2010 Annual Report

NEW JERSEY OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

DEPARTMENT

OF

LAW

AND

PUBLIC

SAFETY

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

Table of Contents

Executive Staff
Paula T. Dow, Attorney General
Phillip H. Kwon, First Assistant Attorney General
Marc-Philip Ferzan, Executive Assistant Attorney General
Carolyn A. Murray, Counsel to the Attorney General
Deborah R. Edwards, AAG, Chief of Staff
Howard J. McCoach, Administrator

Division of Law ...................................... 14

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Division of New Jersey State Police ......... 18

Division of Criminal Justice – Stephen J. Taylor, Director

Message from the Attorney General ......... 2
Division of Criminal Justice ..................... 6

Division of Consumer Affairs ................ 24

Division of Law – Robert M. Hanna, AAG, Director
Division of New Jersey State Police – Colonel Joseph R. Fuentes, Superintendent

Division on Civil Rights ........................ 28

Division of Consumer Affairs – Thomas R. Calcagni, Acting Director

Division of Highway Traffic Safety .......... 34

Division of Highway Traffic Safety – Gary Poedubicky, Acting Director

Division of Gaming Enforcement ........... 38

Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control – Jerry Fischer, Director

Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control ... 40
Juvenile Justice Commission .................. 44

Division on Civil Rights – Chinh Q. Le, Director
Division of Gaming Enforcement – Josh Lichtblau, Director
Juvenile Justice Commission – Veleria N. Lawson, Executive Director
New Jersey Racing Commission – Frank Zanzuccki, Executive Director
State Athletic Control Board – Aaron M. Davis, Commissioner
Victims of Crime Compensation Office – Marsetta Lee, Director

New Jersey Racing Commission ............. 48
State Athletic Control Board .................. 50
Victims of Crime Compensation Office .... 52

www.nj.gov/oag

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Message from the Attorney General
Dear Governor Christie, members of the State Legislature and citizens of New Jersey:

Lawyers assigned to our Division of Law obtained more than $195 million for the State in recoveries and judgments in
2010 – a 31 percent increase over the prior year. Included were $81 million from environmental litigation and $39 million
from litigation related to securities fraud, consumer fraud and insurance fraud.

The year 2010 was one of accomplishment, challenge and change as the Department of Law and Public Safety pursued
its core mission of protecting New Jersey residents, ensuring integrity in government and defending state statutes while
managing with austerity in the face of tough economic times.

In April 2010, the Attorney General’s Office announced a revised AMBER Alert policy designed to provide law enforcement officials with clear criteria in determining when they should activate the emergency broadcast system to seek public
assistance in finding a child who has been abducted. This change came following the tragic death of an infant girl who was
allegedly kidnapped by her biological father in East Orange. We believe our AMBER Alert reforms will better protect children
in New Jersey. However, given the time line established through our investigation of the East Orange case, we do not believe
the changes would have averted tragedy in that unfortunate situation.

Department-wide, we engaged in a thorough self-examination designed to eliminate waste and reduce costs without
compromising effectiveness.
At the same time, we successfully prosecuted public corruption, violent street gang activity and other crime, protected
consumers, combated bullying in schools, issued policy reforms that strengthened public safety, helped reduce traffic
fatalities and brought hundreds of millions of dollars into state coffers through civil litigation.
On the public corruption front, the Division of Criminal Justice obtained guilty pleas from 60 defendants in 2010 and secured prison sentences against a number of high-profile public office-holders, including two former State Assemblymen.
In the continuing fight against street gangs and violence, the Division secured prison sentences against 128 defendants
and obtained three indictments charging various members and leaders of “Bloods” gang factions with crimes.
The Division also fought traditional “mob-style” organized crime in 2010, obtaining an indictment against two ruling
members of the New-York-based Lucchese crime family -- as well as 32 other members and associates -- on charges of
racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering related to an international sports gambling enterprise. The same indictment charged a former state corrections officer and a ranking member of the Bloods with cooperating with Lucchese
crime family members to smuggle drugs and pre-paid cell phones into East Jersey State Prison.
The year provided an encouraging sign in terms of traffic safety, as the number of crash-related deaths reported to the
State Police Accident Investigation Unit – 556 – was the lowest number of fatalities reported since 1948. Although highway fatality data can be informed by many variables, it is also true that the Division of Highway Traffic Safety and the New
Jersey State Police were vigorous in carrying out driver safety, passenger safety and pedestrian safety awareness/enforcement efforts in 2010.

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In October, we announced a revised policy governing the use of stun guns by law enforcement officers in New Jersey.
The revised policy replaces an existing policy, implemented in 2009, that was viewed by some as overly restrictive and
unclear in terms of which officers could carry stun guns, and when they could use them. The new policy still restricts use
of stun guns, for the most part, to situations in which an officer seeks to prevent a suspect from causing death or serious
bodily injury. And it still dictates that stun guns may not be used against a person who is offering only passive resistance
to police commands. However, the new policy does away with restrictions in the prior policy that – as a practical matter
– would often have prevented police officers from using stun guns during swiftly unfolding crises.
Among many other actions in 2010, the Department also:
■ Targeted officials and vendors who corrupted the public contracting process or stole funds, including a Department
of Corrections administrator sentenced to seven years in prison for taking kickbacks on more than $1 million in contracts
he steered to friends, and a senior engineer for the Department of Transportation who allegedly took part in a scheme to
steal $700,000 in rail project grant funds.
■ Secured multiple indictments charging gun traffickers – including the alleged leader of a network that trafficked guns
from Virginia to street gangs in Trenton – as a result of a historic partnership with the State Police and the U.S. Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives focused on crime guns and those trafficking firearms in New Jersey.
■ Adopted aggressive policies to move criminal cases quickly to indictment and/or guilty pleas, including an escalating plea policy requiring defendants to plead guilty to an initial, strictly-capped offer by an early deadline or face greatly
enhanced penalties for any later plea.

