By Justin Roberts
News Editor, ‘10

Joseph Doria

FBI agents served a warrant to Saint Peter’s Collge on Thursday, July 23 for information about trustee, alumni and former administrator Joseph Doria, Jr. and contributions made to Saint Peter’s College. Another warrant authorized the Bureau to search Mr. Doria’s home in Bayonne and his offices in Trenton and at the Meadowlands Commission, the planning and zoning agency for which Doria also worked. Later that day, Doria resigned from his post as Comissioner of the Department of Community Affairs at Governor Corzine’s request. Neither he nor the college have been charged with any crime.
The warrants were a small part of the sprawling Federal sting operation that led to the arrest of 44 religious leaders and public offcials that day, including Leona Beldini, the deputy mayor of Jersey City. The FBI and the IRS used Solomon Dwek, a former Monmouth County developer and son of a prominent rabbi, to lure in both groups. Mr. Dwek, currently out on bail for trying to deposit two fake $25 million dollar checks in PNC banks, offered bribes to the public officials to expedite property development. Meanwhile, he went to various rabbis in New Jersey and New York to get money laundered and negotiate the sale of kidneys.
John Azzarello, the former assistant U.S. attorney Mr. Doria retained after being served with the warrants, confirmed that Mr. Doria met with Mr. Dwek along with Jack Shaw, a political consultant who was accused of taking $10,000 from Dwek and found dead in his Jersey City home on Tuesday, July 28. An unnamed source told Bloomberg News that the FBI had a recording of Shaw talking about Mr. Doria, illegal payments and Saint Peter’s. Azzarello maintains that Mr. Doria has committed no crime, took no money. “…Joe Doria did not break the law,” he told a group of reporters.
Friends, former coworkers and even political enemies refused to believe that Doria was involved. Former Republican Senator Donald DiFrancesco described him as “a straight arrow” and said there was “no implication ever…ever…of any wrongdoing.”
The administration has not released any information about the contributions mentioned in the warrants. In an email, Lorraine McConnell, the executive director of public relations for SPC, wrote that she has ,”… every reason to believe that neither the College nor the president is a subject of the investigation.” She went on to say that she did not anticipate, “…that the College will be negatively affected by this investigation….Joe Doria remains a member of the Board of Trustees; to our knowledge, he has not been charged with any crime.” Ms. McConnell would not address the matter of whether or not the College supported Mr. Doria. President Cornacchia offered no comment.
Upon hearing about the searches, many students and college employees began to wonder if the investigation was related to the money being raised for the new Student Center. Others remembered the 22% increase in giving Saint Peter’s recorded in FY 2009. Members of the College community thought about President Cornacchia’s unprecedented fundraising success and feared the worst. Thankfully, there have been no indications that Saint Peter’s administrators were involved in any wrongdoing.
Mr. Doria was a Democrat who served as a member of the New Jersey Assembly from 1979 to 2004 (he was Speaker in the 90-91 session and minority leader from 92-02), a State Senator from the 31st District from 2004-2007, and was the Mayor of Bayonne from 1998 to 2007. Doria also occupied adjunct professor positions at Rutgers and Saint Peter’s. He has contributed money to Saint Peter’s in the past and currently has a scholarship, paid for by contributing friends, named after him. In 2004, then President Fr. Loughran thanked Mr. Doria for helping get approval from Hudson County authorities to build the bridge across JFK Boulevard.
In 2005, Doria was accused of trying to stage a “political coup” at Ramapo College by having Acting Governor Richard Codey make personal calls, appoint two new members to the Board of Trustees, and rally other Board members to support Mr. Doria’s bid for the presidency of the College. The school’s search committee eventually removed him from consideration. He graduated Magna cum Laude from Saint Peter’s College in 1968 with majors in history, english and french, received a master’s degree in American Studies from Boston College and a doctorate in organizational leadership and education administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.