Former prosecutor and judge Clifford J. Minor has confessed to taking a bribe, procuring a false confession, lying to investigators, and falsifying documents. Before serving as a prosecutor and a judge, Minor was a police officer. He later ran for mayor of Newark.
At the heart of the case is a confession by Jamal Muhammad to a gun charge. The actual culprit was Abdul Williams, but Williams had a much longer record and would have received a long sentence. Minor took $3,500 in two payments from Williams to act as Mr. Muhammad’s lawyer and arranged the confession (which Minor knew to be false). Remarkably, Muhammad was paid only $1,500 to take the fall. If this were a legal transaction, Minor would have been accused of ineffective counsel to boot.
Minor, 68, pleaded guilty to six criminal charges.
He was at one time the chief administrative judge in Newark.
Source: New York Times as first seen on ABA Journal
18 usc 1512 (c)(2)obstruction of official proceeding
§ 1512. Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant (c) Whoever corruptly—(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so,
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
18 usc 1519 falsified records Destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in Federal investigations and bankruptcy
Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. TITLE 11—BANKRUPTCY
18 usc 1621 (1) perjury
§ 1621. Perjury generally
Whoever—
(1) having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to be administered, that he will testify, declare, depose, or certify truly, or that any written testimony, declaration, deposition, or certificate by him subscribed, is true, willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true; or
18 usc 1001 (a)(2) false statements and representations
§ 1001. Statements or entries generally
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
18 usc 1952(a)(3) knowing and intentional violation of the Travel Act in violation of 18 USC 371
use of phone in violation of interstate commerce (will have to read up on that, –used a facility in interstate commerce, the telephone in violation of 18 usc 1952(a)(3)and section 2
§ 1952. Interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises
(a) Whoever travels in interstate or foreign commerce or uses the mail or any facility in interstate or foreign commerce, with intent to—
(3) otherwise promote, manage, establish, carry on, or facilitate the promotion, management, establishment, or carrying on, of any unlawful activity
RICO that is interesting
You are right, “Anonymously Yours”. I didn’t even think of that.
After seeing your post, I got so curious I called the number for the law offices of Clifford J. Minor. It responded with a female voice mail message identifying it as the “Law Offices of Clifford J. Minor”. Maybe it is an old voice mail. The listing said 1 to 4 employees. Wouldn’t it be weird to be his employee?
Doesn’t a law firm actually have to have named partners that have valid law licenses? So it must not be a valid listing, right, and it is presented as a third party listing, BUT it has a valid voice mail…..
Kay,
We do not post names and telephone numbers of people. I am going to ask the professor to delete that post. This is uncalled for and if you have a beef with getting screwed over by the system….Think about your actions….
I guess I am really compulsive. I looked this up on PACER and paid 88 cents to download his plea agreement. I wanted to find the numbers of the crimes. They were
18 usc 1512 (c)(2)obstruction of official proceeding
18 usc 1519 falsified records
18 usc 1621 (1) perjury
18 usc 1001 (a)(2) false statements and representations
18 usc 1952(a)(3) knowing and intentional violation of the Travel Act in violation of 18 USC 371
use of phone in violation of interstate commerce (will have to read up on that, –used a facility in interstate commerce, the telephone in violation of 18 usc 1952(a)(3)and section 2
One of the biggest failures we have is the refusal of the justice business to perform failure analysis. We know that justice fails regularly, many of the ways it fails are well known, there really are no ‘new’ way to fail in criminal cases. These failures are exposed regularly.
Why is it that we as a nation refuse to take steps to fix these problems? I work in IT security. We have failures regularly. When we recognize the failure we meet and find ways to not make that mistake again. If it can’t be prevented we create ways to audit so that the mistake does not fester or propagate. I do not believe the legal profession could not do the same if they were required or expected to.
Why are there people on death row that are innocent and can be proven to be innocent? Why do the people who claim to be seeking truth and justice not care about improvement?