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2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General
■ Filed and prosecuted cases charging voter fraud in Atlantic City, Essex County and Paterson.
■ Took legal action, via our Division on Civil Rights, to hold schools accountable for preventing student-on-student bullying, and for dealing effectively with the problem when it is reported. Among other actions, Findings of Probable Cause
were issued against two public school districts – Old Bridge and Emerson – accused of failing to protect students who
had been bullied and harassed for years because of their perceived sexual orientation.
■ Protected consumers, through our Division of Consumer Affairs, by proactively finding unregistered home improvement contractors and unlicensed moving companies. State investigators conducted undercover stings, including the use
of a vacant Morris County house in need of repairs, and cited eight contractors and 34 moving companies for operating
without being registered or licensed by the state.
■ Continued to aggressively combat underage drinking. The Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control carried out undercover operations, including Cops in Shops, resulting in the arrest of hundreds of people for underage drinking, attempting to procure alcohol for minors, etc..
■ Prosecuted more than a dozen men for crimes against children, including possessing or distributing child pornography, sending obscene materials to a child and sexual assault. In one notable case, a pediatric neurologist was permanently
barred from practicing medicine for possessing child pornography.
■ Obtained the first indictment under New Jersey’s new Gang Criminality Statute, and secured additional, lengthy prison
sentences against the top leader of the “Nine Trey Gangsters” set of the Bloods, David “Duke” Allen, and the leader of
the “Nine Trey Headbustas” set, Michael Anderson, who were running their gangs from New Jersey State Prison.
■ Implemented a statewide Summer Warrant SWEEP initiative resulting in the arrest of more than 1,100 high-risk parole
and probation absconders, as well as other fugitives during the months of July and August, when violent and property
crimes tend to peak.
■ Spearheaded the Fugitive Safe Surrender program in Central New Jersey. The four-day initiative resulted in approximately
4,000 fugitives surrendering, voluntarily, to authorities on outstanding warrants for predominantly non-violent crimes.

■ Protected the integrity of New Jersey’s thoroughbred and harness horse racing industries through the efforts of the
Racing Commission. Working in concert with the State Police Forensic Laboratory, the Commission oversaw the testing of
more than 39,000 equine urine samples in 2010 to ensure that race horses had not been given illegal substances – including steroids. Such testing resulted in the identification of 31 “positives” for prohibited substances.
■ Continued, through the efforts of the Division of Gaming Enforcement – often in cooperation with State Police and
the Division of Criminal Justice – to identify, investigate and prosecute gaming cheats and otherwise ensure the integrity
of New Jersey’s casino gaming industry
■ Saved public dollars through implementation of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI), a collaborative
effort involving the Juvenile Justice Commission, the state Judiciary and other stakeholders. In 2010, JDAI reduced the
number of young offenders being held, unnecessarily, in secure county detention facilities while maintaining public safety.
As a result, detention center populations were reduced, leading to a reduction in the number of youths ultimately committed to state custody – typically the costliest disposition.
Staffed by approximately 8,200 employees, the Department of Law and Public Safety has a unique role as both New
Jersey’s lead law enforcement agency and its chief provider of legal representation to state government.
Each day, our mission touches the lives of millions of people who reside, work, travel and do business in New Jersey.
And each day, we achieve results that make a genuine difference.
Looking forward, we remain committed to working both on our own, and in cooperation with agencies at every level, to
combat public corruption, significantly reduce violent crime, protect the state’s environmental, economic and other assets, and improve the quality of life for all New Jersey citizens.

Paula T. Dow
Attorney General

■ Provided, via our State Police Emergency Management Office, emergency assistance to thousands of residents and
motorists during four federally-declared natural disasters. During the December 2010 blizzard, State Troopers handled
1,077 accidents and provided emergency assistance to an additional 2,889 motorists.

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2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

Division of Criminal Justice
New Jersey’s unified, integrated system of law enforcement is
unique in the nation. The Criminal Justice Act of 1970 designated
the Attorney General as the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the
State. The Division of Criminal Justice, on behalf of the Attorney
General, is charged with responsibility to enforce the criminal laws
of the State and serve a variety of functions pertaining to the administration of criminal justice. In addition to its direct law enforcement operations, it provides oversight and coordination within New
Jersey’s law enforcement community. It is the goal of the Division to
help coordinate law enforcement efforts and resources at all levels
– state, county and municipal – to ensure the safety and security of
all New Jersey residents. For more information about the Division
go to www.nj.gov/oag/dcj.

gun traffickers. It also fought traditional organized crime, obtaining
an indictment charging leaders of the Lucchese crime family, and
joining forces with the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor
to make arrests in a scheme to extort money from dock workers.
The Major Crimes Bureau secured convictions and prison sentences
for individuals responsible for more than $16 million in financial
fraud, including investment fraud, mortgage fraud, embezzlement
and identity theft. In addition, the Division of Criminal Justice
aggressively targeted Medicaid fraud through the Office of the
Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, obtaining guilty pleas in several major
investigations involving licensed professionals. OIFP obtained $19
million for New Jersey through national Medicaid fraud settlements
with pharmaceutical and other companies.

Targeting Public Corruption, Financial
Crimes and Gangs

Prosecuting Public Corruption

The Division of Criminal Justice made prosecuting public corruption, financial fraud, criminal street gangs and organized crime top
priorities, charging more than 1,000 new defendants in 2010, while
obtaining convictions in high-profile cases. They adopted aggressive policies to move criminal cases quickly to indictment and/or
rigorous guilty pleas, including an escalating plea policy requiring defendants to plead guilty to an initial strictly capped offer by
an early deadline or face greatly enhanced penalties for any later
plea. The Corruption Bureau took guilty pleas from 60 defendants,
securing prison sentences for prominent public office holders,
including two State Assemblymen. The Gangs & Organized Crime
Bureau secured sentences that put 128 defendants in state prison in
2010. It aggressively targeted violent street gangs, obtaining three
indictments charging the leaders and numerous members of Bloods
factions throughout New Jersey and securing indictments charging

