Former L.B. councilman gets four months in jail Zambrano confined to home for four months after prison sentence BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer Former Long Branch Councilman John R. "Fazz" Zambrano will begin serving a four-month jail sentence in December for accepting a cash bribe while in office. Zambrano, 45, will start the prison term Dec. 10 and after completing his sentence will be confined to his home for another four months and be required to wear an electronic monitoring system. "Words will never be able to express how sorry I am," said Zambrano in court last week before being sentenced. "I want to apologize . . . for the embarrassment I put everyone through." Zambrano declined to comment further outside the courtroom following his sentencing. Zambrano entered a guilty plea for accepting a $1,000 bribe in November 2003, through an intermediary during Operation Bid Rig. The cash payment was delivered by Zambrano's brother, former West Long Branch Mayor Paul Zambrano, 51, who was sentenced the day before to 12 months and one day in federal prison for accepting $15,000 in bribes from an undercover FBI witness. The plea agreement was signed by John Zambrano in June 2006 and carried an 18- to 24-month prison sentence. John Zambrano appeared before U.S. District Judge William Martini in Newark Oct. 24 to be sentenced. For his efforts to cooperate with the federal government, John Zambrano was issued a 5K Letter, a legal document that allows the judge to offer a reduced sentence. "In effect, Mr. Zambrano received the bribe of $1,000 from his brother," Martini said in court. "Apart from that incident, there is no evidence that Mr. Zambrano was out soliciting bribes. There is no evidence in your public or private life that [Zambrano] is a corrupt individual. "I am of the opinion that some form of incarceration is necessary. Everyone in public life could one day find themselves in this situation, and you have to find the need to say no and in some situations, report it," Martini said. During the sting operation, FBI informant Robert Steffer posed as a businessman with a construction and demolition company in Florida seeking to secure Long Branch demolition and site work contracts. John Zambrano said that he accepted the bribe with the understanding that he would use his position in office to assist the informant in obtaining city contracts. In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hope Olds said that John Zambrano was very cooperative with the FBI. "I only want to emphasize that Mr. Zambrano, once approached, came right to the FBI and he was remorseful from the start," Olds said. "His information was helpful with other arrests. "While the government would not like to minimize Mr. Zambrano's role . . . in the scope of Operation Bid Rig, Mr. Zambrano took one payment and that is the complete scope of his involvement. "He wanted to help in whatever way he possibly could," she said. In court, attorney Ronald Tobia described John Zambrano as a loving husband and father. "He wanted to take responsibility for his actions from the beginning," Tobia said. "He wanted to make his wrongs right." Tobia further requested that the court consider probation or home confinement rather than incarcerate him in a federal prison. "He cooperated fully," Tobia said. "He did it because he felt he had betrayed the public trust and he wanted to make amends. "John is somewhere at the end of the totem pole in the Bid Rig," he said, adding, "The lesser sentence is warranted in this matter." Olds agreed, telling Martini that the court should "depart from the guidelines" when determining his sentence. "This has been a bad chapter in the Zambrano family history," Martini said. "At one point, this will be behind them." Zambrano was re-elected to his fourth, four-year term as a Long Branch councilman in May 2006, and was sworn into office on July 1. He entered a guilty plea before being indicted in July 2006 to one count of Hobbs Act Extortion under color of official right for accepting and agreeing to a cash bribe in exchange for agreeing to exercise official action and influence to aid and assist in corruptly securing future city demolition and site work contracts. Paul Zambrano was arrested on Feb. 22, 2005, and in August 2005 confessed to accepting $15,000 from an undercover FBI agent in exchange for his official influence. He said during his sentencing that he had accepted bribes to feed a gambling addiction. In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark McCarren said that Paul Zambrano cooperated with the FBI almost immediately upon his 2005 arrest and was instrumental in bringing about former N.J. state Sen. John A. Lynch's 2006 confession to accepting bribes from consulting companies.