Samuel Rivera

Samuel Rivera (born 1946 in Cayey, Puerto Rico) was the Democratic mayor of the U.S. city of Passaic, New Jersey, from 2001 until 2008. Rivera came to national attention on September 6, 2007, when he was indicted and arrested on charges of accepting bribes in exchange for agreeing to direct municipal contracts to an insurance broker acting as a cooperating witness. Rivera pleaded guilty to attempted extortion and stepped down as mayor on May 9, 2008. Rivera was sentenced to 21 months in prison. He was succeeded in office by Gary Schaer.

Rivera began his career by joining the Passaic Police Department in 1968. In 1970, Rivera was brought up on police brutality charges. He avoided trial by resigning and returning to Puerto Rico, where he became a police officer as well. There, his law enforcement career ended when he was convicted of a felony and sentenced to either two or three years probation for offenses including admittedly slashing himself to simulate having been attacked in order to protect his partner, who killed a narcotics suspect. Rivera returned to Passaic in 1981 and became a private investigator.

Rivera ran for Passaic City Council in 1993 and 1995, losing both times. Later in 1995 he won a special election to the Council by 11 votes. He then ran a losing campaign for mayor in 1997, and then again in 2001, winning the race. New Jersey Governor Donald DiFrancesco attempted to prevent Rivera from taking office due to his status as a Puerto Rican felon, but Superior Court judge Robert Passero allowed Rivera to be sworn in, finding that the state had failed to prove that Rivera's crime was a crime of "moral turpitude".

Rivera is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition and, when he served as mayor, was a member of Hillary Clinton's Mayors Council and National Hispanic Leadership Council. During the course of his tenure as mayor, Rivera had the City Council nearly triple his salary from $40,000 to $117,000.

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