Harry L. Sears, 82; N.J. Legislator Delivered Vesco’s Money to Nixon

Harry L. Sears, a former New Jersey legislator who delivered a briefcase containing $200,000 from financier Robert Vesco to President Nixon’s reelection campaign in 1972, has died. He was 82.

Sears died Friday at St. Claire’s Hospital in Denville, N.J. The cause of death was not reported, but relatives said he had been ill for some time.

Sears was elected to the state Assembly in 1962 and served there until 1968, when he won his state Senate seat.

While Senate majority leader in 1970-71, he helped pass legislation to create the Meadowlands sports complex and authorize a state lottery. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor in 1969 and left the Senate in 1972.

Sears ran Nixon’s reelection campaign that year in New Jersey and was indicted on charges of helping Vesco buy his way out of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Vesco was a law client of Sears.

U.S. Atty. Gen. John N. Mitchell and Commerce Secretary Maurice H. Stans were indicted along with Sears. Mitchell and Stans were eventually acquitted.

Sears was granted full immunity in return for testifying for the prosecution. Prosecutors did not get as much help as they sought, however, and tried unsuccessfully to have Sears treated as a hostile witness.

Vesco fled to several countries, and was convicted in a Cuban court in 1996 of fraud. Cuba has refused to extradite Vesco to the United States.

After the Vesco case, Sears was suspended from practicing law for three years. He later became a partner in the law firm of Sears, Sweeney & Marcickiewicz, working there until he retired in 1992.

Born in Butler, N.J., Sears graduated from Tusculum College in Greeneville, Tenn., and Rutgers Law School.

He is survived by his wife; a sister; four daughters; a son; 13 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.