Jury-Picking Scheduled

(Reprinted from Amboy Beacon, Sept. 15, 2010)
PERTH AMBOY — Jury-selection was scheduled to get underway in U.S. District Court in Newark early this week in the federal corruption trial against former Mayor Joseph Vas and his longtime Mayor’s Aide Melvin Ramos. Once a jury has been seated, Vas political advisor Raymond Geneske, his former high school History teacher, and former Human Services Director Jeffrey Gumbs are expected to testify against Vas before Judge Susan Wigenton under plea-agreements dropping some of the charges against them. Attorney Alan Zegas, representing Vas, told Wigenton that he strongly-opposed any references to pending state charges in the federal trial as being prejudicial to his client, but Wigenton ruled in-favor of the prosecution on that issue. Before the actual trial begins, Wigenton is expected to rule on a similar request by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that testimony by former Business Administrator Donald Perlee, who has not been charged, but is cooperating in the investigation, be admissible, according to the state Attorney General’s Office. Wigenton has said that she expects the trial to last until Friday, Oct. 22. Geneske was sentenced in June in Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick to three years probation after admitting accepting a substantial contribution from local developer Eddie Trujillo, who has not been charged, and funneling that money into the Vas Congressional campaign coffers through an elaborate “straw-donor” procedure allegedly used to obscure the money’s origin. In the same venue, Gumbs was sentenced to up to 364 days in jail, a probationary term and 100 hours of community service after admitting that he conspired with Vas to steal some of the $6,235 in misspent City of Perth Amboy funds used to pay for personal purchases and expenses for Vas and himself, including $1,200 in city funds to pay for his son and the former Mayor’s son to attend basketball camp.Under their plea-agreements, Geneske and Gumbs are required to testify truthfully against Vas in both his federal and state trials.