Newsweek reveals corruption at top echelons of NJ State Police

By Sussex Watchdog

At least two active Democrats have been connected with Black Lives Matter related harassment attempts aimed at Sheriff Mike Strada and his family.  As for the shooter who reportedly fired upwards of ten rounds at the Sheriff’s home (with his family inside), that’s been kept under wraps by both the New Jersey State Police and the Sussex County Prosecutor’s office. 
 
Meanwhile, the weirdness continues…
 
Today, Newsweek magazine (one of the nation’s top magazine titles) ran this “exclusive”:  Top New Jersey State Police Officials Stalled Corruption Probe, Documents Show.
 
The article begins:  In January 2017, Laura Gallagher told New Jersey State Police troopers she was a victim of sexual assault. The detective who interviewed her believed her account and secured a warrant for the suspect. His work on the case won him a commendation. But three-and-a-half years later, Gallagher's alleged assailant is still free.
 
Interviews with state troopers, prosecutorial staff and other individuals involved in the case—all of whom requested anonymity for fear of reprisal—and a review of hundreds of pages of confidential documents appear to show that officials in the highest echelons of the State Police stymied a corruption complaint against the county prosecutor's office that had been lodged by troopers handling Gallagher's case.
 
In a deposition in a related proceeding, Acting State Police Superintendent Patrick J. Callahan, the force's top official, recalled an exchange with the prosecutor's office shortly after the suspect was charged.
 
A transcript of the October 2018 deposition, which was obtained by Newsweek, shows that Callahan intervened in the burgeoning dispute between Sussex County prosecutors and state troopers over whether to pursue Gallagher's claims. During the deposition, Callahan agreed that "we'd look into it."
 
Callahan's involvement damaged morale among the rank and file at Sussex Station, the State Police barracks. Ultimately, the assault case was left unresolved, the troopers grounded and the corruption complaint buried.
 
Internal dissension from several investigators who came to Gallagher's defense resulted in the transfer of six state troopers, a decision that has spawned several lawsuits and a labor grievance against the State Police, all of which are still ongoing.
 
On January 31, 2017, Gallagher identified her alleged assailant as the son of someone well-connected to Morris County government. The New Jersey State Police quickly tracked down this individual and, after an interrogation, determined there was enough probable cause to pursue charges.
 
The day after the suspect was released and officials in the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office refused to bring charges, State Police officers suspicious of the prosecutors’ motives reported their concerns to the Official Corruption Bureau of the New Jersey State Police.
 
The Corruption Bureau formally opened a corruption probe into the actions of the prosecutor's office. Yet, over three years later, that probe is dormant and it appears no investigative work is being done. Officially, the case remains open.
 
Newsweek continues:  What is clear, however, is that in the weeks after the corruption probe was initiated, Callahan, then the deputy superintendent of operations, became closely involved.
 
After a whistleblower complaint was filed, according to depositions, New Jersey State Police Superintendent Patrick J. Callahan intervened in the process and held meetings with those involved.  Meanwhile, the Sussex County Prosecutor’s office had taken over the case.  Newsweek continues:
 
For Gallagher, that meeting with the prosecutor's office still evokes painful memories of her original trauma.
 
"I couldn't believe it," Gallagher told Newsweek. "They told me no one would believe me. That what I said happened was impossible. That it wasn't that bad—he didn't fully rape me. That I needed to take back my accusations. That I had to drop the charges against him."
 
"But I still wouldn't do it," she said. "I left there shaken and ashamed and once again, scared for my safety. I went there for help and I feel I was victimized all over again."
 
After the meeting, during which Gallagher was asked to hand over her phone for data analysis, she returned to Sussex Station, calling "with an overwhelming concern of how two women from the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office attempted to 'coerce' her into dropping the charges against the accused and how she was 'assaulted again' by the two women," New Jersey State Police Detective Darran Crane wrote in a supplemental report obtained by Newsweek.
 
The troopers, until now uncertain as to the reason behind the irregularities surrounding this case, began to suspect that prosecutors were influenced by (the suspect’s) father and his political stature.
 
Crane noted in his report that Gallagher said "she was concerned that the accused was hooked up due to his father being an attorney or having some type of political ties, thus 'getting away with all the crimes he has committed.'"
 
"The behavior of the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office was so abnormal, so outrageous that they could only draw one conclusion—that the prosecutor's motive was potentially corrupt," the State Police official with direct knowledge of the case told Newsweek.
 
The Official Corruption Bureau gathered a great deal of evidence and presented the charge, which was soon shut down.  Newsweek reports that the head of the corruption unit, gave the order, according to a State Police officer with direct knowledge of the situation. 
 
Newsweek reports that State police were told to “Shut it down, this is bigger than all of us!”  The New Jersey State Police did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the allegations when contacted by Newsweek.
 