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The Corruption Bureau convicted three State Assemblymen in 2010.
Former Assemblyman/Perth Amboy Mayor Joseph Vas faces eight
years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he received
$25,000 in free home improvements from a city vendor; had a vendor
pay, and secretly charge the city for, a $58,000 catering bill; illegally
funneled money into his congressional campaign via straw donors;
rigged a public housing lottery; and used $5,000 in city funds for
personal expenses. Former Assemblyman Neil Cohen was sentenced
to five years in prison for viewing and printing child pornography
using a computer in his district office, and Assemblyman Anthony
Chiappone forfeited his seat after pleading guilty to filing false reports with the Election Law Enforcement Commission. Other notable
defendants included former Jersey City Municipal Court Administrator Virginia Pagan, who was sentenced to three years in prison for

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Division of
Criminal Justice

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

dismissing 215 parking tickets she and her daughter received, and
former Irvington Mayor Michael Steele, who was sentenced to seven
years in prison for taking kickbacks from contractors as business
administrator for the Irvington Schools.
The Corruption Bureau filed and resolved cases charging government
officials and vendors who corrupted the public contracting process
and stole millions of dollars. In September, it charged New Jersey
Department of Transportation Senior Engineer Gaudner Metellus
and an accomplice in a scheme in which Metellus allegedly asked for
more than $325,000 in bribes from a railroad company, proposing
that the company inflate the cost of a Roseland railroad bridge project from $700,000 to $1.4 million and submit false invoices to the

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state for rehabilitation work that would never be performed. In July,
the Corruption Bureau indicted Maryland insurance broker Francis
Gartland for conspiring with others to steal over $2.5 million from
the Perth Amboy Board of Education. In June, Gartland and others
were charged with stealing $216,000 from the City of Perth Amboy.
Also in June, former NJ Department of Corrections Assistant Director
of Operations Gerald Kennedy was sentenced to seven years in prison
for taking $80,000 in kickbacks on over $1 million in DOC contracts
he steered to friends, and former DOC construction management
specialist Frederick Armstrong was sentenced to three years for bid
rigging. In December, Anna Taliaferro, a coordinator of the Parent
Resource Center in the Paterson Schools, was charged with stealing
over $100,000 by hiring her own company and fraudulently overbilling the district. In addition, former New Jersey City University office
manager Shaunette P. Ruffin-Moody was indicted with her husband,
Alex A. Moody, for stealing $485,000 in student funds.

The Corruption Bureau pursued voter fraud cases in Atlantic City,
Essex County and Paterson. In Atlantic City, trial began late in the
year for Councilman Marty Small and five co-defendants on charges
they systematically conspired in various fraudulent messenger ballot
schemes in the 2009 Democratic primary election for mayor. In Essex
County, the Bureau continued its prosecution of defendants, including Essex County Freeholder Samuel Gonzalez, who were indicted for
election fraud in connection with absentee ballots they collected and
submitted as campaign workers in the 2007 campaign of Gonzalez’
wife, State Senator Teresa Ruiz. In that case, a data processor for the
county superintendent of elections faces prison after pleading guilty in
March to absentee ballot fraud. In Paterson, 12 people were charged
with voter fraud and tampering with public records for alleged fraud
involving mail-in ballots in the May 2010 Paterson Council-At-Large
election. Candidate Rigo Rodriguez, his wife and an aide were charged
in December with witness tampering in that investigation.

The Corruption Bureau also prosecuted officials and beneficiaries
who defrauded public assistance programs. Two local administrators
for the NJ Home Energy Assistance (HEA) Program, Nicole Victor
and Constance Campbell, were each sentenced to five years in prison
in 2010 for filing fraudulent applications to steal thousands of dollars
in federal and state funds. Two other local HEA administrators were
indicted. One of them, Denise Nicole Johnson, has pleaded guilty
and faces four years in prison. The former owner of an East Orange
supermarket, Elvis Manuel Sanchez-Vazquez, pleaded guilty in September in an ongoing investigation into a million-dollar fraud involving the federally funded Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition
program in Newark. He faces 10 years in prison after pleading guilty
to first-degree money laundering for knowingly purchasing false WIC
vouchers to collect more than $500,000 from the program. In February, former Department of Community Affairs senior field representative
Robin Wheeler-Hicks was sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing
$831,000 from the Homelessness Prevention Program.

Combating Gangs & Organized Crime
In April, the Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau obtained an indictment
charging 22 members and associates of the violent Nine Trey Hillside
Beehive set of the Bloods with first-degree gang criminality. Five leaders
of the Paterson-based set were also charged with first-degree promoting
organized street crime. It marked the first time that the Attorney General’s Office obtained an indictment using those two new anti-gang laws,
which punish the commission of crimes in connection with gang activity
more harshly. The indictment stemmed from a joint investigation by the
State Police, Division of Criminal Justice, Department of Corrections,
Paterson Police Department, Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office and
Passaic County Sheriff’s Department.
In May, the Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau secured indictments
charging nine defendants in connection with illegal gun trafficking.
Those indictments were obtained as a result of a historic partnership
with the State Police and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms

& Explosives to trace crime guns and investigate illicit gun trafficking
in New Jersey. One indictment charged a Trenton man, Trayle Beasley,
with leading a network that trafficked guns from the Eastern Shore of
Virginia to Trenton, where they were allegedly sold to gang members
and other criminals.
In July, the Bureau indicted 14 Trenton residents on first-degree
racketeering charges as members of the Gangster Killer Bloods street
gang as a result of “Operation Capital City,” a joint investigation with
the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, Trenton Police and State Police. The indictment charges alleged area gang leader Bernard Green
with three murders, including the August 2005 murder of Sharee
Voorhees, 22, who was caught in gunfire while on her porch. The
acts of violence charged in the indictment occurred in 2005, when

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Division of
Criminal Justice

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General
violence erupted between the Gangster Killer Bloods and two rival
Bloods sets, the Nine Trey Gangsters and Sex Money Murder.
The Bureau secured additional lengthy prison sentences for the top
leader of the Nine Trey Gangsters set of the Bloods, David “Duke”
Allen, and the leader of the Nine Trey Headbustas, Michael Anderson, who pleaded guilty to leading their gangs from New Jersey State
Prison. Allen was sentenced to seven years in prison in August, and
Anderson faces a 20-year sentence as a result of his plea in November. In February, two top deputies of Allen were sentenced to 23
years and 10 years in prison, and three of Anderson’s top deputies
face 10 to 15 years in prison as a result of guilty pleas.

