View Comments A state superior court judge dismissed a bribery charge against ex-assemblyman Jason O’Donnell on Thursday, ruling that New Jersey cannot charge O’Donnell under its bribery statute because he was not a public official at the time of the alleged bribe. The decision by Judge Mitzy Galis-Menendez puts a dent in one of New Jersey’s most high-profile public corruption stings in years, one that led to charges against O’Donnell, then-sitting Jersey City school board president Sudhan Thomas and three others. Galis-Menendez, based in Hudson County, dismissed New Jersey’s argument that O'Donnell's alleged conduct was unambiguously a violation of New Jersey's anti-bribery law. Prosecutors claim O’Donnell, during his 2018 Bayonne mayoral campaign, accepted $10,000 from a tax attorney in exchange for promising he would hire the attorney once elected.