The judge who lambasted reality television stars Joe and Teresa Giudice as a couple of untrustworthy social climbers before sentencing them both to prison is a woman with a nearly polar opposite life story, a woman who used intelligence and decades of hard work to overcome poverty and early tragedy.
U.S. District Judge Esther Salas was combative and challenging during Thursday's sentencing hearing, telling the Giudices that she didn't believe their stories. She also criticized the Giudices for leading lives so different from her own, lives seemingly dedicated to puffing up their own importance through fame and money rather than using their talents to help others.
"If you don't have it, you shouldn't spend it," Salas said. "In the eyes of the law it doesn't matter who you are."
Salas spoke with some authority on the subject of money, and the lack of it. When she was about 3 years old, her mother fled California and her abusive father, and moved to Union City, Salas told an interviewer with Rutgers University.
In 1979, a fire ripped through their apartment, destroying everything they owned. The disaster turned Salas into her family's defender, as she learned the intricacies of her school, the insurance industry and the welfare system to get the money and services her mother and four siblings needed to recover.
Salas was 11 years old.
"When I look back, that was a pivotal moment for me," Salas said in the interview. "If you track what I've done over my career, you'll see I tended to do a lot of public service. I learned that you need to be a voice for those who don't have one."
With their successful TV show, the Giudices certainly had loud voices. "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" revolved around the Giudices, who attracted legions of fans by launching profanity-laced tirades, fists — and in one famous incident, a dinner table — at family members and supposed friends. They also appeared to be living opulently, decorating their $4 million Montville mansion with baroque furniture and artwork, and driving expensive luxury cars.
On Thursday, Salas sentenced Joe and Teresa Giudice to prison for mortgage and bankruptcy fraud, and ordered them to pay $638,799 in restitution, fines and back taxes.
The Giudices' apparent attempts to hide some of those assets angered Salas. During their sentencing, the judge noted their efforts to "keep up with the Joneses" and criticized their failure to disclose assets including two pickup trucks, two go-carts, a cement mixer and a 1997 Corvette.
"I've been a judge for seven years and I have yet to ever see the amount of confusion and work that went into these financial disclosures," Salas said.
By contrast, Salas' own rise to prominence was slow, rooted in years of hard work. After graduating from Union Hill High School, she received both her bachelor's and law degrees from Rutgers. After stints in the Essex County Prosecutor's Office and in private practice, in 1997 she joined the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Newark, where she represented people too poor to afford their own lawyers in federal court. She volunteered her time as a board member of several non-profit legal groups and did a term as president of the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey.
Salas became a U.S. magistrate judge in 2006. With recommendations from New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez, Salas was nominated by President Obama as a U.S. District Court judge in December 2010. She was confirmed by the Senate in June 2011. She and her husband, Mark Anderl, a criminal defense attorney, have a son, Daniel Mark.
Chester Keller was part of the team that hired Salas for the federal defenders office. He was her boss for nine years, and now he regularly represents clients in her courtroom. Over the last 17 years, Keller said, Salas has never wavered in her approach to her work.
"She works hard, and she is always incredibly well-prepared," Keller said. "If you're a lawyer appearing before her in court, you'd better be prepared, too. You don't want the judge telling you about your own case."
As Salas rose from an attorney defending the indigent to a magistrate judge and up to federal district judge, she never seemed to forget her own history.
"She is very humble. It's a striking characteristic and I think her background helped make that so," Keller said. "No matter what highs she has achieved, she will not let it get the best of her."
Even Salas' legal opponents came to admire what they saw as her fairness and practical approach to the law, and that she achieved so much so quickly.
"She's like a living example of the American Dream. She's certainly not someone who has been handed anything in life," said John Michael Vazquez, a former federal and state prosecutor who is now a criminal defense attorney, who attributes Salas' success to "pure force of will and determination."
Teresa gave a tearful statement during the sentencing hearing. "I fully take responsibility for my actions," she said.
Salas disputed that, saying that throughout the court proceedings the Giudices had tried to delay justice, hide assets and place blame on their phalanx of lawyers and accountants. Salas said that at first she had considered sentencing Teresa to probation or home arrest. But her persistent evasions merited prison time, the judge said.
"It's as if you thumb your nose at this court," said Salas. "I don't honestly believe you understand and respect the law."
Salas sentenced Teresa, 42, to 15 months in prison. Joe, 44, got three years and five months. Because he is not an American citizen, he faces deportation to Italy, where he was born.
In the end, Salas did show some compassion. Teresa will begin her prison sentence on Jan. 5 so the family can spend the holidays together. And Joe can start his sentence when Teresa gets out. That way, one of them will be at home to care for and raise their four young daughters.
Email: maag@northjersey.com
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