I had to amend the headline because as usual the AP on does so down into the middle of the story.

“A federal jury convicted ex-Mayor Sharpe James and his former mistress Wednesday of corruption stemming from the cut-rate sale of city land.

James was convicted on all five charges he faced, including fraud and conspiracy. Under federal guidelines, he could face seven to eight years in prison, but a judge could impose as much as 20 years on some individual counts. James could also be stripped of pensions that provide a six-figure annual income.

His ex-girlfriend, Tamika Riley, was convicted on the same five charges and eight others, including evading taxes and cheating to obtain subsidized housing assistance for herself. She faces a similar sentence.

Neither James nor Riley showed any emotion as the verdicts were read. The two and their lawyers declined comment afterward.

Both remain free on bail. Sentencing was set for July 29.

The jury deliberated about 30 hours over six days at a courthouse just a block from City Hall, where James led New Jersey’s largest city for 20 years until 2006. Riley, 39, was a publicist who once ran a clothing boutique in the same neighborhood.

Prosecutors charged that the 72-year-old James, who was also a Democratic state senator from 1999 to January 2008, abused his office as mayor and betrayed his constituents by arranging for the sale of nine city-owned properties for $46,000 to Riley from 2001 to 2005. Riley quickly sold them for $665,000 without ever starting required rehabilitation work on most of them, prosecutors said.

James’ attorneys argued that no evidence showed that the mayor assisted Riley or even had knowledge of her transactions, and that the mayor’s interest in redeveloping the struggling city was well within the scope of his duties.”

Another crooked democrat taking the money for the poor and enriching himself.

hmmmmmmmmmmmm.