Prosecutors seek 3 years for 2 Bridgegate defendants

WOODLAND PARK, N.J. — Two former allies of Gov. Chris Christie made their pitch for staying out of jail ahead of their sentencing on Wednesday for their roles in the politically motivated scheme to close access lanes to the George Washington Bridge.

In court filings released late Monday, Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni maintained their innocence and pleaded for leniency, claiming they were duped by the conspiracy’s mastermind, who served as the star witness at their trial.

Still, federal prosecutors called for Kelly and Baroni to each be sentenced to three years in prison.

Calling the political payback scheme involving the world’s busiest bridge “a stunningly brazen and vindictive abuse of power,” prosecutors said Kelly, a single mother of four, and Baroni deserved “a meaningful term of imprisonment” that would deter other public officials from making similar mistakes.

Kelly and Baroni argued instead for probation, pointing to their lives of public service and their personal family situations.

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Kelly submitted almost 30 letters from family, friends and acquaintances, including Bishop Reginald Jackson of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and pastor at St. Matthew AME in Orange, testifying to a life dedicated to helping others.

Baroni collected more than 100 letters of support from family, friends and the politically connected, including Ken Mehlman, a former Republican National Committee chairman who served as George W. Bush’s political director, former Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, and former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey.

Kelly, 44, the governor’s former deputy chief of staff, and Baroni, 45, Christie’s former top executive appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were convicted last fall of conspiracy, fraud, and violating the civil rights of commuters.

During six weeks of testimony, jurors heard how the pair conspired to create gridlock in Fort Lee in September to punish the town’s mayor for refusing to endorse Christie’s 2013 re-election.

The closures created gridlock in the town, severely delaying school buses, commuters and emergency vehicles.

David Wildstein, who served as Baroni’s second-in-command at the Port Authority, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy in 2015. He served as the star witness at the trial and described to jurors how he had come up with the idea for the scheme and how he had been helped by Kelly and Baroni.

In their court filings, Kelly’s lawyers stuck by her trial testimony that she had been duped by Wildstein into believing that the closures were part of a legitimate traffic study. The attorneys also maintained that Kelly had kept Christie and his chief of staff, Kevin O’Dowd, fully informed of the closures and of the traffic problems that ensued.

Kelly was portrayed as a hardworking and devoted single mother whose life was torn apart by the bridge lane closure scandal and whose children have been scarred by being hounded by the press and by concern for their mother’s future.

In particular, the lawyers pointed to the severe repercussions for her 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter should she be sent to prison and the “irreversible emotional damage” to all of Kelly’s children if she is taken away from them.

Baroni’s lawyers said that although he maintains his innocence, he accepts full responsibility for his actions and feels remorse.

They described a difficult life for the former lawmaker, from Baroni's adoption shortly after his birth, through his struggles with morbid obesity and with being gay as well as the loss of his adoptive mother and sister, who both died.

They also pointed to Baroni’s work for years, while he was a state assemblyman and a state senator, helping the FBI “in successfully prosecuting cases” in New Jersey. Details of Baroni's work for the FBI were redacted.

Instead of imprisonment, McGreevey suggested that Baroni's “talents, skills, and interests would be of far greater service benefiting the local New Jersey community in services to the many marginalized within our communities.”

Baroni and Kelly are due to be sentenced in federal court in Newark on Wednesday morning.