The criminal indictment alleging racketeering against longtime New Jersey Democratic powerbroker George Norcross and others has been thrown out on the grounds that the allegations didn’t reach the level of coercion or extortion as prosecutors alleged.
New Jersey Superior Court Judge Peter Warshaw said in his 100-page ruling issued on Wednesday that the charges brought are also “time-barred” as the statute of limitations has already expired on the allegations. The ruling grants a motion to dismiss from Norcross and the other defendants charged in the case.
The indictment accused Norcross and the others of running a criminal “enterprise” since 2012 through using political influence to push for legislation that benefitted them. The others charged in the case were Norcross’s brother Philip Norcross, his attorney William Tambussi, former Camden Mayor Dana Redd, trucking and logistics company executive Sidney Brown and development company executive John J. O’Donnell.
State Attorney General Matt Platkin (D), who initially brought the case, vowed to appeal the ruling.
Norcross and the others were first charged in June in a 13-count indictment that Platkin filed, accusing the influential Norcross of using the influence he had over government entities to acquire waterfront real estate in Camden. Platkin accused Norcross’s company of using its influence to gain the rights to buildings and government-issued tax credits.
This included state and local elected and appointed officials who were complicit in the scheme who “turned a blind eye to their duties and obligations,” according to the indictment.
It included accusation that Norcross threatened a developer who wouldn’t give up his rights to the Camden waterfront property on his terms and a recording of a phone conversation in which Norcross warned the developer would face “enormous consequences.”
But Norcross and the others denied wrongdoing, pleaded not guilty and filed a motion to dismiss the charges, and Warshaw agreed with the motion.
“Defendants correctly argue that when considering private parties negotiating economic deals in a free market system, threats are sometimes neither wrongful or unlawful,” Warshaw said in the ruling. “In these situations, there may be nothing inherently wrong in using economic fear to obtain property.”
Attorneys argued over the motion to dismiss for almost eight hours late last month, The New Jersey Globe reported.
One of Norcross’s attorneys accused Platkin of a “vendetta” against Norcross as development of the Camden waterfront had been the subject of investigations in the past, but they didn’t lead anywhere.
Platkin said his office will be appealing “immediately,” as “it has never been more important” for state officials to face corruption directly.
“But I have never promised that these cases would be easy, because too many have come to view corruption as simply the way the powerful do business in New Jersey,” Platkin said.
“Today is a reminder of how much work remains, and how difficult it will be to clean up government in our state,” he added. “But along with the career law enforcement officers and prosecutors who have worked on this case for years, I won’t back down from that fight.”
Norcross had been one of the most powerful Democrats in South Jersey for years. He has never held elected office but served as chair of the Camden Democratic Party from 1989 to 1995 and served on the Democratic National Committee until 2021, when he moved to Florida.
The charges were filed against Norcross amid a wide-ranging anti-machine politics backlash seen in the state throughout 2024, during which the state’s long-time county line ballot system was tossed out as unconstitutional.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
