Friends Say Steele's Mettle Being Tested

Source from:  Sunday, September 9, 2007 By ALEXANDER MacINNES HERALD NEWS  09/10/2007

Assemblyman Alfred E. Steele's ascent as one of Passaic County's political elites started modestly on his parents' tobacco farm in Clarkton, N.C., a rural town where traffic lights are still counted on one hand. Today, Steele -- one of 11 public officials arrested on federal bribery charges Thursday -- is a minister at a successful church in Paterson and who thrived financially as a state legislator and Passaic County undersheriff. He resigned from the Passaic County Sheriff's Department on Thursday and was reported to be ready to resign his Assembly seat on Monday. Last year, he earned nearly $140,000 from his jobs and resides in a $385,000 home, one of two houses he owns with his wife, Carolyn, in Paterson, according to city tax records. Steele was arrested as part of an FBI sting operation on charges that he accepted $14,000 from undercover agents posing as insurance brokers. The federal complaint alleges that Steele took that money in exchange for attempting to use his office and contacts to steer lucrative insurance contracts to a fake company. Though he is successful and influential, residents from his old neighborhood on Keen Street, off East 18th Street, described Steele as a down-to-earth, friendly man who never flaunted his high standing. Paterson Housing Authority records show that Steele became a landlord after he moved his family from that Keen Street house, collecting about $43,000 in federal Section 8 subsidies since 2004. "He always took time to talk to people," said Linda Armstead, a former neighbor and member of Steele's Seminary Baptist Church. "The position he held, he was never affected by it. You know how people get up and they forget people." A Paterson City Council president in the late 1990s, Steele, 53, was tapped by the Passaic County Democratic Committee and was elected in 1995 to the state Assembly, representing the 35th District. In the federal complaint, Steele boasted of his influence over key employees throughout various city agencies, as well as local elected officials. That high-powered deal-making is a far cry from where Steele began his life, according to childhood friends. William Freeman, 66, now lives around the corner from Steele, but grew up in Clarkton and knew the Steele family. The family worked hard on their farm and attended church regularly -- an institution that still anchors the town, population 706. "Make what you could," Freeman said of Steele's upbringing. "All of us were poor; none of us had no money. Had to work hard for what we got." The tobacco farms that once surrounded Clarkton and Bladen County have largely disappeared, said Glen Martin, Bladen County executive manager. Today, the area is home to peanut farms, a cotton gin and a rebounding textile industry. Steele was raised on a good-sized tobacco farm where his parents also grew corn, said Shermetta Neill, who grew up with Alfred and went to school with his wife, Carolyn. Neill said the family mostly lived a comfortable life, growing up in a tight-knit community. In Paterson, residents, including Armstead -- who said she still supports Steele amid the bribery allegations -- described the reverend as a man who retained that small-town warmth. Roberta Peele, who still lives on Keen Street after almost 30 years, said the family was always friendly and open. "They were good people -- are good people," Peele said, correcting herself. Reach Alexander MacInnes at 973-569-7166 or macinnes@northjersey.com. Enditem