Paterson councilman’s ’20 election fraud case gets delayed once again
PATERSON — For the fifth time in six months, court proceedings in the New Jersey attorney general’s election fraud case against Councilman Alex Mendez were postponed this week.
The attorney general’s office has asked for several of the adjournments, including the one for the court session that was set for Monday. But state officials are not revealing why they sought the postponements.
The attorney general’s office filed the original charges against Mendez more than 1,200 days ago, about six weeks after Paterson’s 2020 ward council elections that year. In two months, Mendez would be in position to begin collecting nominating petition signatures for a run for reelection.
A state spokesman confirmed that the attorney general’s office sought the most recent adjournment.
“No further information is available at this time,” the spokesman said.
Mendez on Tuesday told Paterson Press he has “no idea” why the attorney general’s office requested Monday’s postponement.
“Right now, I’m focused on doing the work for the city as the City Council president,” Mendez said.
“I put that to the side,” the councilman said of the pending election fraud indictment. “When it happens, it happens. We will prove that we’re innocent.”
Paterson Press asked the councilman if he still expects the charges to come to trial.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I just really want to continue serving the city. I will fight all the way to the end if I have to.”
Besides Mendez, in another longdelayed case, the attorney general’s office has charged Paterson Councilman Michael Jackson with election fraud stemming from the 2020 council races. Jackson also has asserted his innocence and is fighting the attorney general’s efforts to get the passcode for his cellphone, which investigators seized earlier this year.
The state has quietly dropped charges against two other defendants in the case, campaign workers for Paterson’s 2nd Ward Councilman Shahin Khalique.
Amid the numerous court delays, there has been widespread speculation among Paterson political figures about what it all means for the charges against Mendez. Some say they think the postponements reflect the weakness of the state’s charges against the councilman, while others suggest that state authorities are trying to build a stronger case against him.
“Right now, I’m focused on doing the work for the city as the City Council president.”
Alex Mendez Paterson councilman