‘To Catch a Politician’: Inside the AG’s sting operation of ex-JCBOE president

Whether or not Sudhan Thomas ever faces trial and/or is convicted, details from an Appellate Division ruling in his criminal case sound like the plot of a Tubi movie.

Thomas, the former president of the Jersey City Board of Education (JCBOE), was busted taking cash bribes during an undercover sting operation conducted by the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA), according to the AG’s Office.

The main evidence against Thomas comes from recorded conversations with tax attorney Matthew O’Donnell, the state’s cooperating witness for their undercover sting. Key details from the appellate decision timeline are as follows:

• At a fundraiser for Mayor Steven Fulop on February 27, 2019, Thomas thanked O’Donnell for his past support and O’Donnell offered financial assistance for Thomas’ upcoming election.
  
• On May 1, 2019, O’Donnell and Thomas met at a diner. Thomas said he needed O’Donnell to raise $35,000–$45,000 for his JCBOE reelection and $75,000 for a planned Jersey City Council run.
  
• On June 3, 2019, O’Donnell met with Thomas and requested to be Special Counsel to the JCBOE in return for the fundraising. Thomas agreed and told O’Donnell he’d appoint him Special Counsel/Real Estate Advisor, remarking that “nobody questions all that stuff.”
  
• On June 7, 2019, during a recorded phone call, O’Donnell and Thomas discussed meeting with the JCBOE business administrator to begin appraisal work for several JCBOE properties.
  
• On June 17, 2019, the two met again and O’Donnell handed Thomas $10,000 cash in an envelope. “I thank you for coming through. I have never gotten a job this quickly,” O’Donnell said to the ex-JCBOE president. Later that night, during a recorded phone call, Thomas told O’Donnell that the business administrator would contact him regarding property appraisal work.
  
• On July 29, 2019, the pair met again and O’Donnell gave Thomas another envelope containing $25,000 in cash. As Thomas took the envelope, he said “Thanks Matt, I appreciate it.”

OPIA investigators stopped Thomas after the meeting on July 29, 2019. According to the appellate decision:

• Thomas told investigators he “reached out” to O’Donnell and asked for “some financial help” because he was “having some personal difficulty.”
  
• Thomas was originally introduced to O’Donnell in 2016 during his first JCBOE campaign, but he hadn’t seen him for years until meeting at Fulop’s fundraiser.
  
• Thomas claimed that talks about JCBOE legal contracts were “stand-alone conversations” unrelated to money and that O’Donnell’s request was not a quid pro quo.
  
• Thomas said he would never have contacted O’Donnell if he knew he “was caught up with other things.”

Regarding the appellate decision, Thomas’ defense attorney, Jeffrey Garrigan, said he had no comment on the “Court’s interpretation of the custodial statement.”

Thomas claims the AG’s Office prosecuted him in retaliation for the JCBOE filing a lawsuit against the State on April 29, 2019, related to school funding cuts, per the appellate decision.

After a Somerset County judge said he didn’t think the AG’s Office was “serious about prosecuting this case,” a spokesperson for the agency refused to say who would be held accountable if OPIA failed to secure a conviction against Thomas.