Trenton businessman gets pardon from Christie
Tracey Syphax was in a real estate class a couple years ago when the instructor called him into his office.
“I knew what it was for,” the 55-year-old Trenton businessman said.
The instructor warned Syphax that even if he passed all the classes and the test to get his real estate license he might get flagged over his felony convictions, dating back to the 1980s.
“They always come up,” Syphax said. “Everywhere I go.”
The owner of Phax Group Construction and “Champion of Change” White House honoree had enough. He called his lawyer and told him to start putting together a pardon package for the governor.
Gov. Chris Christie, in his final days in office, and fresh off signing a package of legislation that makes it easier for ex-cons to get second chances, announced Friday that Syphax was one of 10 people whom he was granting clemency.
For Syphax, who has lived a life of contrition by establishing a business that averages $1.4 million in revenue a year and going on he circuit as a motivational speaker, it was the official stroke of forgiveness he needed to finally move on from his pained past.
Until the pardon announcement, Syphax had multiple convictions on his record for drugs, weapons and making a false statement. The first came in August 1981, marking a stretch of eight years where he was in constant trouble with the law.
Syphax wrote about his troubles in his memoir, “From the Block to the Boardroom,” detailing his ascension from street hustler to urban tycoon.
Syphax worked his way up from laborer to supervisor in two years before starting his own business.
His business is now worth millions, a fairy-tale ending from a hardscrabble beginning.
Syphax grew up in the crime-ridden Miller Homes. His mother was addicted to drugs and in and out of jail. He lost his only brother, Troy, when he was 8.
A year older, Troy got hit by a car crossing the street not far from the family home.
“It destroyed my mother,” he said.
Syphax and his mom moved to Texas where she got locked up. He was in foster care for nearly a year before he returned to New Jersey to live with his aunt.
Syphax said he became enthralled with the street life, lionizing the cash flaunting drug dealers.
He started using and selling to support his taste for cocaine, heroin and marijuana.
“Everybody was doing it,” he said. “You see the fancy cars, you see the clothes.”
Syphax caught charges and did stints in prison totaling about seven years. He remembered being in solitary confinement for a year in Rahway after he got charges put on him when he tried to break up a fight between an inmate and corrections officer.
“If you’re not crazy, it’ll make you crazy,” he said.
The light bulb went off. He spent his time reading the Bible twice, from cover to cover, committed to turning his life around.
The governor’s announcement marked the latest chapter in a long crusade toward redemption.
“I was thrilled. You can’t ever give up,” Syphax said. “Depends how bad you want it. I wanted it bad. That’s how I became successful.”