In November, the Bureau obtained an indictment charging Anderson
and 18 other alleged members of the Nine Trey Headbustas set of
the Bloods street gang with first-degree racketeering as a result of
“Operation Hardhat,” a joint investigation with the Department of
Corrections, State Police, Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, New
Brunswick Police Department and other law enforcement agencies.
vIn efforts targeting traditional organized crime, the Bureau obtained
an indictment in May against two ruling members of the New Yorkbased Lucchese crime family and 32 other members and associates,
including alleged current and former top New Jersey capos Ralph V.
Perna and Nicodemo Scarfo Jr. on first-degree charges of racketeering,
conspiracy and money laundering. In April, the Division of Criminal
Justice and the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor announced
the arrests of a top official of the International Longshoremen’s Association, Nunzio LaGrasso, and three current or former ILA members
on charges that they extorted money from dock workers by demanding “tribute” for better jobs and pay, or engaged in loansharking.
In other organized crime cases, the Bureau, in a joint investigation
with the State Police, Monroe Police (Middlesex County) and numerous other agencies, indicted three members of an alleged multi-national drug syndicate who grew a $10 million crop of marijuana in
five rented houses. In May, the Bureau secured an 18-year prison
sentence for Allen “Prince” Brown, who ran a major human trafficking
and prostitution ring. The conviction resulted from “Operation Red
Light,” a joint investigation with the Jersey City Police Department.
The Division of Criminal Justice partnered with the Department of
Corrections in September to indict correction officer Luis S. Roman
and 34 others for allegedly smuggling cell phones and narcotics into
Northern State Prison.

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Targeting Major Crimes
In 2010, the Division’s Major Crimes Bureau prosecuted major
mortgage fraud cases. It secured a 12-year prison sentence for Ronald
P. Mas, a mortgage broker and title agency owner who stole $3.8
million in loan proceeds which he used to play the stock market.
In November, Martin Gendel and his son, Seth Gendel, owners of
Casey Properties, LLC, pleaded guilty to stealing $4.5 million from
mortgage lenders by providing false information on loan applications. Martin Gendel faces five to 10 years in prison. The Bureau
also obtained guilty pleas from Yi Feng Reid and Yu Chen, who were
involved in the mortgage and small business loan industry. They stole
over $1 million by fraudulently using the identities of others to obtain
mortgages, loans and credit cards. Chen was sentenced to five years
in prison, and Reid, to three years. Both entered into consent judgments to pay the entire amount of the theft.
The Major Crimes Bureau worked with the Bureau of Securities to
prosecute large securities fraud cases in 2010. Samuel Serritella
pleaded guilty to securities fraud in October for selling unregistered
shares of stock in his startup horseshoe manufacturing company to
hundreds of investors and misappropriating $1.7 million. Seritella was
sentenced to nine years in prison and must pay full restitution. Zina
Martin, president of Kairos Financial Corporation, was sentenced
in November to 10 years in prison for defrauding 30 investors of
$925,000 by selling shares in fictitious investment vehicles called the
“Kairos Funds.” She also must pay full restitution.
The Bureau secured a six-year prison sentence in August for Michael
Fava in a major money laundering case. Fava and other defendants
set up a company, Packed Fresh Produce, to defraud creditors in the
produce industry of $2 million. The defendants bought and shipped
large quantities of produce with the intention that they would file for
bankruptcy without paying their creditors, suppliers or shippers. In a

high-profile case investigated by the State Police Cyber Crimes Unit
and prosecuted by the Major Crimes Bureau, Daniel Goncalves pleaded
guilty in December to stealing a company’s Internet domain name, “P2P.
com,” and selling it over eBay for over $110,000 to an unsuspecting
buyer, an NBA basketball player. It was the first known conviction for a
domain name theft. Goncalves faces five years in prison.
The Division of Criminal Justice and its Major Crimes Bureau prosecuted other types of crime, including murder, child pornography and
environmental crimes. The Bureau prosecuted over a dozen men for
crimes against children, including possessing or distributing child pornography, sending obscene materials to a child, or sexual assault. In one
notable case, a pediatric neurologist, Ross Finesmith, was permanently
barred from practicing medicine for possessing child pornography.
The Major Crimes Bureau prosecuted Mark Magee, who pleaded
guilty to murder for shooting shift manager Raymond Kot at the Taj
Mahal on May 27, 2009. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison
without possibility of parole. Nasir Salaam pleaded guilty to felony
murder and was sentenced in October to 40 years in prison, including 30 years of parole ineligibility, for his role in a robbery in March
2007 in which Makhan Singh was fatally shot at his gas station and
mini-mart on the White Horse Pike in Atlantic City. In August, the
Bureau obtained an indictment charging Shamsiddin Abdur-Raheem
with murdering his infant daughter, whom he allegedly dropped
from the Driscoll Bridge on the Garden State Parkway in February
2010. Former NBA basketball player Jayson Williams pleaded guilty
to aggravated assault and was sentenced in February to five years in
prison, including 18 months of parole ineligibility, in the shooting
death of limousine driver Costas “Gus” Christofi in 2002.
In environmental prosecutions, Thomas McFarland, a dentist, pleaded guilty to unlawful discharge of water pollutants for taking a boat
into Townsend Inlet and dumping a bag of medical waste, including
260 dental-type needles, which washed up on the beach in Avalon

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Division of
Criminal Justice

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

in August 2008. He was ordered to pay $100,000 to the Borough of
Avalon and serve four years of probation. RD Secaucus, the owner
of the Crowne Plaza Secaucus Hotel, pleaded guilty to discharging
waste water contaminated with sewage into the Hackensack River. The
defendant was ordered to pay $75,000 to Hackensack Riverkeeper
to be used for river patrol and monitoring. The owner must retain a
consultant to monitor the hotel’s handling of wastewater.

Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
The Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor (OIFP) filed 118 new
cases involving 140 defendants, including noteworthy cases against
licensed professionals who defrauded the Medicaid program, private
insurers or clients. In Operation MedScam, the OIFP Medicaid Fraud

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Control Unit and Jersey City Police uncovered a criminal network
in which purported patients obtained fraudulent narcotic prescriptions from doctors and had them filled by cooperating pharmacists.
The narcotics were sold illegally by street-level dealers throughout
Hudson, Bergen, Ocean, Morris and Monmouth counties. In July,
Dr. Magdy Elamir, a licensed neurologist, was indicted on charges
he conspired to submit fraudulent claims to the Medicaid program
as part of the scheme. Pharmacist Kamal Moorjani was sentenced
to three years in prison in October, and pharmacist Babak Bamdad
was sentenced to jail in August. In addition, two ringleaders and 28
street-level drug dealers pleaded guilty and/or were sentenced. In
another case, East Orange pharmacy owner Herbert Brandt and his
son, Douglas, were each sentenced in May to three years in prison
for defrauding Medicaid of more than $700,000 by paying Medicaid
beneficiaries cash for their AIDS/HIV and other expensive prescriptions, then billing Medicaid without dispensing the drugs. They were
convicted in Operation PharmScam, an investigation by the OIFP
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Jersey City Police and U.S. Food and
Drug Administration which resulted in convictions of over a dozen
defendants, including a clinic owner, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and beneficiaries involved in the fraudulent scheme.
OIFP took a guilty plea in August from Larry Berman, a licensed dentist who fraudulently billed Medicaid $85,000 for services that were
not provided or were not medically necessary for residents of nursing
and assisted living facilities. He faces up to a year in jail. A year-long
initiative to uncover fraudulent billing by dentists led to guilty pleas
from Berman and five other dentists employed by New Jersey Mobile
Dental Practice, P.A., of Colts Neck, which provides care in nursing
homes: Joshua Prensky, Christopher Lillo, Anna Pavda-German, Marc
Wertheim and Subina Anand.
In August, OIFP indicted licensed insurance agent Daniel Trolaro for
allegedly stealing $1.9 million from nine clients, which he was supposed to invest. Olasehmdeme Arowosaye, owner of Be Kind Health

Care Services, pleaded guilty to fraudulently billing Medicaid over
$800,000 for personal care assistance services that were never provided. He faces three years in prison. In June, OIFP secured a threeyear prison sentence for insurance agent Pape Seck, who fraudulently
tried to obtain a $7 million life insurance policy in the name of his
father from two insurance companies.

Other Initiatives
Enhanced policies were established in 2010 to give police guidance
and clarity in using advanced law enforcement tools, including stun
guns, the Amber Alert Plan and Automatic License Plate Readers
(ALPR’s). The new stun gun policy provides responsible and realistic
parameters for police to use stun guns as an alternative to deadly
force. It replaced a prior policy that police said made the devices
unusable. The revised Amber Alert Plan provides law enforcement
with clear criteria regarding when to activate the emergency broadcast system to seek public assistance in locating a child who was
recently abducted and is believed to be in danger, including family
abductions. The ALPR policy regulates who can access data from
cameras and limits the retention of data collected from the camera
to five years.
In 2010, the Prosecutors Supervision and Coordination Bureau handled
numerous vital tasks in supporting and exercising the Attorney General’s
statutory supervisory authority over the 21 county prosecutors’ offices
and their local police departments, including opening 2,334 legal advice
files in connection with requests for assistance from law enforcement
agencies; drafting the Attorney General’s Guidelines for the Retention of
Evidence, which created a statewide template for evidence retention for
law enforcement; awarding $21.5 million through the Program Development Section to state, county and local law enforcement agencies,
including $3.5 million for 544 agencies to buy body armor vests for their
officers; and paying a total of $9.5 million in compensation to victims of
crime through the State Victims of Crime Compensation Office.

■ Appellate Victories: The Division’s Appellate Bureau had significant victories that continued to shape state law in important areas
related to law enforcement.
In State v. Best, the Bureau secured a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that, in light of the strong state interest in school safety, a school
administrator does not need probable cause or a search warrant, but
only reasonable grounds to believe evidence of illegal activity will be
found in a vehicle, to search a student’s car on school property.
In In The Matter of the Expungement of D.H., the Bureau successfully appeared as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court in support
of the position that when a former public official has a conviction
expunged for a disorderly persons offense that touched upon his or
her office, the permanent debarment of that official from public office
entered at the time of conviction remains unaffected and intact.
In State v. Quran Goodman, the Bureau secured an Appellate Division ruling that gang affiliation evidence is admissible at trial when
it is relevant to demonstrating defendant’s motive, for example,
defendant’s motive for murdering someone with whom he had been
on friendly terms prior to their involvement in rival gangs.
In State v. Lyons, the Bureau secured a ruling from the Appellate
Division that a person can be convicted of distribution of child
pornography for knowingly storing images of child pornography in a
peer-to-peer file sharing network on the Internet.
In State v. Gandhi, the Bureau appeared as amicus curiae, obtaining
a ruling that strengthened prosecutions under New Jersey’s anti-stalking law. The Court ruled that the State need not prove the defendant
intended or was aware his conduct would cause a reasonable person
to fear bodily injury or death, only that he purposely or knowingly
engaged in conduct that would cause such fear in an objectively
reasonable person.

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2010 Annual Report • New Jersey Office of the Attorney General

Division of Law
Staffed by approximately 500 attorneys, the Division of Law provides
legal counsel and representation to agencies of State government
on many issues vital to the quality of life of New Jersey residents
including protection of children from abuse and neglect, preservation of the environment, delivery of quality health care, protection of
consumers, preserving the state’s financial assets, safeguarding civil
rights and other issues. The Attorney General has a statutory duty
to serve as both legal adviser to all “officers, departments, boards,
bodies, commissions and instrumentalities” of State government, and
to defend State laws. It is through the Division that this mission is
accomplished. The Division’s workload at any given time is driven
by a variety of factors, including the number and nature of lawsuits
being pursued by agencies of government, and by the volume of
lawsuits pending against the State. In 2010, the Division handled
more than 39,000 pending legal matters and resolved or closed more
than 20,000 matters. The Division conducted more than 1,200 trials
and 1,100 administrative hearings throughout the year. It also briefed,
presented or addressed more than 1,700 appeals, prevailing in more
than 81 percent of those appeals. To learn more about the Division of
Law visit www.nj.gov/oag/law.

