A county commissioner seeking to report information about patterns of impropriety in county government has been unable to secure a meeting with Gloucester County Prosecutor Andrew Johns, who doesn’t have time on his calendar until late January, the New Jersey Globe has learned.
This represents an unusual breakdown in communication, as a top elected official is attempting to formally raise concerns about conduct within county government, and the appearance that Johns may be entirely too comfortable with one political party.
Johns’s unwillingness to meet with County Commissioner Chris Konawel, a Republican, anytime soon limits the county’s top law enforcement official’s ability to secure information or enhances his ability to look the other way.
A source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the request for a meeting occurred several weeks ago, but the prosecutor has a packed calendar that includes at least one holiday party this week.
Johns initially scheduled an earlier meeting with Konawel, but it was cancelled and rescheduled for late January after news broke that former Senate President Steve Sweeney would likely become the next county administrator.
A former prosecutor in another county said Johns’s behavior is strange.
“When a whistleblower comes in, or when an elected official – a mayor or a councilman — wants to talk about something they’ve seen or heard, you make the time to meet them,” the former law enforcement official said. “This sounds like the man doesn’t want to hear what the person has to say.”
Republicans appear concerned that, after two decades in the Senate, Sweeney wields considerable influence within a law enforcement agency that is supposed to be nonpartisan.
“Steve has spent decades approving assistant prosecutor hires and getting investigator jobs for his friends,” said a former Sweeney aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
Last week, Westville Municipal Court Judge Thomas North set a January 6 discovery status on the prosecution of Deputy Gloucester County Administrator Michelle Coryell, who is accused of stealing documents from a Konawel aide.
Coryell, who was Sweeney’s former chief of staff, allegedly took a document from a shared printer and walked to an elevator, where surveillance camera footage showed her taking pictures of it with her phone.
“The charges, as alleged, is a theft of a document from a shared work computer. The charges are what they are,” said Coryell’s attorney, Ryan J. Kelly of Brown and Connery. “This is very distressful for her to have these charges looming over her head.”
Coryell is in the process of being moved to a county authority position, the Globe has learned.
But the shared work computer may not be a great defense. Coryell has her own printer in her office. In Gloucester, five Democratic county commissioners have their own printers; the two Republicans, must share one with other county employees.
North said additional videos have been submitted as part of discovery.
The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s office faced criticism in 2022 after a dog trained to investigate arson incidents died under mysterious circumstances while in the custody of Shawn Layton, who was also a Democratic township committeeman in Mantua. Ember was found dead in a county vehicle parked at Layton’s home. Layton had been drinking the night before and left the dog inside the truck; a cooling system designed to protect the dog failed.
Eventually, the state attorney general’s office pulled the case from the county and launched its own probe, but delays hindered the investigation. Layton was later promoted to fire marshal.
Johns declined multiple attempts by the New Jersey Globe to speak with him. His spokesperson said the prosecutor’s policy is not to talk to the media without topics submitted in advance.
He began his legal career as an assistant prosecutor in 2006; he was hired by Cumberland County Prosecutor Ronald Casella, a former Democratic assemblyman from Camden County (Sweeney, then a first-year state senator who represented part of Cumberland, recommended Casella to Gov. James E. McGreevey.)
After five years, Johns moved into the administration of Gov. Chris Christie as a deputy attorney general and was then hired by the South Jersey office of the U.S. Attorney. He was the choice of two Democratic state senators from Gloucester County, Paul Moriarty (D-Washington) and John Burzichelli (D-Paulsboro), as the county prosecutor when Gov. Phil Murphy nominated him earlier this year.
