Judge dismisses corruption case against NJ Democratic party boss George Norcross

A Superior Court Judge dismissed the racketeering indictment against New Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross on Wednesday — tossing an anticorruption case that targeted the unelected head of one of the Garden State’s most notorious political machines.

The dismissal dealt a stunning loss to Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who filed an appeal almost immediately after Judge Peter Warshaw issued his 100-page ruling — saying in a statement that “too many have come to view corruption as simply the way the powerful do business in New Jersey.” The ruling affirmed the argument made by Norcross and his attorneys after the 68-year-old health care executive, in an infamous show of force, sat in the front row of Platkin’s June 2024 press conference announcing the charges and then challenged the AG to try the case himself.

Bare-knuckle politics, Norcross successfully argued, don’t amount to criminality.

“Defendants correctly argue that when considering private parties negotiating economic deals in a free market system, threats are sometimes neither wrongful or unlawful,” Warshaw wrote.

“In these situations, there may be nothing inherently wrong in using economic fear to obtain property.”

Norcross — head of an insurance brokerage and board chair of the Camden-based Cooper University Health Care System — is celebrated by supporters as the person most responsible for the revitalization of New Jersey’s poorest city. His detractors – and the indictment – alleged he lined his pockets with lucrative development deals and tax breaks as he steered development along the waterfront.

Norcross may have threatened business and political rivals along the way, Warshaw wrote, but that didn’t represent a crime.

It wasn’t up to the court to decide “whether the redevelopment could have proceeded in a better, more fair, less political way,” Warshaw ruled. He said he was only tasked with deciding if the threats described by the prosecution constituted criminal action — and that they didn’t.

Warshaw pointed to the prosecution’s description of an encounter between Norcross and Philadelphia developer Carl Dranoff. Prosecutors had said George Norcross and his brother, attorney Phil Norcross, leveraged undue influence over Camden City Hall and then-Mayor Dana Redd to bully Dranoff into giving up valuable development rights.

“If you f--- this up, I’m going to f--- you up like you’ve never been f---ed up before," George Norcross told Dranoff in a phone call, according to the indictment. "I’ll make sure you never do business in this town again." The Norcross brothers allegedly threatened Dranoff with “consequences” if he didn’t relent.

“George Norcross’ ‘threat’ may be boorish and indecorous. His statement does not satisfy any reasonable person’s view of how something as important as how Camden’s waterfront redevelopment plans should be decided,” the judge wrote. “The state is not wrong when it advances the idea of the truly level playing field, where critical decisions are made on the basis of developer qualifications and public benefit, as opposed to George Norcross’ selfish interests.”

He wrote that state law recognized such harsh language as “incident to free bargaining.”

The indictment filed last year also detailed how companies tied to the Norcross brothers benefited from a tax program they helped design during Gov. Chris Christie’s administration. And it depicts a patronage pipeline that prosecutors say George Norcross utilized to place his allies in influential, well-paying jobs and boost his political power. Platkin had described the health care executive’s vast network as the “Norcross Enterprise” in the racketeering case — but Warshaw concluded there was no such “enterprise” in a criminal sense.

The judge also dismissed charges against Redd, Phil Norcross, George Norcross’ attorney William Tambussi and others charged in the alleged schemes.

“The acts Mayor Redd is accused of committing largely entail day-to-day discretionary decisions,” Warshaw wrote. “What she did or did not do in this case was not an unauthorized exercise of her official functions.”

Warshaw said while Phil Norcross may have engaged in “hard bargaining, perhaps even nasty bargaining,” it did not amount to criminal extortion.

“Any ‘threats’ Philip Norcross was a part of making constitute the type of economic threats that are deemed routine and accepted in a free-market system,” the judge wrote.

Warshaw said Tambussi “did what he did in this case by being a lawyer.”

Throughout the case, George Norcross retained the support of some of New Jersey’s most powerful political figures, including Gov. Phil Murphy. The governor and several of his predecessors, including Republicans Christie and Tom Kean, Sr. as well as Democrats Jon Corzine and Jim McGreevey, attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a $3 billion expansion of the Cooper University Health Care campus last month. At the event, Corzine called Norcross a “force of nature.” Christie celebrated a partnership with Norcross, which he said turned Camden’s fate around.

“There’s only one guy in the state that could pull this group together,” Murphy said at the event.

That show of support starkly contrasted with the political class’s response to the indictment of then-U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez — with Murphy and other top Democrats almost immediately calling on Menendez to step down after charges were announced in September 2023. Menendez was eventually convicted and sentenced to 11 years for schemes to trade political favors for lavish gifts, including gold bars and a luxury car.

Progressive groups, including the New Jersey chapter of the Working Families Party, immediately criticized the dismissal of the Norcross indictment. The group’s state director, Antoinette Miles, said in a statement that the ruling exposed double standards for the wealthy and ordinary people.

“By dismissing these charges, the court is sending a dangerous message that using your power to intimidate others to enrich yourself and your friends is totally fine,” Miles said. “Meanwhile, if you’re a Black resident of Camden who falls behind on your mortgage or can’t afford a minor fine, the system shows no mercy.”