A former Paterson mayor admitted Thursday that he launched a new bid to run the city in 2022, despite being barred from doing so seven years ago, authorities said.
Jose “Joey” Torres, 66, of Paterson, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal contempt-of-court and now faces a sentence of non-custodial probation and mandatory fines for violating the 2017 court order, according to a release from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
Torres pleaded guilty in September of that year to second-degree conspiracy to commit official misconduct for using city employees to work at a liquor distributorship his family planned to open, while bilking the city out of overtime, the office said. As part of his plea deal, Torres was required to forfeit his position as mayor, serve five years in prison, forfeit future public employment, and pay $800.
State prison records show Torres was paroled in December 2018 after serving 13 months of his five-year sentence.
Nonetheless, Torres was accused of making a public speech in February of 2022 stating that he was running for mayor of the City of Paterson in that year’s election and requesting that the people in the audience vote to return him to City Hall, the office said.
On March 4, the ex-mayor went to the Paterson City Clerk’s Office and presented a stack of purported nominating petitions in support of his candidacy, investigators said. After the petitions were rejected by the clerk, Torres filed a civil action seeking to compel the clerk’s office to accept the petitions.
In that civil action, Torres certified that he submitted the petitions to run for mayor and if the city clerk continued to refuse to accept his petitions, he would be irreparably harmed by being denied his right to run for office, authorities said.
By holding himself out as a candidate for mayor, soliciting signatures on nominating petitions, and attempting to force the petitions upon the clerk’s office, Torres disobeyed the 2017 forfeiture order that followed his guilty plea, the office said.
In 2022, he was charged with criminal contempt for the alleged attempt to run and he was indicted last year on the same charge.
“After his first conviction, the defendant had fair warning that any future attempt to return to public office or employment would result in a criminal charge. But he tried to run for his old seat anyway,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said in a statement. “The conviction secured by OPIA’s Corruption Bureau sends the message that, when state law and the court say a disqualification is forever, they mean it. And those who don’t take forfeiture orders seriously will see us in court again.”
An attorney representing Torres could not immediately be reached for comment.
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Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
