In a stunning rebuke to the embattled New Jersey Office of Public Integrity and Accountability, indictments against fourteen corrections officers accused of forcibly removing inmates from their cells and beating them at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women were dismissed today after the a Superior Court Judge found constitutional deficiencies in the indictment and that delays of over four years violated their right to a speedy trial.
The indictments, handed up in 2022 by a state grand jury, had alleged a conspiracy among officers to carry out punitive and unlawful cell extractions in Hunterdon County’s Union Township facility. Prosecutors claimed that the officers planned in advance to use force against targeted inmates regardless of whether they resisted, and in multiple instances failed even to provide inmates an opportunity to comply with orders. In several cases, investigators said, inmates who had already submitted to handcuffing were still dragged out, beaten, and left with severe injuries.
Judge Christopher Garrenger found the official misconduct charges were “unconstitutionally vague,” alleging seventeen different possible duty violations without specifying which defendants violated which duties. He said the “kitchen sink” approach denied the defendants fair notice and the ability to prepare a defense.
“The indictment’s approach of cataloging multiple potential legal violations without connecting them to specific defendant conduct forces defendants to prepare defenses against every conceivable theory rather than the specific charges found by the grand jury,” said Garrenger. “This violates the fundamental principle that an indictment must provide defendants with fair notice of the accusations against them.”
The details contained in the indictment painted a picture of coordinated brutality. One victim, allegedly with no provocation, was punched nearly thirty times by an officer while restrained by a five-person team. She suffered a concussion, headaches, and nausea, and required hospitalization. Another inmate, who had complied with handcuff orders, was left with her right eye swollen shut, her skull fractured around the eye socket, and boot marks across her body.
Both cases were cited as evidence that the extractions were not about maintaining order, but about punishment and intimidation.
Garrenger also found the state delayed the case for more than four years without justifying long gaps, including twenty months before the first indictment and additional delays caused by the State’s failure to resolve severance and discovery issues.
“The delay in this case far exceeds the threshold that triggers a presumption of prejudice. Over four years have passed since the initial arrests,’ Garrenger stated in his decision. “The cumulative impact of vague charges, deficient instructions, and extraordinary delay renders continued prosecution fundamentally unfair. The only remedy is dismissal.”
The original allegations led Gov. Phil Murphy to announce in 2021 that the Edna Mahan facility would close. That incident led to the resignation of Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks and to Murphy’s promise to close the facility.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a scathing report citing a history of sexual misconduct by prison guards.