Highlights
■ Increasing State Revenues Via Litigation: Through the Division’s
efforts, the State obtained more than $195 million in recoveries and
judgments in 2010 — a 31 percent increase over the previous year.
Recoveries in 2010 included more than $81 million recovered as a
result of environmental litigation; $21 million collected as a result of
debt recovery actions; $39 million brought in from litigation related
to securities fraud, consumer fraud and insurance fraud; and $10.5
million as the result of tax recovery actions.

14

■ Preserving Valuable Open Space: 0n behalf of the Department of
Environmental Protection’s Green Acres program, Division attorneys
took part in 74 real property closings. These efforts resulted in the
preservation of more than 1,500 acres of open space with a market
value of more than $10 million.
■ Helping to Ensure Banking Integrity: Working closely with state banking officials, Division attorneys took part in joint enforcement actions
against banking licensees that resulted in nearly $4.2 million in fines.
■ Protecting Children: Lawyers assigned to the Division worked
closely with the Department of Children and Families in 2010 to
protect some of New Jersey’s most vulnerable citizens – its children.
Deputy Attorneys General representing the Division of Youth and
Family Services (DYFS) appeared regularly in all court vicinages, filing emergent matters for custody of abused and neglected children,
advocating during the progress of the cases, presenting permanency
hearings and trying guardianship trials. In 2010, Division lawyers
representing DYFS filed approximately 600 termination-of-parental
rights cases, and completed 487 termination-of-parental-rights trials.
More than 1,400 children were adopted following successful prosecution of termination trials and appeals. In addition, Division lawyers
successfully litigated kinship/legal guardianship cases resulting in
more than 2,500 children finding permanent homes with kin.
■ Helping Veterans Know Their Rights: Working collaboratively with
the Division on Civil Rights and the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, the Division of Law launched an initiative in 2010 aimed
at helping returning veterans know their rights based on their military
status. The awareness effort was also aimed at helping disabled veterans know what legal protections are available to them, such as the right
to “reasonable accommodation” under the New Jersey Law Against
Discrimination (LAD) in such areas as housing and employment.

15

Division
of Law

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General
■ Litigation Avoidance: The Division provided counseling to
various departments of government in 2010 designed to help them
avoid potential legal problems. Division lawyers provided, literally,
hundreds of thousands of hours of counseling to client agencies in
such areas as the professional licensing boards, community affairs,
public utilities, housing, labor, elections, health, education, finance,
transportation, employment and contracting.

Significant Cases
■ Athos Settlement: In its on-going effort to help protect the
environment through litigation, the Division had a major success in
2010 with fruition of a settlement in the matter of the Athos Oil Spill.
In 2004, the ship Athos ran aground in the Delaware Bay and spilled
oil that traveled around Cape May and polluted both the Delaware
Bay and some of the Atlantic coast. Through the efforts of Division
attorneys, the U.S. Coast Guard National Pollution Funds Center
agreed to provide New Jersey with $20.25 million to pay for related,
past cleanup costs, and to fund future restoration projects. The Athos
case represents the largest recovery New Jersey has ever achieved
related to environmental damages caused by an oil spill.
■ Expanded Beach Access Obtained in Sea Bright: The Division
successfully resolved litigation brought by the State against several
Sea Bright beach clubs, as well as the Borough of Sea Bright, in its
effort to expand public access to beach areas in front of the clubs.
In January 2010, the Division settled with six of the beach clubs,
significantly increasing the public’s access to the beach areas at issue.
In June 2010, the trial court decided the remaining case against the
last club, Seabright Beach Club. In its decision, the court granted
the State the relief it sought: ownership of, and public access to, the
ungranted State tidelands, which encompasses nearly 90 percent of
the beach in front of Seabright Beach Club.

16

■ Major Settlement in Foreclosure “Rescue” Fraud Case: The owner
of several New Jersey loan modification companies agreed to pay the
State $805,000 and stay out of the foreclosure rescue business to
resolve allegations he defrauded struggling homeowners who sought
help in staving off foreclosure. Defendant Stephan Pasch of Greenbrook Township, Somerset County, agreed to a judgment of $805,000
to settle charges that his company New Day Financial Solutions, Inc.
– as well as other companies he owned – collected up-front fees from
homeowners in return for promised mortgage modification help – a prohibited practice in New Jersey. In addition to Pasch, another defendant
in the lawsuit, attorney Ejike N. Uzor of Newark, settled claims by the
State against him for $25,000. In most cases, Pasch and Uzor failed to
deliver any loan modification help after collecting up-front payments. In
addition, they were charged with seeking to fraudulently instill consumer
confidence in their operations by creating a “non-profit” known as the
American Financial Advocacy Council, which had a Web address of
www.lordsavemyhome.com.
■ Wells Fargo Settlement over “Pick-a-Payment” Loan Deception:
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage agreed in 2010 to provide New Jersey
consumers with nearly $67 million in loan modifications, and to pay
the State nearly $4 million, to resolve allegations that companies it
acquired – Wachovia Corporation, Golden West and World Savings
– deceptively marketed adjustable rate mortgage loans. Acquired
in 2008 by Wells Fargo, the companies sold thousands of so-called
“Pick-a-Payment” adjustable rate mortgages in New Jersey by touting
the mortgages’ low monthly payment options. However, the companies
failed to warn borrowers that choosing the minimum payment option could lead to a treadmill of debt. Specifically, a borrower’s “low”
monthly payment option often failed to cover the interest on his or
her loan. This resulted in an increase in the loan’s principal balance,
causing the monthly payment to spike well beyond what the consumer
expected to pay. Some borrowers became delinquent as a result and
faced the prospect of foreclosure. Others ultimately lost their homes.

