New Jersey Mayor and His Wife Indicted on Corruption Charges

The AP reports:

A town's mayor and his wife surrendered to the FBI on Friday and were charged with diverting campaign funds and taking cash in exchange for aiding a bar owner.

David Delle Donna, mayor of Guttenberg, is the latest of several New Jersey mayors to face charges in recent years in a state plagued by government corruption. Mayors of Asbury Park, Camden, Hoboken and Paterson have been sent to prison. The former longtime mayor of Newark, the state's largest city, is under indictment.

Delle Donna, 49, a Democrat who has been mayor since 2002, and his wife, Anna, 58, were arrested at the FBI office in Newark, federal prosecutors said. Anna Delle Donna has been a member of the town's planning board since 2002.

Both face a two-count federal indictment that was unsealed with their arrest: one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit extortion. Each count carries as many as 20 years in prison and fines as high as $250,000.

The New Jersey Way.