New Jersey Review

Ex-official at Paterson schools pleads guilty to taking bribes:

James Cummings, the former Paterson schools facilities chief pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to two counts of bribery, making him the highest ranking official yet to be swept up in the ongoing corruption probe of the state's third-largest district.

Cummings, 59, who headed the facilities office until 2003, admitted taking $25,000 from one contractor and free home repairs from another in return for favorable treatment in millions of dollars of district contracts.

Cummings said that while facilities director in 2000, he accepted $25,000 from two executives of Paint Smart Contractor Inc. of Nutley, in exchange for helping the firm secure work with the district. The firm ultimately billed the district for more than $250,000 in painting and related services.

Less than a year later, Cummings admitted, he accepted free sheetrock and its installation at his Sparta house from a principal of Olympic Windows Inc. of Hawthorne, valued about $22,000. Olympic Windows billed the district $2.7 million in construction work it claimed to have done, according to prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Chiesa refused to say if the investigation could reach higher into the administration of the former Schools Superintendent Edwin Duroy. Duroy led the district for seven years and resigned in 2004 while under fire for mismanagement and waste.
"All I am saying is the investigation is continuing," Chiesa said.