Witness was with Paterson's Alex Mendez when he allegedly broke election law, say records
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PATERSON — An unidentified state’s witness said he accompanied Alex Mendez while the then-City Council candidate illegally collected mail-in ballots from voters, according to court records in the new election fraud charges filed against Mendez.
The unnamed witness told detectives he and Mendez took the ballots to the candidate’s headquarters and the two of them then went with campaign chairman Omar Ledesma to drop off more than 300 illegally collected ballots at a mailbox in Haledon, said the affidavit of probable cause.
Mendez’s trip to Haledon in a car owned by his wife was captured on video by a surveillance camera, the affidavit said. Investigators also said they have audio recordings of Mendez admitting he completed a false registration form for someone described as “Voter 5” and of Mendez discussing a false story to explain the Paterson ballots found mailed in Haledon.
The court records said the audio recordings also revealed an alleged cover-up including conversations among Mendez, his wife and others to contact people who reportedly already told detectives they handed their ballots to Mendez to get those voters to change their stories by saying they misunderstood the investigators’ questions.
A witness also told investigators that Mendez instructed him to delete communications between the two of them about “the accused’s ballot collection scheme,” the affidavit said. The statement signed by state investigators did not explicitly say whether the witness who reportedly accompanied Mendez during the alleged crimes was the same person who recorded the conversations about the wrongdoing and cover-up.
Mendez on Thursday morning repeated his long-standing assertions of innocence in a case that initially broke in June 2020 with the first set of criminal accusations against him, charges that are still pending.
“I’m fine,” Mendez, 48, said. “I’m at peace. I know what I have done for my community. I look forward to my day in court.”
New charges filed: New election fraud charges against Paterson City Council President Alex Mendez and wife
Call for resignation
The latest flurry of election fraud charges against Mendez, which were filed Wednesday, prompted his political archrival William McKoy to call for his resignation.
McKoy, who held the 3rd Ward council seat for two decades before Mendez won two controversial elections against him in 2020, said the new allegations were far more substantive than the original charges filed against his opponent 40 months ago.
“This is extremely detailed. It eliminates all doubt,” said McKoy. “This is clear and compelling evidence. It proves what we have known all along. Clearly there’s a pattern of criminal behavior that’s unbecoming for a councilman.”
The former councilman said he learned of the new charges against Mendez when he was driving home Wednesday from his job in Jersey City and someone sent him a news story. McKoy said he is ready to return to the 3rd Ward council seat.
“I didn’t lose the election, it was taken from me fraudulently,” he said. “I intend to reclaim my position.”
Mendez said he has no plans to resign, asserting that voters in the 3rd Ward rejected McKoy twice in 2020 and that the courts had upheld his right to serve on the council. Mendez said he plans to run for reelection next May.
“If McKoy runs against me, I will beat him again,” Mendez asserted.
McKoy, who said he has every intention to run again next spring, expressed some disappointment that the attorney general's case against Mendez has taken so long.
At the time of the 2020 election, conducted entirely by mail-in ballots because of the pandemic, there were numerous news stories about the Paterson votes bundled in the Haledon mail and allegations of blank ballots being stolen from residential mailboxes. But the first set of charges filed against Mendez in 2020 did not directly address those situations.
McKoy acknowledged that the new charges seemed to connect what previously were unconnected dots in the case. He said prosecutors probably did not pursue the additional charges in the past because they expected Mendez to admit his guilt.
“They thought he would do what any decent person would do when faced with the evidence and acquiesce and take a plea deal,” McKoy said.
What did Sayegh say?
After the 2020 charges, Mayor Andre Sayegh repeatedly made public statements calling Mendez a criminal. But in recent months the two of them have forged a cooperative relationship, one that has caused some of Mendez’s former supporters to publicly denounce him for working with Sayegh. The dynamics on the nine-member City Council have shifted to the point that Sayegh often now needs Mendez’s support on issues.
Sayegh did not provide a response when asked Thursday if he agreed with McKoy’s demand for Mendez to resign.
Sayegh’s silence on Mendez was predicted by the mayor’s chief critic, Councilman Michael Jackson, who declined to comment about whether Mendez should step down.
Jackson faces a separate set of election fraud charges filed by the Attorney General's Office in 2020. His case has dragged on for years, with the latest pretrial battle being over whether Jackson should give the state the passcode for a cellphone seized through a recent search warrant.
Jackson has asserted his innocence of any wrongdoing. He said Thursday that his case is much different from the one against Mendez. Jackson said Mendez has a long track record of using mail-in ballots in his election campaigns.
Besides Jackson, only one member of the Paterson council immediately responded to messages seeking comment on McKoy’s call for Mendez’s resignation. That was Luis Velez.
“Ain't the former councilman a minister?” Velez said of McKoy. Velez said that instead of calling for Mendez to resign, McKoy “should call the community to pray for him and his wife and all parties involved while they are going through this trial and tribulations.”
“McKoy should let the justice system do their job, chill and pray for them also,” Velez added.
Alex Mendez and Michael Jackson: After dismissals, these are the two defendants left in Paterson's election fraud case
What do the charges allege?
In recent months, rumors had circulated in Paterson that the Attorney General's Office was pursuing criminal charges against Mendez’s wife, Yohanny, as a way to get the councilman to plead guilty and leave the council.
On Wednesday, the attorney general announced four election fraud-related charges against the councilman’s wife and nine against him, including conspiracy, fraud and witness tampering.
Ledesma, 35, the campaign manager, who allegedly took the ride to Haledon to drop off the illegal ballots, was charged with eight crimes. So was another Mendez supporter, 35-year-old Iris Rigo.
The Attorney General's Office on Wednesday issued a separate news release about charges against a fifth person, Ninoska Adames, 33, of Paterson, described as a voter who authorities accused of changing her story. She was charged with five crimes.
“The defendant in this case generated a misleading paper trail with the intent of effectively adding a voter to the 3rd Ward,” Attorney General Matthew Platkin said of Adames. “And that voter’s ballot, along with others, were picked up for delivery by the eventual winner of the election in that section of Paterson.”
Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Alex Mendez election fraud in Paterson NJ seen by state witness
