while the Menendez trial wraps up another high-profile court case is just beginning in Trenton Democratic power broker George Norcross made his first appearance in state court today his arraignment in the state's case against him charging that he and five codefendants participated in a racketeering scheme in connection with properties along the Waterfront in Camden now Norcross pleaded not guilty this morning as did four of the five codefendants who appeared in court alongside him senior political correspondent David Cruz has more on the charges they're facing as this case kicks off George Norcross took a seat in the front row at this morning's arraignment solidifying his position as the lead defendant in this potentially explosive case five of the six defendants were in court this morning represented by some of the highest paid attorneys in the state to enter their pleas he is not guilty Michael critchley for George Norcross began the chorus of not guilty pleas with that out of the way the judge tried to bring the sides together on evidence to be presented at trial honor the um initial Discovery production which the state has prepared to go out is comprised of 1300 13,700 bit stamp documents followed by an additional terabyte or so of data that's comprised of approximately 150 media files and 2.5 million other documents and those documents range in page from a single page document all the way to thousands uh so it's a little hard to estimate what the subpoena return portion of that comprises but that's what's ready to go out um immediately following the state's concerns about a protective order that's a lot of stuff the defense has yet to see in the prosecution says should be kept out of the public view since it could contain testimony or other evidence that they say is sensitive but the defense says they can't agree to any protective order on evidence they haven't yet seen what I want to know is they've been investigating case for 5 years where are the documents why are we being told there's an initial production shouldn't be an initial production there should be a complete production that's what the rules entitle us to the defense says the state should have had its evidentiary ducks in a row by today the state says it's also still waiting for some evidence from the feds which the defense blasted in court and outside of Court later the media is here to get to the bottom are you wondering why you're not getting those materials that were presented to the grand jury why you don't have those title three materials where is the F wire cap materials they go back years they have them when did they ask the government in Washington DC for permission to give it to us and to you last week does that not strike you think what's going on here the defendants are charged with being part of a criminal Enterprise led by Norcross which used coercion intimidation and manipulation of of local resources including public officials to illegally take advantage of tax credits and other incentives provided by the state's Economic Development Authority to help the city of Camden the indictment has a lot of words a lot of pages a lot of allegations but one thing it does not have it does not have elements of a crime this is a speaking indictment that's more a press release it doesn't have the respect of an indictment and today was the first step in our journey to get where we know we're going to get to and that's Justice the often loquacious nor cross did not speak to reporters today nor did prosecutors the judge will see the sides against September 10th by which time prosecutors will have to get all the evidence they have to the defense and the defense has to show why the evidence shouldn't be subject to a protective order a slow start to what promises to be a slog and a slugfest I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight News NJ Spotlight News [Music]