Councilman, BOE Members Named In Edison Racist Flyer Probe

EDISON, NJ — A United States Postal Inspection Service report has identified six people, including Edison school board members and a council member, for their alleged involvement in the racist flyer incident from November 2017.

Findings of the report were made public during the Edison Municipal Council Meeting held on Nov. 5 at 7 p.m.

According to the report, the individuals allegedly involved in assembling and mailing the flyer are:

• Jingwei “Jerry” Shi – Board Member Edison Board of Education
• Mohin Patel – Board of Education candidate who is currently leading the race with 9,418 votes.
• Ajay Patil - Councilman
• Satish Poondi – lawyer, who previously served on the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Community Relations in Edison.
• Raj Bhagia
• Shariq Ahmed - former chairman of the Edison Democratic Organization

When contacted, Shi called the allegations a “flat out lie.”

“I, Jerry Shi, have never been to Chowpatty with boxes/racist flyers. Chandrakant Patel’s claim of me delivering or putting stamps of labels on racists flyers is flat out lie,” he said in a statement.

Mohin Patel told Patch the entire incident was a ploy by his political opponents. “A majority of this is driven by my political opponents. It’s a political stunt to discredit me,” he said.

Less than a week before November 2017′s election, a flier arrived in mailboxes across Edison. It featured photos of school board members Jerry Shi and Falguni Patel, which were stamped with “deport” and “Make Edison Great Again!”

The flier said that "The Chinese and Indians are taking over our town!"

Immediately after the incident, the town council contacted the police and worked closely with the United States Postal Inspector to investigate the matter.

Read More Here: Edison Council Calls On AG To Investigate Racist Campaign Flyers

According to the report, a fingerprint led inspectors to a man in New York who said he did a catering job at a restaurant in Iselin, next door to Edison.

What the report says

At the meeting on Thursday night, Councilman Robert Diehl called the incident a “shame.” Each councilmember then took turns reading from the report.

According to the report, postal inspectors reviewed postal databases and found a credit card used to purchase stamps. The card belonged to Shariq Ahmed. When inspectors contacted Ahmed, he refused to speak without an attorney. The investigators have not been able to schedule an interview with Ahmed, said the report.

Federal officials then sent some of the flyers to a Postal Service forensic lab that was able to locate three fingerprints on the flyer. Two belonged to US Postal Service employees and the third belonged to Aloysius D’Souza of Queens, NY.

According to the report, D’Souza told investigators he recognized the flyer from when he and his father, Joseph D’Souza, worked at Chowpatty Restaurant on Oak Tree Road.

D’Souza told investigators that, on Oct. 2017, he and father were working a catering function at Chowpatty, when the owner Chandrakant Patel asked them to “affix address labels and stamps to the flyers since they had already finished with all of their duties with the restaurant,” according to the report.

He told investigators they were unaware of the purpose and were doing as instructed by the owner. When interviewed, owner Chandrakant Patel told postal inspectors he was approached by Satish Poondi in October 2017. At the time, Poondi served as a legal advisor of the Indian Business Association, the report says.

Poondi told Chandrakant Patel "we need help with mailing things." Chandrakant Patel told the inspectors he didn’t find the request strange as he regularly allowed members of the community to use the second floor of his restaurant for community-related activities.

According to the report, Chandrakant Patel said the six people who were identified came to his restaurant in late October "carrying boxes containing large postcards, stamps, and address labels."

Chandrakant Patel said Poondi asked if two of his catering employees would help with the mailings. He admitted to seeing the flyers, but said he did not read what was printed on them, according to the report.

He said he recalled Shariq Ahmad bringing the stamps.

Ten days later, Chandrakant Patel read a news story on the racist campaign flyers and recognized them immediately. "He recognized the flyers as the same ones that been brought into Chowpatty," said the report.

When Chandrakant Patel asked Poondi about the flyers, he was asked to keep quiet about it.

According to the report, Chandrakant Patel said he trusted Poondi due to his legal background and work in politics.

At the Thursday meeting, Diehl said councilman Ajay Patil, who was named in the report, reached out to him on Nov. 4 to discuss the situation. He said Ajay Patil did not have or see the report before their meeting.

Dielh said Ajay Patil met with him, U.S. postal inspector David A. Comer and councilman Alvaro Gomez on Nov. 5, and explained he was at Chowpatty Restaurant and did see the flyers being prepared. However, he said he had no part in assembling, creating or disseminating them.

Ajay Patil, who attended the Thursday meeting virtually, said he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He released a sworn written statement on Nov. 6, saying he did not see any of the people named in the report at the restaurant, other than the two employees - the Dsouzas.

Meanwhile, postal inspector Comer was scheduled to testify in person. But council members said they received a last-minute letter from the USPS attorney informing them that Comer won’t be testifying. The attorney said live testimony from a federal agent needed additional affirmations made in regard to the nature of the testimony, and then the office would evaluate the request.

A community ‘deeply hurt’

After the report was made public, reactions were fierce.

Mayor Thomas Lankey released a statement saying he was “deeply disturbed” by the findings of the report.

He said the "disgusting mail” not only targeted the Asian community but threatened to incite deep divisions in the diverse town.

“It is beyond the pale that some members of this community seem to have decided that they would cynically put their own neighbors in harm’s way in order to achieve some unknown political benefit — to the detriment of our community and our residents,” said Lankey.

“The fact that this conspiracy was perpetrated by public officials, an attorney and others who swore to uphold the public trust and the law makes it all the more despicable,” he said.

Council president Joyce Ship-Freeman said she was “deeply hurt” by community members’ involvement in the matter.

“The NAACP members prayed and stood vigil after this incident. As the first Black woman to be Council president, I know what racism feels like. I’ve been in the civil rights movement. Those named in the report have a lot of people to apologize to.”

Ship-Freeman said she was also concerned about the involvement of the school board members.

“As an educator, I’m deeply hurt by that. I went to JP Stevens High School, as a Black woman it afforded me so many opportunities. Our school system shouldn't be tainted by this,” she said.

Ship-Freeman said one of the accused, Ajay Patil, recently won his re-election to the council and she’s isn’t sure how the law will play out.

Meanwhile, Mohin Patil sent a letter to Ship-Freeman saying the report did not contain any findings, rather “unsubstantiated statements.”

“Any reasonable review of the “Report” would demonstrate that it does not include any findings, but rather, merely the statements of IBA (“Indian Business Association”) Chairman Chandrakant Patel, a person who is my avowed political enemy and who has zero credibility,” Mohin Patel said in his letter.

He accused councilmen Diehl and Sam Joshi of running a “kangaroo Committee" and are “blinded by their hatred of their political opponents.”

Mohin Patil said he was willing to testify under oath, and that no one from the “investigation team nor committee of the whole had ever contacted me to discuss the facts.” Patil told Patch he plans to pursue legal action.

Poondi and Diehl did not respond to Patch’s request for comment. Joshi could not be reached.

Thank you for reading. Have a correction or news tip? Email sarah.salvadore@patch.com

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