Bribery sentencing for former Hoboken Assemblyman Garcia pushed until March

The federal bribery sentencing for former Hoboken Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia has been delayed until March 18th, according to the court docket for his case.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

Garcia was scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in Newark tomorrow at a 11 a.m., which was made public in September and marked an over six month delay, but it has been rescheduled again until March 18th at 2 p.m.

No additional details as to why the sentencing of the case was delayed was immediately available. Prior to this point, Garcia had received received 20 continuances in the matter.

In June 2024, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the city of Newark and the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation of Garcia’s honest services, honest services wire fraud, and receiving bribes in connection with the business of a federally funded local government and organization, as HCV first reported.

From 2017 through April 2019, both while serving as Newark deputy mayor and as an executive officer of the NCEDC (now known as Invest Newark), Garcia sought and received significant cash and other gifts from Frank Valvano Jr. and Irwin Sablosky – the former board of education president in Springfield – federal prosecutors alleged.

Those two and others bribed Garcia to use his official positions and influence within the city of Newark and the NCEDC to advance real estate development matters of interest to Valvano and Sablosky.

Garcia, also a former Newark deputy mayor, as well as a housing authority executive director in Hoboken and Irvington, was first charged via complaint back in November 2020.

He was backed by the Hudson County Democratic Organization (HCDO) before he won his one and only term in the state Assembly in 2013, representing Hoboken and parts of Jersey City.

Garcia also unsuccessfully ran for the Hoboken 6th Ward council seat in 2015.