CY 2006 Amount

CY 2007 Amount

$1,720,464.22

$1,228,962.57

$1,314,379.41

$2,210,105.64

$996,193.85

$19,789,424.34

$5,479,913.24

$10,222,460.44

$31,719,216.23

$6,303,176.99

Debt Recovery

$11,267,392.00

$19,981,300.44

$19,170,048.80

$11,437,088.19

$21,069,059.17

Environmental

$3,016,669.38

$14,532,564.67

$14,746,088.64

$42,627,621.79

$81,420,690.97

General

$1,362,972.81

$10,484,375.38

$22,033,672.86

$15,793,905.47

$32,492,459.14

Medicaid

$1,848,710.19

$3,710,245.97

$3,024,072.27

$5,406,488.67

$6,843,511.65

$53,500,000.00

$48,573,502.33

$63,804,230.46

$10,776,408.51

$2,297,217.65

$200,105.99

$1,324,119.01

$1,307,786.05

$2,167,309.72

$1,842,214.98

Judgment / Recovery Type
Civil Insurance Fraud
Consumer Fraud

Pension Security Fraud
Professional Boards

CY 2008 Amount

CY 2009 Amount

CY 2010 Amount

Securities Fraud

$1,266,000.29*

$8,449,859.35

$6,526,953.80

$9,743,283.36

$32,099,449.16

Tax

$6,661,167.27

$10,514,808.35

$12,486,875.80

$18,020,924.37

$10,564,046.14

$100,632,906.49

$124,279,651.31

$154,636,568.53

$149,902,351.95

$195,928,019.70

Total

■ Settlement in Case of Scheme that Defrauded Towns, Non-Profits:
Bank of America agreed to pay a total of $67 million to New Jersey
and 19 other states in 2010 to resolve allegations related to a nationwide scheme to rig bids and engage in other anti-competitive
conduct that defrauded state agencies, municipalities, school districts
and other not-for-profit entities in their purchase of municipal bond
derivatives. The settlement was part of an overall, $137 million settlement into which Bank of America entered with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission, the federal Office of the Comptroller of
the Currency, the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Reserve and
the 20 states. The combined settlement provided restitution to state
agencies, towns and non-profits who entered into municipal bond
derivative investments with Bank of America and were harmed by the
scheme. Eligible New Jersey entities were to receive a total of approximately $1.4 million as a result of the settlement.

■ Dow v. Greenblatt: A Superior Court judge entered a Consent
Order and Final Judgment for approximately $19.4 million in restitution, thereby settling claims by the Bureau of Securities against 18
defendants. The Greenblatts ran a real-estate-related, securities fraud
Ponzi scheme that resulted in millions of dollars of investor money
being diverted by individual defendants to pay personal expenses.

17

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

Division of New Jersey State Police
Members of the State Police work to protect the general public by
providing statewide police services including highway and marine
patrols, criminal investigation and enforcement, intelligence gathering, disaster management, homeland-security-related initiatives,
emergency medical transport, forensic science, laboratory services,
and maintenance of criminal records and crime data. The State Police
is organized geographically into various “Troop” areas that are further
delineated into sections, units and bureaus that provide for intensified focus on such issues as street crime and violence, drug trafficking and other forms of organized crime, disaster response, cybercrime, casino crime, and domestic preparedness. The State Police
employs traditional law enforcement strategies in conjunction with
new approaches and cutting-edge technology to most effectively deal
with such threats as illegal drug distribution, violent gang activity, official corruption, Internet predators and identity theft. More information about the State Police is available at www.njsp.org.

Intelligence Highlights
■ Drug Trafficking Investigations: Through its Drug Trafficking North
Unit, the State Police conducted 31 separate investigations leading to
the arrest of 74 people on various charges related to the possession and
distribution of narcotics. The Drug Trafficking North Unit was responsible for the seizure of drugs valued at approximately $19.5 million and
more than $2 million cash. The Unit also dismantled a heroin “mill”
that was producing more than 30,000 individual dosages or “decks” of
heroin per week. This investigation had a major impact on the availability of heroin in the cities of Paterson, Newark and Elizabeth. In a
separate investigation, the Unit seized a total of five pounds of crystal
methamphetamine that had been shipped into Somerset County via a
well-known parcel service. The seizure helped investigators to identify
a major international methamphetamine trafficking operation based
in Mexico that apparently had been shipping the drug into New Jersey
for a year. In June 2010, the State Police Drug Trafficking Central Unit,

18

working in cooperation with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, seized 29 kilograms of suspected heroin valued at $2.5 million and
arrested three suspects after searching a California-registered tractortrailer at a hotel in South Plainfield. The heroin was found in a sophisticated hidden compartment in the side walls of the trailer.
■ Street Gang Investigations: In 2010, the State Police Street Gang
Unit north conducted 237 separate investigations leading to the arrest
of 406 people, including 65 gang members. The Street Gang Unit
worked with various local, county, state and federal agencies to identify
and investigate violent gang activity. During Operation Wetlands, Unit
members worked jointly with the Jersey City Police Department and the
Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office to dismantle a PCP distribution
network operating in Jersey City. As a result, 33 suspects were arrested, including a number of documented gang members, on charges
including racketeering, narcotics distribution and related offenses.
During Operation Empire, Unit members worked with the state
Department of Corrections to identify and dismantle an elaborate
network responsible for the smuggling of contraband into Northern
State Prison. The investigation resulted in 35 arrests, including a corrections officer, on various charges of official misconduct, racketeering, bribery and money laundering.
■ Cargo Theft: The Cargo Theft Unit conducted 40 separate investigations leading to the arrest of 30 suspects on various charges related to
the theft and trafficking of stolen goods as well as counterfeit trademark
offenses. The Cargo Theft Unit was responsible for the recovery of
stolen property valued at approximately $2.5 million, and the seizure of
counterfeit property valued at approximately $1.2 million Unit members
worked with various local, county, state and federal agencies to identify
organized cargo theft groups throughout New Jersey. During Operation
GSK, Unit members recovered stolen pharmaceutical products valued at
$1.5 million after reviewing extensive GPS and video surveillance footage
to identify a storage location used by cargo thieves. In that case, two
suspects were arrested.

