Secret recordings played at Ramapo supervisor’s corruption trial

<p>Potentially explosive secret recordings were played for jurors Thursday in the Ramapo town supervisor's federal corruption trial.&nbsp;</p>

News 12 Staff

May 11, 2017, 10:19 PM

Updated 2,535 days ago

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Secret recordings played at Ramapo supervisor’s corruption trial
Potentially explosive secret recordings were played for jurors Thursday in the Ramapo town supervisor's federal corruption trial.
The recordings that the jury heard for a second consecutive day were supplied by the prosecution’s main witness, Melissa Reimer.
Reimer was Ramapo's budget director who went to the FBI. She told them that Christopher St. Lawrence was cooking the books and lying to banks and bond rating agencies so he could get better financing rates for multimillion-dollar loans to finance the town's ballpark.
During one call to Moody's, Reimer says St. Lawrence repeatedly misled them about how much money the town had on hand. St. Lawrence also could be heard laughing and joking and saying, "We're going to have to be magicians to get to those numbers."

St. Lawrence was indicted on 22 counts of federal securities fraud but insists he's not guilty.

Under cross-examination, the defense attorney attacked Reimer's credibility. She admitted being suspended from her job for misleading an investigator during disciplinary hearings, and she testified to having two lawsuits against Ramapo for $10 million.

Reimer will be back on the stand Monday.
Prosecutors say they expect to have their entire case wrapped up by early next week. It's still unclear whether St. Lawrence will take the stand in his defense.


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