In Bryant trial opening, a question of "pork" vs. bribes

TRENTON - Federal prosecutors say former State Sen. Wayne Bryant was given a job at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey as a bribe.

Bryant's attorneys say he was well-qualified for the position and did nothing wrong by working there.

Prosecutors say that in exchange for his job, Bryant used his influence to send millions of dollars to UMDNJ.

Bryant's lawyers say he was merely performing his duties as a senator, and would have been "derelict" if he had not helped such an important constituent.

While the allegations against Bryant have been known since he was indicted in March 2007, Bryant's attorneys offered their first lengthy responses to the charges during yesterday's opening statements in federal court.

One of his attorneys, Carl Poplar, said investigators put the former senator's life under a microscope, then "cherry-picked certain actions and cut and pasted them to make their case."

"We have a very different picture of what happened," he said.

Prosecutors have said that Bryant's $35,000-a-year job as a "program support coordinator" at UMDNJ's School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford was a no-show job.

They said that he was paid to work three full days, but that he appeared on campus just a half-day each week and spent most of that time reading the newspaper.

"Here, the corrupt payment wasn't cash in a bag," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Drew said during his opening statement.

Bryant, a Camden County Democrat and former chairman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, steered $3.1 million to UMDNJ in his first year of employment, Drew said. He worked there from 2003 to 2006.

Some of that money came from what was lawmakers jokingly called the "MAC account," a pool of money available through the office of Treasurer John McCormack. Drew said legislators "used it like an ATM machine."

Drew also said Bryant told the commissioner of the state Department of Human Services that if he did not provide a $1.5 million grant to UMDNJ, "You're going to have a problem with me."

Poplar said Bryant merely was trying to even out the disparity of funding for students in South Jersey.

"That's what South Jersey assemblymen and senators do," he said. "To say something was corrupted . . . is the cutting and pasting three years after the fact."

He also took exception with the characterization of Bryant's job as "no-show."

"It was a job Wayne Bryant showed up at. He was there every Tuesday," Poplar said. "His background and skills fit the job description and mission and purpose of UMDNJ."

R. Michael Gallagher, a former dean at the School of Osteopathic Medicine, has been accused of rigging the hiring process to get Bryant on the payroll.

Drew said two of Gallagher's former top aides had been given immunity and would testify that Bryant was given the job only for his political influence. UMDNJ relies on state funding for about one-fifth of its budget.

"Dr. Gallagher had every reason to buy political influence," Drew said. "He found a ready seller in Sen. Bryant."

Bryant has been accused of illegally inflating his pension with his UMDNJ job and another public job in which he has been accused of doing virtually no work.

Drew said one of Gallagher's aides would testify about asking how UMDNJ got funding from the "MAC account."

"Dr. Gallagher responded, 'It's payback time,' " Drew said.

Prosecutors also said that Bryant lobbied on UMDNJ's behalf without disclosing that he worked there.

Poplar said that charge "would be silly if it weren't so serious." He said Bryant never tried to hide his employment, and his UMDNJ position was discussed in a newspaper series about politicians holding multiple public jobs.

Gallagher's attorney, Jeremy Frey, also noted that Bryant's UMDNJ job was vetted by several top officials and the university's legal counsel.

Gallagher "did nothing more than help his employer, UMDNJ, in ways that he thought were proper," Frey said.

Bryant, 60, did not run for reelection last year after his indictment. Gallagher resigned from UMDNJ in 2006.

Bryant faces 12 counts and a lengthy sentence if convicted.

The potential witness list includes lawmakers and former cabinet-level officials. The trial is scheduled to last from six to eight weeks.

Many of those officials could testify about Bryant's lobbying on behalf of UMDNJ. But Poplar seems poised to label Bryant's efforts as nothing worse than "pork" - the often derided practice of politicians funneling money home to their districts.

"You may not like it," Poplar told the jurors. "But it doesn't make it a crime."