Nailed in 'Steal Pier' probe, Matos gabbed his way into jail

Carlos Matos likes to talk.

And lucky for the FBI, the swaggering North Philly ward leader talked a lot, particularly while fishing with his Shore buddies.

In fact, he talked himself right into a jail cell.

"We have multiple recordings of him bragging about his influence and about his payments to public officials," Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Eicher said yesterday, after Matos pleaded guilty to one count of bribery in the "Operation Steal Pier" corruption probe in Atlantic City.

Matos, who is married to Philadelphia Chief Deputy City Commissioner Renee Tartaglione, greased the palms of three Atlantic City councilmen with more than $10,000 in bribes from 2003 to August 2006.

In exchange, he expected them to approve his various development projects, including a dubious scheme to convert a city-owned Boardwalk bathroom into a Latino restaurant.

"It's another sad chapter in the history of corruption in Atlantic City, and it obviously extends into Philadelphia," Eicher said.

Matos was the seventh person to plead guilty in the three-year Steal Pier federal probe, which is now at an end.

Matos, 58, a grizzly-bear of a man known for displaying ferocious loyalty and fierce political skills, looked more like a big teddy bear at yesterday's plea hearing before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler in Camden.

Shackled at the ankles, Matos shuffled into the courtroom wearing a green prison uniform. He glanced at his wife, Renee Tartaglione, and smiled slightly and she waved from the front row. With her hair in a tight bun and her back erect, she sat alone on the long wooden bench.

Matos then faced the judge, at times wiping tears from his cheeks during the proceeding.

"How do you feel today?" Judge Kugler asked.

"A little depressed," Matos said, adding he had been taking medication for depression and anxiety, including Klonopin and Zoloft.

Matos is serving a 60-day sentence in a Philadelphia jail for driving with a suspended license. He is scheduled to be released June 18 on $100,000 bail until sentenced by Kugler in the Atlantic City case. The sentencing was set for Aug. 28.

Tartaglione agreed to post the homes she owns in North Philadelphia and in Ventnor as collateral on the $100,000 bond. She also owns a condo in Margate, records show.

"If he fails to appear in court, you'll lose the property . . . if he doesn't do what he has to do," Kugler told her.

"He'll do what he has to do," Tartaglione said, firmly.

The prosecution will recommend that Matos serve 30 to 37 months in prison, but Kugler could reject those terms and sentence Matos to up to 10 years.

The feds knew about the bribes because Matos went around Atlantic City broadcasting whom he had paid and why. Matos made two cash payments of $5,000 each to then-Council President Craig Callaway in August 2005. Matos wanted Callaway's help in obtaining a lease on the Boardwalk bathroom, prosecutors said.

Matos dreamed of opening a Latino restaurant there, but Atlantic City officials rejected the idea.

"I told him, 'It can't be a restaurant because they were bathroom facilities,' " said Atlantic City Business Administrator Domenic F. Cappella Sr. in an interview Sunday night. "I made jokes about it: 'You gonna put seats on top of toilets?' "

Matos also wanted City Council to give him municipal contracts to develop the two other tracts of land: Garwood Mills and Bader Field Airport. He gave Callaway $1,000 in July 2006 and $1,100 to then-Councilman Ramon Rosario in August 2006. He also gave money to former Councilman Gibb R. Jones, prosecutors said.

"He's a talker," said Matos' attorney, Charles H. Nugent Jr., on Monday. "He talks a lot. He talked himself into problems." *