Free Republic

Former senator Wayne R. Bryant was found guilty yesterday of selling his office as one of New Jersey's most influential lawmakers for a medical school job that padded his pension, in a case that also put on trial the secret political horse-trading of the state budget process. A federal jury in Trenton convicted Bryant of bribery for soliciting a job at the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Camden County and using his influence to help the school acquire $10.5 million in state grants between 2003 and 2006.The jury also found Bryant, 61, of Lawnside, guilty of 11 counts of mail...

State Sen. Wayne Bryant, facing fraud, bribery and pension-padding charges, was due in federal court Friday for a pretrial status conference before U.S. District Court Judge Freda L. Wolfson. Bryant, 59, a Democrat from Camden County, is accused in a 20-count indictment of using his clout as head of the Senate Budget Committee to steer millions in grants to two state schools that gave him no-show jobs. The federal indictment charges Bryant with tripling his taxpayer-funded pension through jobs at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Rutgers-Camden Law School and Gloucester County Board of Social Services. Co-defendant...

A powerful New Jersey politician accused of being paid for a job that required no work at a scandal-ridden state university denied the report from a federal monitor who had investigated the school's finances. Wayne Bryant, state Senate Budget Committee chairman, said he served his responsibilities for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and claimed the report was "not accurate in many respects." "I regularly performed the various duties and services that were consistent with my job description," the Democrat said in a statement. Neither he nor his lawyer, Carl Poplar, returned calls from The Associated Press...

PHOTO Laura Pedrick for The New York Times Senator Wayne R. Bryant has been in the State Legislature for 22 years. Camden--WAYNE R. BRYANT, a longtime Democratic state senator, has been getting the sort of attention that most politicians would be happy to do without. The Courier-Post, a local newspaper widely read in his Camden-area district, recently called him the "king of double dipping," and an influential Web site, politicsnj.com, has taken to introducing articles about him with the words "oink, oink." Meanwhile, Mr. Bryant has been singled out in news media accounts statewide as one of the chief...