NEWARK, N.J. – An Essex County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 12 months in prison for obstructing justice while on pre-trial release, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
Robert Alexander, 45, of Newark, previously pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Brian Martinotti to a superseding indictment charging him with obstructing justice while on pre-trial release.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
On Jan.14, 2019, Alexander pleaded guilty to an information charging him with one count of making a false statement on a loan application in a criminal case that was pending before Chief U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson. On Sept. 4, 2019, Judge Wolfson sentenced Alexander to 46 months in prison; the sentence imposed by Judge Martinotti today will run consecutively to that sentence.
On Oct. 8, 2019 – the day before Alexander was scheduled to voluntarily surrender to the Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence – he caused a forged medical note to be submitted to Judge Wolfson in support of a request to delay the date of his voluntary surrender. The forged medical note contained falsified information and was submitted with the specific intent to influence and impede Judge Wolfson in the discharge of her duties as the judge presiding over his case. At the time of the offense, Alexander was on pre-trial release.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Martinotti sentenced Alexander to three years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark, under the direction of Inspector in Charge Damon Wood, Philadelphia Division, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.
The government is represented by U.S. Attorney DeNae Thomas of the Criminal Division in Newark.