Meet the judge in the mobster-turned-councilman case

Imre Karaszegi, Jr., the respected 65-year-old judge who will handle the arraignment of mobster-turned-councilman John Alite, has been involved in politics since he was a teenager; the son of Hungarian immigrants who fled following the 1956 uprising, Karaszegi was captivated by the workings of local government as a regular attendee of council meetings while attending Pope Pius XII High School.

In 1983, as a 21-year-old senior at Marquette University, Karaszegi split his time between Wisconsin and his hometown of Passaic, where he was running in a May non-partisan election for the city council.

After mounting a campaign of new ideas aimed at taking Passaic out of the 19th century, and citing his senior thesis on municipal finance, Karaszegi came within 385 votes of ousting four-term incumbent Fred Kuren in a race for four at-large council seats.

His nearly-successful fifth-place finish impressed Council President Joseph Lipari, a butcher and sausage company owner who was seeking to remove Mayor Robert Hare in a June recall election.  After Lipari took out Hare, he hired Karaszegi as his $1-a-year mayoral aide.

By August, the city’s business administrator, Kenneth Lucianin, resigned to resume his post as police captain.  Lipari’s pick to replace him was Karaszegi, who had just turned 22.  Two months later, Lipari also made Karaszegi the acting police director for a five-week stint. By 1984, Lipari added two new jobs to Karaszegi’s portfolio: police director and executive director of the Passaic Municipal Utilities Authority.  In 1986, Karaszegi became the chairman of the Passaic Valley Water Commission.  He was acting mayor while Lipari was recovering from spinal surger and when he was out of town.

In 1987, Karaszegi was with State Sen. Joseph Hirkala (D-Passaic), a friend who had served as city clerk and spent 20 years in the legislature, when Hirkala died of a heart attack at age 63

But in 1990, a rift existed between Karaszegi and his mentor, Lipari; the mayor referred to Karaszegi as “my son.”  Karaszegi wanted to distance himself from investigations into the city and resigned.  He was attending Seton Hall Law School at night at the time.

In 1992, Lipari’s nine-year stint as mayor ended too.  He resigned following his conviction on federal extortion and tax evasion charges after conspiring to extort money from a city towing contractor.  Six years earlier, Lipari pressured Karaszegi to kick back $10,000 of his salary to him.  Karaszegi testified against his former boss.

He ran for mayor in 2001 when Margie Semler decided to retire; she endorsed Karaszegi as her successor.  The winner was Sammy Rivera, a councilman and former police officer. Rivera defeated him, 38%-26%, in a four-way race.

Karaszegi became the Democratic candidate for State Assembly in 2003 when Assemblyman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) ran for State Senate in the 36th legislative district.   Assembly Minority Leader Paul DiGaetano (R-Nutley) was the top vote-getter in his re-election bid, but the second seat was won by a Democrat, Frederick Scalera (D-Nutley), who had moved to the legislature after Sarlo won a special election convention for the Senate.  Karaszegi finished 858 votes behind Scalera.  Karaszegi and DiGaetano were once friends; now the judge is one of many to have had a falling out with the onetime gubernatorial candidate.

In 2005, Gov. Richard Codey nominated Karaszegi to serve as an administrative law judge. Gov. Christopher Christie named Karaszegi to serve as a Superior Court Judge in 2016.