Middlesex prosecutors accused of retaliating against New Brunswick reporter
NEWBRUNSWICK >> The editor of a New Brunswick alternative publication has accused the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office of being “un-American” for its response to a story critical of how it has handled the criminal case of an emergency dispatcher who was arrested in a massive drug and weapon raid in 2013.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office has responded – or rather not responded – similarly to questions raised by
about whether one of its prosecutors, Cindy Glaser, was involved in a conspiracy to convict a Spotswood couple who helped get the Helmetta Regional Animal Shelter shuttered in 2014.
The Middlesex prosecutor office’s uneven-handed treatment of dissenting news outlets shows it does not believe it needs to answer to the public, said Charlie Kratovil, the editor of New Brunswick Today. He said it is symptomatic of pockets of petulance in Middlesex that define the way Helmetta’s former mayor, Nancy Martin, allegedly dealt with detractors.
“They seem to play favorites and withhold information from reporters,” said Kratovil, a Rutgers University alum. “It’s one thing to not answer a question. It’s another to play game with the press releases. It’s shameful.”
Kratovil said in a phone interview that after he wrote a story in February about getting the run around over who was prosecuting former county sheriff dispatcher Scott Campion, he and his reporters were removed from the list of news outlets that receive emailed releases from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
Kratovil’s efforts to get his outlet back on the list have failed. Middlesex did not respond to Kratovil’s or
inquiries. It is the second time in the last two years the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Andrew Carey, has taken such silencing measures against the monthly bilingual publication, which has a heavy online following of more than 150,000 for its flair for hyperlocal watchdog reporting.
Both times the county prosecutor’s office removed the publication from its email list, Kratovil said, after it didn’t like New Brunswick Today’s coverage.
The first time was in 2014, when Kratovil said he took pains to point out how prosecutors “took their sweet time” issuing a news release about the murder of 53-year-old Anastacio Hernandez. Middlesex did not send out a news release identifying the victim or providing details about the murder until three days after New Brunswick Today first reported on it, Kratovil said.
When the office got around to putting out a news release, it erroneously reported the date of the murder. Kratovil noted the mistake in his story.
A few days later, he noticed he was no longer receiving emailed news releases from the Middlesex prosecutor’s public information officer, James O’Neill. The publication was only re-added to the list after Kratovil spoke with Carey following a freeholder’s meeting.
No one has ever explained why New Brunswick Today was mysteriously taken off the media email list in 2014 or again this year.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office has also stonewalled
which reached out to O’Neill multiples times in recent weeks after Glaser’s name surfaced in emails allegedly sent by Martin, who was mayor in Helmetta for 12 years.
The emails were attached to a lawsuit the Wronkos filed against Martin and the borough, accusing them of running a puppy-flipping mill that employed the former mayor’s son and associates, Richard and Michal Cielesz.
The lawsuit also said the borough’s police department harassed and retaliated against the couple because they organized protests and advocated for the closing of the animal shelter following outcry over the animals’ living conditions.
All of this was captured by an email Martin allegedly sent to former police director Robert Manney in November 2014. In it, she allegedly discussed how she would use her political muscle to influence North Brunswick municipal judges Christine Heitmann and William Feingold, as well as Glaser, so none of the charges against Steve and Collene Wronko were “thrown out.”
The Wronkos have filed an ethics complaint against the judges.
A state lawmaker, a former borough councilwoman and a leading public records guru have called for an investigation into Martin.
The New Jersey State Bar Association is holding hearings about the independence of the state’s municipal courts. The bar association told it is concerned municipal judges are being appointed or reappointed based on how much money they help generate through the court system for cash-strapped municipalities.
emailed O’Neill on Monday to see if he would comment on Kratovil’s allegations. Predictably, he did not respond.
Kratovil said county prosecutors appear to have ripped a page from Martin’s retaliatory playbook with their treatment of certain reporters.
The Wronkos said they have been targeted by politicians, police, prosecutors and judges.
They said they received 14 court summonses since 2014, including one that arrived in the mail a few weeks after Martin allegedly instructed Manney to have his officers write summonses to protestors even if they had to “stretch the law.” The Wronkos also alleged that the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office has a conflict of interest in the animal shelter case.
Richard and Michal Cielesz, the couple who formerly oversaw Helmetta’s animal shelter, were charged with felony animal cruelty in 2014 after the shelter was raided, quarantined and shut down. Middlesex prosecutors dropped the felony charges and sent the Cieleszs’ cases down to municipal court where less serious matters are handled.
The Wronkos said in their lawsuit that Glaser was listed as a personal reference on Richard Cielesz’s employment application with Helmetta, which has cast a pall on prosecutors’ impartiality in handling the Cieleszs’ cases.
had to reach out to a state judiciary spokeswoman to try to get information about the status of the Cieleszs’ cases after not hearing back from Middlesex.
Investigative reporter Walt Kane from New Jersey News 12 was also shunned by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’sOffice when he ran a story last year detailing Glaser’s apparent conflict of interest.