With an open seat in the 1987 election, Barnes ran again and won the GOP nomination, only to finish behind incumbent John Girgenti and fellow Patersonian Bill Pascrell.
Pascrell, who had been serving as mayor since July 1990 concurrently with his Assembly duties, ran for and won a seat in Congress in 1996, which resulted in a vacancy once he was sworn in on January 3, 1997.
In announcing the indictment, Christie cited, among other things, Barnes' forcing of contractors to pay for trips he took while mayor and providing "female companions" to accompany him.
Barnes also was charged with extortion and graft, the latter due to his dealings with an Irvington, New Jersey paving contractor who had earned $16 million in city contracts.
[3] It was largely through his dealings with this contractor, United Gunite, that the investigation into Barnes deepened, as the firm had been accused of paying bribes to many municipal officials statewide.
[4] Barnes initially denied the charges and promised to fight them vigorously,[5] but his declarations of innocence garnered him no sympathy from the voters and resulted in his aforementioned May 2002 defeat.
In July 2002, shortly after Barnes left office, he entered into a plea bargain with the federal government which resulted in a 37-month prison sentence in 2003.
Gerald David Free was a United Gunite employee featured in a CBS episode of 60 minutes, where he is trying to force a man to take cash by stuffing a $100 bill in his pocket stating, "I meant to take you to lunch anyway".