TRENTON >> A co-conspirator in the bribery scheme that brought down former Mayor Tony Mack appears to be nearing a release back into society.
The ex-mayor’s younger brother, Ralphiel Mack, is en route to a New Jersey halfway house, his attorney Robert Haney said Wednesday.
“I understand he’s got a place in Newark,” Haney said his client’s family told him. “He will serve the appropriate amount of time at that location.”
In February 2014, Ralphiel Mack and his brother were found guilty of their involvement in a scheme to accept $119,000 in bribes for the development of a parking garage on city-owned land in exchange for the mayor’s influence.
Ralphiel Mack started serving a 30-month sentence for his role as a bagman at Federal Correctional Institution Elkton in Lisbon, Ohio on June 19, 2014. The 42-year-old has an expected release date of Feb. 22, 2016, the earliest of all of the other cohorts.
A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said he left the Ohio prison on Tuesday.
“I communicated with him a bunch of times,” Haney said of the former Trenton Central High School head football coach. “He’s doing fine. He’s a well-adjusted individual who’s very strong.”
Haney said the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia in slated to hear oral arguments to overturn the brothers’ convictions on Oct. 6.
In appeal documents filed by Haney earlier this year, the attorney argued that Ralphiel Mack was only guilty of receiving a loan from shark Joseph “JoJo” Giorgianni, a cooperating witness in the case who admitted his guilt shortly before the trial was scheduled to start.
“Ralphiel Mack, his brother, borrowed $2,500 from (Joseph ‘JoJo’) Giorgianni on July 16, 2012,” the court documents state, adding co-conspirator Giorgianni gave his client marked FBI bills from a June 28, 2012 payment. “The same money was found still in Ralphiel’s possession two days later, when the FBI searched his home. Ralphiel Mack had not passed it to Tony Mack, even though the two had met in the meantime.”
Tony Mack, 49, is serving a 58-month sentence with a possible release date of Sept. 9, 2018 at the Federal Correctional Institution McDowell in Welch, W.Va.
