Lawyers for George Norcross III, the insurance executive who allegedly ran a criminal enterprise to exploit the Camden waterfront redevelopment, have asked the court to dismiss his indictment.
The New Jersey Attorney General's Office charged Norcross and five co-defendants, including his brother Philip Norcross, with racketeering charges in June. State prosecutors argue that the associates schemed to acquire lucrative projects along the Camden waterfront, pressuring government officials to aid their plans and threatening business rivals to get out of their way. They allegedly pocketed millions of dollars in state tax credits in the process, the indictment says.
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But the defendants claim in a motion filed Tuesday that the state "fails to properly allege a single crime" in its indictment, and that their alleged criminal threats were "nothing more than everyday, hardball business negotiations."
Norcross, who pleaded not guilty in July, is the father of PhillyVoice founder and chairwoman Lexie Norcross. Philip Norcross is the uncle of Lexie Norcross.
The motion, which compares the attorney general's indictment to a subpar summer blockbuster and invokes Czech novelist Franz Kafka, argues that the state's case is legally deficient. It argues the defendants are neither guilty of criminal threats nor official misconduct.
'Classic hard bargaining'
Norcross's legal team does not deny that he told a developer who held the rights to the property that became the Triad1828 Centre that he would "f*** you up like you've never been f***ed up before" if the developer didn't sell. That threat, according to the motion, was simply "classic hard bargaining" between "sophisticated businessmen."
"Sure, Norcross's language may have gotten heated," the motion read. "But using expletives in business negotiations is not a crime either."
The motion further argues that the defendants did not break the law when they told the CEO of the redevelopment nonprofit Cooper's Ferry Partnership to resign, or else the group "would just make something up about him, which would lead to him being terminated for cause" because extortion laws cover threats to obtain property.
"Termination always has downstream reputational effects, but that does not transform threatening to fire someone into blackmail," the document said.
'Politics, not a crime'
As for the charges of official misconduct, the motion claims co-defendant Dana Redd, the former mayor of Camden, did not abuse her public office. The attorney general accused Redd of instructing Cooper's Ferry Partnership to meet with the Norcross brothers, and ignoring calls from their business rival.
"Ultimately, the Indictment seems to bristle at the fact that the Mayor was especially responsive to the wishes of certain constituents," the motion continued. "But that is politics, not a crime."
The 55-page document further claims that the alleged crimes took place past the statute of limitations and that more recent actions in the indictment, like the defendants' help in securing Redd a new job, were irrelevant.
A spokesperson for the New Jersey Attorney General's Office said the prosecutors were aware Norcross and his co-defendants intended to file a motion to dismiss.
"Defense motions to dismiss on these grounds are common," the spokesperson said via email. "We are confident in our charges and look forward to responding in our briefs to the court."
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