http://wcbs880.com/njnews/NJ--NorcrossTape-jn/resources_news_html
State seeks to halt release of corruption probe tapes
Friday March 18, 2005
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) A secretly recorded conversation between Democratic power broker George E. Norcross III and an elected official from Burlington County is among dozens of tapes from a corruption probe that the state wants to keep under wraps.
The Division of Criminal Justice late Friday filed a motion in Superior Court to block the release of the tapes, and asked Judge John A. Sweeney to reconsider making the tapes public. Sweeney recently rejected the state's bid to keep the tapes locked up and ordered them turned over to an informant who sued for their release.
The Norcross conversations are a small part of the 330 hours of tapes made in an investigation of the dealings of JCA Associates, a Moorestown-based engineering firm.
John Gural, a former Palmyra councilman who is now mayor of the Burlington County town, recorded the tapes for the state Division of Criminal Justice as part of a corruption investigation in 2001 when Gural worked for the firm.
Norcross, who lives in Cherry Hill, is an executive at Commerce Bancorp and a Democratic fund-raiser with statewide influence.
Calls to Criminal Justice spokesman John Hagerty and Norcross spokesman Richard McGrath were not immediately returned Friday.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
In the interest of timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain occasional typographical errors.
The former executive director of the Delaware River & Bay Authority pleads guilty to federal fraud charges. Michael E. Harkins admits billing tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses - from private jets to limo rides - to the authority and then trying to cover up the expenses.
He was sentenced to 14 months in prison yesterday.
It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. What a bucket of sleaze he has always been, and I don't care he is a "republican"...........he has always played with who he could get what he wanted from.