'The Jersey Sting' Authors to Visit Pikesville on Sunday

In July 2009, New Jersey was stunned by the arrest of 44 people, including three mayors, five Orthodox rabbis, two state legislators and the deputy mayor of New Jersey.

The charges? Corruption, which included a $50 million bank fraud and black market kidney operation.

The three-year investigation leading up to that day is detailed by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalists Ted Sherman of The Newark Star-Ledger and Josh Margolin of the New York Post in their recently published book The  Jersey Sting.

Sherman and Margolin will be at in Pikesville to read from their book, hold a brief discussion and answer questions from the audience. They will be signing books as well.

They hope to provide a deeper understanding of the story, which, they say, was left untold by newspapers and news sites.

Margolin said the book captures the human drama that news media didn't. “There is a tremendous story here with human drama at every level. As we covered the story and its aftermath and peeled back the layers, we came to a story we never predicted, with a depth of characters and resulting collateral damage we never envisioned.”

Only about a quarter of what happened was published by news media, Sherman said. Typical news articles did not delve into the players’ underlying motivations.

The book hits close to home for the Pikesville community—the family of the federal informant behind the sting was ostracized by the New Jersey community, forcing the informant and his family to leave their home. They now live in Pikesville, Sherman said.

Sherman and Margolin were inspired to write The Jersey Sting as their coverage of the three-year investigation turned up far more information than they could fit into their Newark Star-Ledger articles.

They felt that this information, on the character of those involved, and their motivation, was so fascinating that it was worth being told, Sherman said.

“The characters in this case were characters that could have been drawn from a novel. Some of them are so over-the-top you wonder if they are real,” Sherman said of the individuals involved, including a deputy mayor, a former stripper who went under the stage name "Hope Diamond."

“The book is cinematic in scope, and a lot of people ask if they will make a movie out of it. No one has considered it yet, but I’d find it fun to watch,” Sherman said. 

While Sherman and Margolin said they received some negative backlash from some people who are unhappy to see the story dredged up again, they are met with praise for their work.

“By and large the people who were written about in the book have been complimentary of it. They said the book allowed them to understand the depth in all directions and felt we captured their individual roles,” Margolin said.

“What’s interesting is when we wrote it, we knew the prosecutors and FBI would think it was a good story, but those convicted thought the story was great and we were very fair in how we represented them,” Sherman said. “I was in court a few weeks ago and one of the defendants told me he bought the book and couldn’t put it down. Some of the rabbis have called us up, said it was very even-handed.”

Margolin said the negative feedback has been intelligent, serious and important, but the praise in terms of reporting and depth of the material has been both gratifying and flattering.

The Pikesville Barnes & Noble is located at 1819 Reisterstown Road. More information about the book can be found on the authors’ website.