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).
