Senate President Nicholas Scutari called for an independent monitor to oversee an Attorney General’s Office unit after the latest in a series of alleged missteps. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
Senate President Nicholas Scutari became the latest state lawmaker to call for an independent monitor to oversee the work of a state anti-corruption unit that has routinely seen cases tossed because of alleged prosecutorial missteps.
Scutari’s call comes a week after a Superior Court judge dismissed charges against more than a dozen correctional officers accused of misconduct and other charges brought by the state Attorney General’s Office’s public integrity and accountability office, commonly called the OPIA, over inmate beatings at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility, New Jersey’s lone women’s prison.
“It is clear from the track record of the office that greater oversight and accountability are needed,” said Scutari (D-Union) in a statement. “The credibility of law enforcement is at stake. The public needs to have confidence in the ability of the office to carry out its responsibilities fairly, effectively and with adherence to the law. An independent monitor will help restore trust in the OPIA.”
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Last week, Superior Court Judge Christopher J. Garrenger called the indictments against the correctional officers “unconstitutionally vague” because they did little to differentiate between the actions of each defendant, and cited a laggardly pace that ran afoul of New Jersey’s speedy trial rule.
Garrenger dismissed the charges with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot reraise them at a future date, though the Attorney General’s Office is appealing his decision.
The dismissal was only the latest black eye for the OPIA. In 2022, judges dismissed charges brought by the office against a Lakewood rabbi accused of misappropriating more than $200,000 in school funds and a separate indictment against Saddle Brook Police Chief Robert Kugler, who was accused of providing police escorts to his own funeral home. A Superior Court judge dismissed revived charges against Rabbi Osher Eisemann last year.
In both cases, judges said prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence. Charges against a Paterson officer accused of shooting an unarmed man were dismissed for a similar reason when, 18 months in, prosecutors revealed evidence showed the man had a gun the morning of or the night before the shooting.
Also in 2022, a judge dismissed charges against a separate correctional officer accused of having ties to organized crime after prosecutors said investigators had failed to record an interrogation, as state law and the Attorney General’s Office require.
Racketeering charges against South Jersey powerbroker George Norcross and a bevy of allies — perhaps the OPIA’s most public case — were dismissed in February after a state judge said prosecutors had failed to state the elements of a crime. The office has appealed the dismissal.
The Attorney General’s Office did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Scutari’s call for independent oversight of the state’s anti-corruption unit is notable — he is the state’s highest-ranking legislator — but it wasn’t the first.
At least six state senators belonging to both parties have called for stricter oversight or investigations into the office, as have New Jersey NAACP President Richard Smith and New Jersey AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech.
Sen. Joe Cryan (D-Union), a former Union County sheriff and a vocal critic of the OPIA, has called for an investigation into the office and introduced legislation that would require it to more quickly review misconduct cases.
Then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal created the public integrity and accountability office in 2018 as a response to court decisions that weakened federal bribery and corruption laws and to boost public confidence in police oversight amid rising scrutiny of fatal police shootings.
In addition to corruption cases, the office investigates allegations of civil rights violations by authorities, reviews internal affairs complaints, and evaluates wrongful conviction claims.
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