey Smith will not be allowed to claim he was lured by the FBI into last year’s sweeping federal corruption sting, rejecting a request to hold evidentiary hearings into the matter. – FERC Weighs in on [...]

- Smith to Claim Entrapment: In a court filing Friday, an attorney for L. Harvey Smith notified a federal judge he will argue that a government informant’s dealings with Smith warrant an entrapment instruction to the jury in Smith’s upcoming trial. He will be the first to use that tactic at trial. – JCFD: Jersey [...]

- Public Will Pay for Smith’s Defense at Corruption Trial: A federal judge has granted approval for the public to pay the legal tab for L. Harvey Smith, a former Assemblyman and City Council member charged with taking bribes in last year’s massive FBI sting. – Fire Chief Will be Sworn in Friday: Darren Rivers, [...]

- Smith’s Defense: Former Assemblyman and City Council member L. Harvey Smith has embarked upon a multi-pronged legal strategy to have federal corruption charges against him dismissed, including arguing that he was only helping a constituent when he was busted on bribery charges and that the government entrapped him. – Open Space Projects: Hudson County [...]

On the morning of July 23, 2009, federal agents began knocking on doors all over Jersey City, arresting politicians and other public officials and taking them to the federal courthouse in Newark. The process of bringing the accused to trial has progressed slowly throughout the last year; a year that has brought resignation, death, court [...]