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Atlantic City land purchase leads to charges
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ATLANTIC CITY - A state grand jury indicted a former City Council vice president Wednesday after she allegedly used her political power to orchestrate a real estate deal during her first year in office.
Cassandra McCall-Clark, who served on City Council from 2002 through 2006, allegedly voted to sell city-owned land to a purchaser who privately agreed to buy the land for the councilwoman and transfer it to her private corporation.
The Attorney General's Office claims McCall-Clark voted to sell two adjacent, undeveloped lots on Baltic Avenue and North Maryland Avenue for a total of $6,000. Authorities said McCall-Clark concealed the fact that she previously paid the buyer $6,000 and arranged for the bidder to deed the land to her just three days after the sale.
"State law strictly prohibits self-dealing by public office holders in their official actions," state Attorney General Anne Milgram said in a news release Wednesday. McCall-Clark "shamelessly violated her duties in order to acquire this city land for a fraction of what it was worth."
The two vacant lots are assessed at a total of $111,600. Before last year's revaluation, the lots totaled $20,500 in value.
The jury indicted McCall-Clark, 52, on a second-degree charge of official misconduct. She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $150,000 fine if convicted. State officials said the investigation is ongoing.
Officials would not identify the buyer of the lots Wednesday, nor did they list a name in the indictment. However, county property records show Lucille C. Barbour, a city resident who died last month, transferred the lots in question Aug. 28, 2003, to Rose Garden Research LLC, a company owned by McCall-Clark.
Barbour, former president of the Bungalow Park Civic Association, executed a deed conveying the property to McCall-Clark for $1, documents show. Last year's tax list shows Barbour also owned two other Baltic Avenue lots adjacent to the aforementioned properties.
Reached by phone late Wednesay night, McCall-Clark said she knew nothing about the indictment. Once the state's allegations were explained, she said, "this is the first I'm hearing that." Repeatedly asked if she improperly obtained the land, McCall-Clark continually said she knew nothing about the claims.
The Press of Atlantic City questioned McCall-Clark last month about reports that she was the target of a state investigation. She denied knowledge, saying she was not sure whether she had been subpoenaed because she had not been home recently. She quickly ended the phone interview moments later.
The Press previously confirmed that Milgram ordered Mayor Lorenzo Langford and nearly every member serving on City Council in July 2002 to testify before a grand jury last month. Those questioned, including four current City Council members, either did not return calls Wednesday or said they have been directed not to discuss the 2002 land sale.
The state also subpoenaed the city for a long list of documentation related to former Deputy Solicitor Joseph Dougherty, including computers and phones he used and memos he wrote while working in various capacities for the city since 1999. According to county documents, Dougherty represented McCall-Clark and Rose Garden Research in at least one lawsuit concerning land on Adriatic Avenue.
McCall-Clark has a long history of land speculation in Atlantic City. In July 2003, she pleaded guilty to failing to maintain a boarded-up building she owned and illegally housing tenants in three rental properties. A municipal judge sentenced her to pay a fine of $520.
She also owns other properties she purchased for only $1, including one she bought in 2002 and another she purchased in 1999. Those properties are now assessed at $191,000 and $12,800, respectively.
Most of the properties she owns are located in the city's Bungalow Park section. City records show she owns 12 resort properties herself and co-owns four others with her husband, Austin Clark, assessed at a total of $3,336,800.
Austin Clark works as a redevelopment assistant in the city's Community Development Block Grant, or CDBG, division. His sister-in-law Lois Braithwaite is the division's director.
The city's CDBG office, which handles federal money intended for low-income residents, also is under investigation by the state Attorney General's Office. Investigators raided the office last May and seized boxes of documents and computer hard drives. It is unclear whether the CDBG probe is related to the state's investigation of McCall-Clark and her properties.
E-mail Michael Clark:
Posted in ATLANTIC CITY | BREAKING on Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:30 am Updated: 12:41 pm.
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