New Jersey indictment of NFI CEO Brown, political kingmaker Norcross tossed

The indictment against New Jersey political power broker George Norcorss that also caught up Sidney Brown, the CEO of truckload carrier NFI Industries and a member of the family that owns the company, has been dismissed by a New Jersey judge.

According to press reports Wednesday morning that were confirmed by a statement from the New Jersey attorney general’s office, which brought the case against Norcross, a southern New Jersey attorney who has never held office and didn’t have a formal role in any political organization but has long wielded significant power in the state’s political life, the indictment was dismissed Wednesday by Superior Court Judge Peter Warshaw.

The indictment was handed down in June. The other defendants whose indictments were dismissed besides George Norcross and Brown were former Camden Mayor Dana Redd, attorney William Tambussi, businessman John O’Donnell and Philip Norcross, an attorney and George Norcross’ brother.

At issue in the case were development rights in Camden, a waterfront city across from Philadelphia that long ago fell on hard times. One of the pieces of development that was a focus of the activities at the core of the indictment was the TRIAD1828 Centre, an office building that is now the headquarters of NFI.

Wiretaps reported on in the indictment revealed a hardball approach by Norcross and his allies to persuade a developer to yield ownership and development rights to various parcels in Camden.  The indictment included a few examples of profanities that could have been viewed as physical threats by Norcorss. 

The argument of the Norcross attorneys as they sought to have the indictment dismissed was that what went on was tough politics, not criminal acts.

Brown’s attorneys filed a separate motion to have the case against the NFI CEO dismissed, citing his minor role in the activities. The indictment mentions Brown only once in its recaps of various meetings the former defendants in the case held about the development, and Brown was a defendant in only six of the 13 counts.

Media reports of the dismissal of the indictment said Warshaw wrote that the activities of the defendants “did not constitute extortion or criminal coercion.” Warshaw also rejected that the actions of the defendants constituted a “racketeering enterprise.”

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin released a statement that said his office “strongly disagreed” with the decision and planned to appeal.

“After years in which the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently cut back on federal public corruption law, and at a time in which the federal government is refusing to tackle corruption, it has never been more important for state officials to take corruption head on,” he said. “But I have never promised that these cases would be easy, because too many have come to view corruption as simply the way the powerful do business in New Jersey.”

This is a developing story.

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