No ‘political witch hunt’: What Mendez losing ruling in Paterson election fraud case means
PATERSON — A state Superior Court judge on Thursday morning rejected Alex Mendez’s attempt to argue that the criminal election fraud charges against him stem from a “political witch hunt” orchestrated by Mayor Andre Sayegh.
In denying Mendez’s “selective prosecution” defense, Judge Sohail Mohammed determined that the councilman failed to provide any proof that he was targeted for investigation because of his opposition to Sayegh.
“Evidence must be more than mere speculation,” Mohammed said during his ruling.
The judge also denied Mendez’s effort to force Sayegh to release emails and other correspondence between him, his staff and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office about the case.
Mendez is accused of breaking New Jersey’s laws on voter registration and mail-in ballots during Paterson’s May 2020 elections for the 3rd Ward council seat. The Attorney General’s Office filed charges against him less than two months after the election.
“For me, we’re going to wait for the trial and we’re going to prevail,” Mendez said Thursday morning, shortly after Mohammed’s ruling.
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Despite the judge’s decision, Mendez continued to assert that Sayegh was the catalyst for the state investigation against him.
“We all know that this was all done because of him,” Mendez said. “This is a joke,” the councilman added, referring to the investigation.
Mendez said he would confer with his lawyer, Paul Brickfield, about whether to appeal Thursday’s decision.
"I did not participate in any law enforcement investigation related to this matter," Sayegh told Paterson Press earlier this month when asked about Mendez’s accusations against him.
The courts have not yet scheduled the case for trial.
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Mendez had based his selective prosecution claims on three factors: the attorney general's use of one of the mayor’s police bodyguards as a Spanish translator while investigators interviewed a voter in the case, the state’s use of one of Sayegh’s deputy mayors to provide Bengali translation during another voter interview, and the fact that the attorney general looked into fraud accusations against a Sayegh ally in the 2020 elections, Mohammed Akhtaruzzaman, but did not file charges against him.
But the judge discounted Mendez’s assertion that the attorney general’s probe bent under “local influence” from Paterson.
Regarding the Akhtaruzzaman situation, Mohammed said Mendez had not proved that the facts matched those in Mendez’s own case. He noted that judges must give “deference” to “prosecutorial discretion” on whether to file charges in such situations.
Mohammed also said Mendez had not provided enough evidence showing Sayegh was involved in the allegations over the use of translators connected to the mayor.
The indictment charged Mendez with seven crimes: election fraud, fraud in casting a mail-in vote, unauthorized possession of ballots, tampering with public records, falsifying or tampering with records, false registration and attempted false registration.
The most serious charge — election fraud — is a second-degree offense that comes with a maximum 10-year prison sentence if he is convicted. That charge is based on the allegation that Mendez tried to register two people to vote in the 3rd Ward even though he knew they did not live in the election district.
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Mendez is one of two Paterson council members — both adversaries of Sayegh — under indictment in the case. The other, 1st Ward Councilman Michael Jackson, was indicted on five of the same criminal charges that Mendez is facing, but not the two counts of false registration.
The election fraud charge against Jackson accused him of submitting a completed mail-in ballot for someone while allegedly knowing the voter did not make the candidate selection marked on the ballot.
Jackson has said he plans to take the case against him to trial, which previously had been scheduled to start on Oct. 17. But officials said the start of the Jackson trial is being pushed back to an as-yet undetermined date.
Two other men were named in the original charges filed two years ago by the Attorney General’s Office, both campaign workers for 2nd Ward Councilman Shahin Khalique.
One of them, Abu Razyen, eventually was indicted on third-degree election crimes last February. Authorities have not announced any further criminal proceedings against the other, Shelim Khalique, the councilman’s brother.
The Attorney General’s Office also has charged Shelim Khalique with operating unsafe school buses and hiring unqualified drivers in his role as owner of a student transportation company. Those charges were announced on the same day in June 2020 that state authorities issued a press release about the election fraud case.
Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press.
Email: editor@patersonpress.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson election fraud: Alex Mendez loses 'selective prosecution'
