Sopranos Permit Denial Backfired Badly

In 2000, Essex County, New Jersey, executive James Treffinger denied The Sopranos production crew a permit to film the episode “Pine Barrens” at South Mountain Reservation. Treffinger cited the show’s depiction of Italian-Americans as corrupt as his reason, and the crew moved the forest scenes to New York instead. In 2003 he was arrested for corruption. Treffinger pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and mail fraud after admitting that he solicited an illegal $15,000 campaign contribution for a county contract and put two people on the county payroll to work on his Senate campaign. He received a 13-month prison sentence.

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