The Official Corruption Bureau was notified that what was intended to be a corruption probe of the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office would instead be pursued as an internal investigation against the very State Police officers who raised the alarm. According to documents reviewed by Newsweek and sources with direct knowledge of the probe, there was no substantive investigative work done on the corruption case.
 
According to Callahan’s deposition, Chris Porrino, then New Jersey's attorney general, and now an attorney for nursing home owners in Sussex County became involved and advised Callahan that the attorney general's Division of Criminal Justice, not the State Police, had jurisdiction over an investigation into county prosecutors.
 
The State Police officer who relayed the command to quash the corruption probe, was promoted to his current rank of major and is now in charge of the governor's security detail.  The suspect was again arrested in 2019, on a different matter.  As to the victim, Newsweek reports:
 
Gallagher, whose initial ordeal was never brought to court, did appear before a judge in an attempt to obtain a permanent restraining order against (the suspect) in May 2017. The second-highest ranking official at the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office was called to present evidence on (the suspect's) behalf, including text messages the office had previously obtained from Gallagher's phone that could “call into question” her “credibility and character.”
 
The judge ultimately denied Gallagher's request, leaving her, her mother and her legal representation in tears. Today, she still believes there were other forces at play in her odyssey.
 
“I really hope these people are held accountable,” Gallagher said. “They took a horrible event in my life and made it that much worse. They should be ashamed and punished.”

We urge you to read the entire Newsweek article here:
 

https://www.newsweek.com/new-jersey-state-police-callahan-corruption-complaint-1511211

"At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is 'not done' to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was 'not done' to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals."

(George Orwell, aka Eric Blair)

Quoted by Chris Hedges, in his bestseller, “Death of the Liberal Class" (2010).

Republican Assembly Leader takes on cop-killers

The “new” Democrats have gone nuts… they’re sounding more and more like those crazy, Soviet-era, New Age socialists from the 1970’s.  Forget pragmatic “centrists” like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Democrat millennials have embraced their grandparents’ politics… it’s like Jim Jones all over again. 

Remember Rev. Jim Jones?  He was the woke, hip, socialist, New Age, Pro-Green, Pro-Ass, spiritual/political leader so near and dear to the Democrat Party of the 1970’s.  Jones even campaigned with First Lady Rosalynn Carter and was appointed to high office by the liberal Democrat Mayor of San Francisco…

Of course, Jones and his “People’s Temple” ended very badly.  But make no mistake about it, Jim Jones was the original Social Justice Warrior…

We’ve been thinking a lot about this, in light of the so-called “People’s Summit”, a gathering in Washington, DC, that opened with remarks from an officer of the NAACP who led the crowd in a chant that honored a convicted cop-killer.  Now once-upon-a-time, the NAACP was a respected, mainstream civil rights organization, but apparently they’ve gone off the deep end too… or at least one of their officers has.  Here’s the story as it was reported:

As the event began on Monday, there were a series of opening remarks from participants and organizations, and Jamal Watkins of the NAACP led the crowd in a chant.

“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

These possibly familiar words are from convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur (aka Joanne Chesimard). In this famous quote, Shakur is herself referencing Karl Marx, who famously wrote “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”

The event’s organizers and sponsors include Planned Parenthood, the SEIU, the Sierra Club, and CPD Action, part of the Center for Popular Democracy, the community organizing group that effectively replace ACORN.

Former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member Shakur was convicted in the murder of a New Jersey state trooper. She escaped and fled to Cuba where she was granted asylum. In 2013, the FBI under President Barack Obama named Shakur to the Most Wanted Terrorists list, the first woman to ever make the list.

Shakur’s words are often recited at protests, including Black Lives Matter marches and the 2018 “March for Our Lives.”

The Women’s March under the leadership of Linda Sarsour faced controversy in 2017 for celebrating Shakur’s birthday in a tweet.

Eventually the organization was forced to make a statement, saying in a series of tweets that the “Women’s March is a nonviolent movement. We have never and will never use violence to achieve our goals” and that Shakur’s “resistance tactics were different from ours. That does not mean that we do not respect her anti-sexism work.”

Shakur “took a militant approach,” the organization tweeted. “We do not. That does not mean we don’t respect and appreciate her anti-racism work.”

As reported on Matt Rooney’s Save Jersey website, New Jersey State Police Colonel Patrick Callahan stepped up in defense of his murdered compatriot:

“It is an affront to every man and woman who wears the badge that someone would choose to evoke the words of a convicted cop killer and fugitive from justice at a political conference,” said Callahan. “The men and women of the New Jersey State Police will never forget the sacrifice made by Trooper Werner Foerster on May 2, 1973 nor will we forget that the person convicted of his murder remains a fugitive for nearly 40 years. We will remain steadfast, both in the pursuit of Joanne Chesimard and in the preservation of the memory of Trooper Werner Foerster, Badge #2608.”

And Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick launched his own broadside at Democrats who want to make a hero out of a cop-killer:

This year there are a bunch of woke Democrats – all long on emotional rhetoric, with solutions that reek of socialist banality.  All A.O.C. wannabees running for Assembly… like Darcy Draeger and Lisa Bhimani in LD25, Deana Lykins in LD24, Stacey Gunderman and Lisa Mandelblatt in LD21, and Laura Fortgang in LD26.   

Assembly Republicans – led by Jon Bramnick – are standing against their tragic emotional appeals that have failed so horribly in the past.  It is imperative for conservatives to stand with the Republican Leader in this effort.  Jon Bramnick, whose very platform is “reason” – whose watchwords are probity and human decency – must defeat this emotional onslaught from a terrible past. 

Think the People’s Temple can’t happen again?

Think the emotions expressed at the People’s Summit were a fluke? 

The emotion-driven contagion of socialism stalks our nation again.  Rational Americans of all political parties must join together to drive it back into the past, where is should remain as a nightmare remembered. 

Crazy “new” Democrats honor cop-killer at summit

The post-2016 “new” Democrats who got involved in politics after Donald Trump was elected President keep surprising us with just how nuts they really are.  And there is a fey, lack-of-recognition in their own craziness – like a guest who shows up at dinner with a bag of their own excrement… and thinks nothing wrong in doing so. 

On Monday, eight Democrat candidates who are running for President of the United States of America – and countless other Democrat candidates at all levels of government – showed up for a summit in Washington, DC, that opened with remarks from an officer in the NAACP who led them in a chant that honored a convicted cop-killer.  Now once-upon-a-time, the NAACP was a respected, mainstream civil rights organization, but apparently they’ve gone off the deep end too… or at least one of their officers has.  Here’s the story as it was reported:

Top 2020 Democrat candidates are taking the stage this week at the 2019 ‘We The People Summit’ in Washington, DC. As the event began on Monday, there were a series of opening remarks from participants and organizations, and Jamal Watkins of the NAACP led the crowd in a chant. 

“It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win.
We must love each other and support each other.
We have nothing to lose but our chains.” 

These possibly familiar words are from convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur (aka Joanne Chesimard). In this famous quote, Shakur is herself referencing Karl Marx, who famously wrote “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.”

The event’s organizers and sponsors include Planned Parenthood, the SEIU, the Sierra Club, and CPD Action, part of the Center for Popular Democracy, the community organizing group that effectively replace ACORN.

Former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member Shakur was convicted in the murder of a New Jersey state trooper. She escaped and fled to Cuba where she was granted asylum. In 2013, the FBI under President Barack Obama named Shakur to the Most Wanted Terrorists list, the first woman to ever make the list.

Shakur’s words are often recited at protests, including Black Lives Matter marches and the 2018 “March for Our Lives.”

The Women’s March under the leadership of Linda Sarsour faced controversy in 2017 for celebrating Shakur’s birthday in a tweet.

Eventually the organization was forced to make a statement, saying in a series of tweets that the “Women’s March is a nonviolent movement. We have never and will never use violence to achieve our goals” and that Shakur’s “resistance tactics were different from ours. That does not mean that we do not respect her anti-sexism work.”

Shakur “took a militant approach,” the organization tweeted. “We do not. That does not mean we don’t respect and appreciate her anti-racism work.”

The #Resistance continues to quote Shakur’s words, and did so today on the stage at the event where most of the declared 2020 Democrat candidates are speaking, including Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey (where the State Trooper was murdered), former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Governor Jay Inslee (D-WA), and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

Will any of them offer a similar disclaimer?

As reported yesterday on Matt Rooney’s Save Jersey website, New Jersey State Police Colonel Patrick Callahan stepped up in defense of his murdered compatriot:

“It is an affront to every man and woman who wears the badge that someone would chose to evoke the words of a convicted cop killer and fugitive from justice at a political conference,” said Callahan. “The men and women of the New Jersey State Police will never forget the sacrifice made by Trooper Werner Foerster on May 2, 1973 nor will we forget that the person convicted of his murder remains a fugitive for nearly 40 years. We will remain steadfast, both in the pursuit of Joanne Chesimard and in the preservation of the memory of Trooper Werner Foerster, Badge #2608.”

Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick launched his own broadside at the “new” Democrats:

On Saturday, Governor Phil Murphy was up in Sussex County to promote the candidacy of two Democrats who are running for the Assembly, Deana Lykins and Dan S. Smith.  Lykins, is an insurance industry lobbyist, and Smith, the city attorney of Orange (Essex County), was also an officer in the NAACP – just like the “new” Democrat who led the Marxist cop-killer’s chant on Monday. 

We wonder if Mr. Smith has anything to say about this sorry incident???