Court and Prosecutorial oversight lacking and hidden

In the Long Branch Tires Matter the prosecutor is given a full report and can only conclude that no police officer committed a crime against the complainant. When complainant attempted to report the municipal judge to the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, the mailing was returned and had been opened. Though the address posted on AOC’s website was used, it said “insufficient address“ “return to sender.”

In the theft of a $5,000 contractor deposit, (see “Governor fails to respond”), the prosecutor maintains that since some work was done, this cannot be theft, despite caselaw showing that receipt of the deposit itself under false pretenses is enough to convict. This represents bad public policy and sends the wrong signal since a contractor can just do 5 minutes of work in order to evade criminal prosecution. As it was felt this was mishandled, on March 10, 2009, correspondence was forwarded to the Director of the Div. of Criminal Justice for referral to the Prosecutor Supervision and Coordination Bureau with oversight over county prosecutors. Except for a letter of March 24, 2009 from the records dept. affirming receipt of documents, nothing was ever heard and no one could be reached and it is doubtful whether the Prosecutor Supervision and Coordination Bureau even exists.

A letter of complaint regarding the matter with judge Perri was send Sept. 23 2008 to the Administrator of the Courts Acting Director. The letter pointed out the aforementioned refusal to apply laws, the courts advocating for the contractor and the filing and documents irregularities and who may be interfering in the matter. Update documents were sent on 2 other occasions. The committee met in darkness, found no judicial misconduct and did not say what documents and evidence it considered in its decision. The committee has no mandate or authority to directly remove judges who purposefully refuse to enforce and apply the laws and does not consider this judicial misconduct. Its mission is advisory in nature and any citizens are political appointments having warm ties to the government. FairtrialNJ believes in true citizen review panels with educated elected citizens with support and advisement from law professors and nonpartisan retired judges (if they exist). This committee will have the power to refer judges for elections, when it finds judges were biased or purposefully refused to enforce and apply the laws. This keeps the system honest and removes the politics and influence of powerful law firms, corrupt lawyer-legislators and party bosses and cuts down on the ever expanding Appellate Division, thus saving taxpayer dollars