Clifford J Minor Attorney, Clifford J Minor Attorneyey
50 Park Place # 1400
Newark, NJ 07102-4310 map
Newark, NJ Metro Area
Phone: (973) 824-4950
Website:Information not found
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on line just now
@tomdarch: I agree on the death penalty. I actually believe in the death penalty for some murderers. But with the legal system the way it is, and as frequently as I hear about over-zealous prosecutors ignoring or even omitting or suppressing exculpatory evidence, and the number of times DNA has overturned convictions, and the demonstrable bias against non-caucasians for death sentences — I no longer trust that many convictions really are “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
tomdarch:
Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law
by Laura Sullivan
Glenn Nichols, city manager of Benson, Ariz.
Laura Sullivan/NPR
Glenn Nichols, city manager of Benson, Ariz., says two men came to the city last year “talking about building a facility to hold women and children that were illegals.”
October 28, 2010
Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.
Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741
Tony C.
1, April 7, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Whenever these figures come out, I am frequently astonished at how little money is required to bribe an official like a judge, Congressman, Senator, D.A, whatever. $3500? REALLY? People will risk jail, public humiliation, an end to their career for $3500? Really.
————————–
As a Chicagoan, I have the opportunity to have exactly this reaction on a regular basis. Despite a fairly poor national economy, Mubarak managed to extract BILLIONS of dollars to put into Swiss bank accounts. Chicago and NJ pols go to jail for hundreds and thousands – it’s nuts. It must be more psychologically about people and relationships than simply the money.
It just goes even further to show how corrupt and inaccurate our criminal justice system is from bottom to top. It’s amazing that anyone “trusts the big government” enough to go through with a death penalty. Or that we are increasingly funneling the money entrusted by taxpayers to the government into the pockets of lobbyist-heavy for-profit private prison companies. (I’m sure we will never, ever, ever hear one of these stories in the future about a private prison company bribing public officials…. I would be shocked! shocked! if that were going on…)
Tony C.:
Just guessing,he probably didn’t even think he would get caught,name recognition and all,and probably just threw out a number.
Again I’m just guessing.
Whenever these figures come out, I am frequently astonished at how little money is required to bribe an official like a judge, Congressman, Senator, D.A, whatever. $3500? REALLY? People will risk jail, public humiliation, an end to their career for $3500? Really.
That is a mighty small amount to agree to take the fall for someone else. I hope this guy doses some serious time.
!! Hope that whooping $3,500 payment was worth it to him …
A little more background on the judge,others who would be dissapointed:
Gibson stands confidently with Minor in Newark mayor’s race
By Max Pizarro | February 1st, 2010 – 1:36p
“Despite a mostly snooze alarm response to the early machinations of this year’s municipal race, former Newark Mayor Ken Gibson wants Clifford Minor to be the next mayor of Newark, and thinks he can beat incumbent Mayor Cory Booker.
“Don’t forget, us quiet guys sometimes win,” said Gibson, 77, the first African-American mayor of a large Northeastern city who knocked off Hugh Addonizio in 1970 and served for 16 years before Sharpe James defeated him in 1986.
Gibson and Minor, a former Newark cop, judge and prosecutor, go way back.”
http://www.politickernj.com/max/36496/gibson-stands-confidently-minor-newark-mayors-race
As you can see by the article,theres not a lot of “love” amongst our pols.
“Former prosecutor and judge Clifford J. Minor has confessed to taking a bribe, procuring a false confession, lying to investigators, and falsifying documents.”
*****************
Rare to find a man who can accomplish so much dastardliness — at least outside of prison .
Damn, it is getting harder all the time to use the logical fallacy of appeal to authority.
Perhaps that fallacy will become extinct?
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2011/04/logical-fallacy-argument-from-momcom.html
karma
Another local,who back in the day was held in high regard.It was not uncommon to run into the Judge at certain events,what a shame.
Holy crap what a scumbag!
At least they are making him surrender his license. I’m just curious as to how much of the twenty years he’s looking at he’ll actually get. Same with the $250 potential fine.
These are the kind of cases where the book justly needs to be thrown. That they often result in a comparative slap on the wrist? Is the gravest of injustices.
Wonderful….What a wonderful world this will be…when…I don’t know…but…maybe if some would do the right thing…..geese…
eniobob….it homecoming huh….