James W. Treffinger

Treffinger was born James Padalino in Newark, New Jersey. When he was 4 years old, he was adopted by Fred Treffinger, who had married his mother. He grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey and attended Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark. Treffinger later recalled, "We didn't know many Republicans... My family idolized F.D.R. and Truman and John Kennedy. It was a Catholic family, so Kennedy was a double hero." Treffinger earned a J.D. degree from Rutgers School of Law—Newark in 1976. He was admitted to the bar in New York and New Jersey, concentrating in his legal career on corporate and insurance law. He worked for the Home Insurance Company in New York City from 1982 to 1987, serving as senior vice president for government affairs and associate general counsel. He was special insurance counsel at Willkie Farr & Gallagher from 1987 to 1989. He joined Hughes Hubbard & Reed in 1990, serving as partner until 1995. ==Political career==

Treffinger began his political career as a member of the Democratic Party, though later switched to the Republican Party in the mid-1980s. From 1992 to 1995, he served on the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders. In 1994, Treffinger defeated a divided Democratic Party to become the second Republican County Executive of Essex County in 17 years. His predecessor, Thomas J. D'Alessio, had resigned after being convicted of money laundering, fraud and extortion. After taking office, Treffinger reported that the county had been left with a $161 million budget gap and was later credited with nearly closing that gap in the following year. Treffinger ran for the United States Senate in 2000. He finished third in the Republican primary with 18 percent of the vote, behind U.S. representative Bob Franks (36 percent) and state senator William Gormley (34 percent). In November 2001, he announced he would again run for U.S. Senate, in the 2002 race for the seat of incumbent Robert Torricelli. He withdrew from the race in April 2002, after it became known that he was a target of a federal investigation. While serving as County Executive in 2000, Treffinger and Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura banned the television show The Sopranos from filming an episode on county-owned property due to safety concerns and displeasure over the show's portrayal of Italian Americans. ==Indictment and conviction==

On April 18, 2002, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service raided Treffinger's county office, carting away boxes of files, computers, and other materials. On October 28, Treffinger was arrested at his house in Verona. U.S. Attorney Chris Christie announced that Treffinger had been charged in a 20-count indictment with extortion, fraud, obstructing a federal investigation and conspiracy. He was released on $100,000 bail. On May 31, 2003, shortly before his trial was scheduled to begin, Treffinger pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice and one count of mail fraud, admitting that he had solicited an illegal $15,000 campaign contribution in exchange for a county contract, and that he had placed two people on the Essex County payroll who instead worked on his 2000 Senate campaign. The remaining counts were dismissed as part of the plea agreement. On October 17, he was sentenced to 13 months in prison. Treffinger had sought a lighter sentence, saying he was "a new man, a better man" after converting from Catholicism to Baptism and joining an evangelical Baptist congregation in Bloomfield after his arrest. In December 2004, Treffinger was released from federal prison into the custody of a Newark halfway house. In April 2006, he agreed to pay $171,000 to settle an investigation by the Federal Election Commission over improper use of campaign funds to pay his legal fees. In November 2007, it was reported that Treffinger had enrolled at the Princeton Theological Seminary and was planning to start a ministry for prison inmates. ==See also==