Gumbs Released Until February To Undergo Surgery

(Reprinted from the Amboy Beacon, Aug. 18, 2010) PERTH AMBOY — Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa, sitting in New Brunswick, last week ordered the temporary release of former Social Services Director Jeffrey Gumbs Sr. from the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Center, North Brunswick, to undergo surgery to allow him to eat more-comfortably while he continues serving his sentence. Hearings are scheduled to get underway in the corruption trial against former Perth Amboy Mayor Joseph Vas and his longtime Mayor’s Aide Melvin Ramos in U.S. District Court on Monday, Sept. 13, with Gumbs and Vas political advisor Raymond Geneske, his former high school History teacher, scheduled to testify against Vas under plea-agreements dropping some of the charges against them. Conferencing on charges contained in two state indictments against Vas and Ramos is planned to get started on Monday, Nov. 4. Over the objections of the state Attorney General’s Office, DeVesa granted a motion by Gumbs’ attorney, former Middlesex County Prosecutor Robert Gluck, to release his client temporarily because Gumbs, who suffers from diabetes and obesity, has been having difficulty eating in jail because of recent weight-loss surgery that restricts the types of food he is able to eat. DeVesa agreed to release Gumbs to obtain additional surgery to adjust a band around his stomach, but he must return by Feb. 28 to complete his 364-day jail sentence. In June, Gumbs was sentenced by DeVesa to 364 days in jail, a probationary term and 100 hours of community service after pleading guilty to Theft, Tampering with Public Records and Misappropriating Government Property. Gumbs admitted that he conspired with Vas to steal some of the $6,235 in misspent City of Perth Amboy funds used for personal purchases and expenses for Vas and himself, including $1,200 in city funds used to pay to send his son and the former Mayor’s son to basketball camp. In the same venue, Geneske was sentenced to three years probation after pleading guilty to Money Laundering. Geneske admitted that he accepted a substantial contribution from local developer Eddie Trujillo, who has not been charged, and funneling that money into the Vas for Congress campaign coffers for the 2006 Democratic 13th Congressional District primary election through an elaborate “straw-donor” procedure allegedly used to obscure the money’s origin. Under their plea-agreements, Geneske and Gumbs are required to testify truthfully against Vas in both his federal and state trials. The trials against Vas and Ramos have been transferred to Monmouth County from Middlesex County because Ramos is related to Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves, sitting in New Brunswick, through marriage.The defendants also are charged with a Pattern of Official Misconduct for their alleged acts, and each of those charges carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison without parole because they involve conduct that occurred on or after April 14, 2007. Ironically, those mandatory minimums were established under a law signed by former Gov. Jon Corzine in March 2007 that significantly-enhanced the punishment of government officials convicted of abusing their office and violating the public trust — a law sponsored by Vas as a then-19th Legislative District Assemblyman.