Bridgegate: Bill Baroni gets 18 months in political GWB lane-closure scandal

William Baroni gave up his appeals on Tuesday and asked a federal judge to send him to prison for his role in a political plot to create massive traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge.

U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton sentenced Baroni, 47, to 18 months in federal prison. Baroni, a former top appointee of Gov. Chris Christie to the Port Authority, was being resentenced for his role in the so-called Bridgegate plot after a federal appeals court last year upheld his federal conviction on most of the charges in the so-called Bridgegate scandal.

Before he was sentenced, Baroni addressed the court for about five minutes, expressing contrition and saying he had lost his focus.

“I always thought I had a clear sense of right and wrong,” he said, a copy of his prepared remarks shaking in his hand as he spoke. “When I went to work for the Port Authority and for Gov. Christie, that line disappeared.”

Baroni said he was “sucked into this cult and culture” that surrounded Christie. Trying to stifle tears, his voice cracking, he added: “I always tried to help people. Here I hurt people.”

Before imposing the new sentence, Wigenton acknowledged that Baroni, who in recent years has done volunteer work in New York City for LGBT children and immigrants, “has done a lot of positive things” since she initially sentenced him to two years in prison in March 2017.

UPDATE:Abandoning his appeals, Bill Baroni will go to prison for his role in Bridgegate plot

But the judge said that “the facts haven’t changed” about what happened in Fort Lee in 2013 and Baroni’s role in it.

A federal jury in Newark found Baroni guilty of helping to orchestrate a plan to close off traffic to two of three local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge over several days in September 2013. The lane closures caused hours-long gridlock on on Fort Lee’s narrow streets — allegedly to punish the borough's Mayor, Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for refusing to endorse Christie, a Republican, for re-election.

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Baroni, whom Christie appointed deputy executive director of the Port Authority, and his co-defendant, Bridget Anne Kelly, 46, of Ramsey, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, were convicted on seven counts of wire fraud and conspiracy in November 2016 after a nearly two-month trial.

Kelly, a single mother of four, received an 18-month sentence. Unlike Baroni, she plans to appeal her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Federal prosecutors alleged that Kelly and Baroni agreed to go along with the Bridgegate traffic jam plot after it was orchestrated by another Port Authority official, David Wildstein. 

Although he admitted that he was the chief architect of the plot, Wildstein managed to avoid prison by pleading guilty to lesser charges and agreeing to testify against Baroni and Kelly.

Judge Wigenton has allowed Baroni and Kelly to stay out of prison until they exhaust their appeals.

But with his decision today to come before Wigenton for resentencing, Baroni plans to enter prison in the near future even though a favorable ruling by the Supreme Court in Kelly's case would set him free.

Check NorthJersey.com for updates.

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