Convicted Former Jersey City Deputy Mayor Hospitalized

A former Jersey City deputy mayor has been hospitalized weeks before she's scheduled to report to federal prison.

Leona Beldini's attorney tells The Jersey Journal that Beldini suffered strokes and other complications following recent knee surgery.

Beldini, who is in her mid-70s, was arrested in 2009 in a federal corruption sting. She was convicted of bribery and sentenced to three years in prison, but remains free on bail while appealing the conviction.

She's scheduled to report to prison in early April.

Beldini filed a motion this month to have her conviction thrown out because the judge allowed the government's primary witness, disgraced real estate speculator Solomon Dwek, to make statements that he prohibited in subsequent trials.

It's unclear whether Beldini's hospitalization will affect when she reports to prison.

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