Correction: Convicted Councilman-State Job story
PASSAIC, N.J. (AP) — In a story Sept. 29 about New Jersey’s hiring of a former municipal official who had been convicted of taking bribes, The Associated Press reported erroneously the city where he served. Marcellus Jackson was a city councilman in Passaic, not Paramus.
A corrected version of the story is below:
Ex-official convicted in bribery case resigns state job
A former New Jersey municipal official who admitted taking bribes from undercover FBI agents more than a decade ago has resigned a state job following controversy over the $70,000-a-year position
PASSAIC, N.J. (AP) — A former New Jersey municipal official who admitted taking bribes from undercover FBI agents more than a decade ago has resigned a state job following controversy over the $70,000-a-year position.
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced Friday evening that Marcellus Jackson had stepped down from the position as a special assistant in the state Department of Education’s Office of Civic and Social Engagement.
Jackson, a Democrat who served on the Passaic City Council, was among 11 officials arrested in a 2007 corruption sweep. He pleaded guilty to obstructing interstate commerce by extortion and received a 25-month prison sentence.
Gov. Phil Murphy said his administration hired Jackson in July after a legal review, but Grewal said state law required that Jackson be disqualified from any public office in New Jersey.