For immediate release:
A judge is giving the state’s Division of Criminal Justice one final chance to argue why an index of records from a hush-hush criminal investigation involving Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno should not be released to a New Jersey Watchdog reporter.
“I frankly don’t see why it should be kept confidential,” said Judge Mary C. Jacobson during a hearing in Mercer County Superior Court. “It’s highly unusual to keep a Vaughn index confidential.”
The 96-page Vaughn index lists 779 pages of documents gathered by DCJ during a probe requested in May 2011 by the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System board of trustees.
One allegation is Guadagno, as Monmouth County sheriff in 2008, made false and misleading statements that enabled her top aide to improperly collect an $85,000 a year pension in addition to his $87,500 salary. The facts were first reported by New Jersey Watchdog in October 2010.
Two months ago, the PFRS board learned the investigation was closed. But DCJ has refused to disclose the result of the Doublegate probe or any details.
“What the state overlooks is that the investigation itself is highly suspect,” argued the reporter’s attorney, Donald M. Doherty Jr., in court briefs. “It smacks of a dirty deal and the use of the investigative exemption to avoid exposing a sordid situation.”
Guadagno is a former deputy director of DCJ. Faced with conflict-of-interest concerns, Gov. Chris Christie did not exercise his constitutional power to appoint an independent investigator or prosecutor for a case involving his second-in-command.
Spokespersons for Christie, Guadagno and DCJ have declined comment on the case.
The full story is now online at http://newjersey.watchdog.org. The direct link is http://newjersey.watchdog.org/2014/04/14/doublegate-secrets-guadagno/.
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