Five-time Newark mayor Sharpe James is leaving Petersburg Correctional Complex in Virginia this morning and hopping a bus back to New Jersey. He'll finish out his 27 month sentence—for arranging the sale of state property to his girlfriend, who flipped it for a huge profit—from a halfway house in the city he helped run for 20 years. The unrepentant former official recently spoke with the Star Ledger, claiming wrongful conviction and bad-mouthing current Mayor Cory Booker.
Sharpe had only good things to say about prison, where according to the paper he has "made beds, driven buses and coached fellow prisoners working toward their high school equivalency diplomas." He called his time behind bars "a new experience" and praised the Virginia prison as "a great federal correctional facility." Still, Sharpe admitted "I’m looking forward to returning to my family, my church and my city. I love all three."
The jailed official even praised Chris Christie, who as U.S. attorney wanted to put him in prison for twenty years, and has spoken of appealing his short sentence. "I think Christie should be commended for budget reduction," James said. "I commend him for recognizing the fact that Trenton is out of control in spending." But the former mayor wasn't so positive about his successor Cory Booker, who voters tell him is out of touch. "In the thousands of letters I’ve received, the people of Newark do not feel embraced by the administration," said James, adding that "Booker would rather be seen on Oprah’s couch than in City Hall."
Sharpe—whose eldest son John is currently vying for a city council seat—hopes to prove his innocence in court, arguing that the charges against him are bogus since he didn't profit from the deal and Newark didn't lose money. If there was "no loss to the city," he told his interviewer, "why am I here having burritos today at Petersburg?"