19

Division of
New Jersey State Police

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General
Special Investigations Highlights
Arrest of Fugitive Couple Accused of Murder in A.C.: Following an
intense manhunt, members of the State Police Fugitive Unit arrested
a couple accused of murdering a man they had carjacked in the
parking garage of the Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City.
Fugitives Craig Arnow and Jessica Kisby were located at the Golden
Key Motel in Egg Harbor, Atlantic County on May 28. Both were
charged with the carjacking of North Bergen resident Martin Caballero after he’d dropped off his wife and daughter in the garage. The
victim was later found stabbed to death in a wooded area off Exit12 of
the Atlantic City Expressway.
■ Arrest of Local Police Officer for On-Line Obscenity Involving
“Underage Girl”: In May 2010, members of the Digital Technology
Investigations Unit arrested a veteran Madison police officer on
charges of official misconduct, attempting to endanger the welfare
of a child and attempting to transmit obscene materials to a person
under the age of 16. During the course of the investigation, members
of the Digital Technology Unit secured a warrant to conduct the first
wiretap of an Internet service ever executed in New Jersey. As of this
writing, the Madison police officer arrested, James Haspel, is free on
bail and awaiting trial. He is accused of transmitting webcam videos
of himself, with his genitals exposed, to a person he believed to be
an underage girl. The girl was actually an undercover detective. He is
also accused of sending explicit videos from a hotel in Ohio, where
he was attending a police training conference.
■ Arrests in Casino Cheating Scam: State Police investigators
worked with federal immigration officials and authorities in Connecticut to apprehend two South Korean nationals who won hundreds
of thousands of dollars by cheating at the card game Midi-Bac at
Bally’s Park Place Casino. Altogether, four South Korean nationals
won a total of about $440,000 playing at Bally’s between October 14
and October 18. A review of surveillance tapes showed that one of

20

the men illegally switched cards on 75 occasions using an electronic
cheating device hidden under his shirt sleeve. This method enabled
him and his three accomplices to win. Investigators subsequently
learned that the four men had left the United States and gone back
to South Korea. However, investigators learned in November that two
of the suspects, Ingyu Park and Sun Jang, had returned to the United
States. They were ultimately located at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut and arrested by Connecticut State Police. Jang and Park waived
extradition and were transported back to Atlantic County by New
Jersey State Police to face criminal charges.
■ Forest Fire Arson Arrest: In February, members of the State Police
Polygraph Unit, working in collaboration with Stafford Township
Police and the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, helped identify an
arsonist who had set a forest fire in an area behind the Fawn Lake
residential development in 2009. David Cisek, of Stafford Township,
agreed to submit to a polygraph exam and his answers sometimes appeared deceptive. During the post-test interview, Cisek confessed to
setting the fire. He was charged with second degree aggravated arson
and lodged in the Ocean County Jail on $100,000 bail.

Troop A Highlights
■ Camden/South Jersey Crime Reduction: Troop A serves a dual
policing role within the City of Camden. Troop A staffs a uniform
contingent of personnel who are assigned to the Metro South Station
and a complement of plain-clothes detectives who are assigned to
the Strategic Investigations Unit South (SIU). Both entities have a
singular mission to reduce the overall crime rate and the number of
shootings within the city. During the 2010 calendar year, SIU personnel conducted a total of 177 shooting (non-homicide) investigations
and 21 non-shooting criminal investigations. Additionally, SIU conducted 23 court -ordered search warrants, seized $41,980 in narcotics, $16,450 in U.S. currency and recovered 27 weapons. During this

period, Troopers arrested 77 persons on charges including attempted
murder, aggravated assault, unlawful possession of weapons and
possession of a controlled dangerous substance. SIU personnel also
assisted the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit with
28 homicide investigations. The Metro South Station is charged with
assisting SIU with all non-fatal shooting investigations. Its operational mission is to gather critical intelligence data connected to shooting
investigations. During 2010, Metro South Station personnel were
responsible for the arrest of 674 persons on 2,360 criminal charges
including possession of various narcotics, distribution of controlled
dangerous substances and other offenses. Also, seized were $104,312
U.S. currency and $264,193 in narcotics.
■ Atlantic City International Airport Security: During 2010, the
State Police continued to work in partnership with the South Jersey
Transportation Authority and Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness in making strategic improvements in security/preparedness
at the Atlantic City International Airport. Among the major accomplishments for 2010 was the completion of the design and bidding
phases of the Federal Inspection Station (FIS). The FIS will give the
Atlantic City International Airport the ability to launch and receive
direct-to flights involving international destinations. The facility will
add three additional gates – one gate dedicated for domestic travel,
two others capable of handling international travel. A full time Customs & Border Protection (CBP) unit will be present upon opening.
In keeping with national strategies for aviation security and combating terrorism, Troopers assigned to the Atlantic City International
Airport received advanced training and conducted proactive aviation law enforcement operations in the areas of critical infrastructure protection, criminal and terrorism investigations, and technical
intelligence collection. These activities were structured to detect,
deter and/or disrupt a terrorist attack at the facility, or within the
region, and were fully integrated with the efforts of the FBI’s Joint
Terrorism Task Force.

Troop B Highlights
■ Meadowlands/Super Bowl XLVIII: Meadowlands Station personnel
completed the inaugural season of the New Meadowlands Stadium
in December 2010. The season consisted of 19 professional football
games, three college football games, an international soccer game
and a large concert. A total of 103 events were held at the stadium,
or in the stadium’s parking lots. More than 140 events were held at
the Izod Center, and 342 took place at the Meadowlands Race Track.
Meadowland Station, in cooperation with the Troop B command staff,
began preparations for Super Bowl XLVIII, to be held at the New
Meadowlands Stadium in February of 2014. The Contingency Action
Plan (CAP) for the New Meadowlands Stadium, the Timex Center and

21

Division of
New Jersey State Police

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General
and SIU personnel also recovered 27 firearms and arrested 117 peoples
for outstanding warrants. Additionally, Troopers seized $168,185 in
controlled dangerous substances and $54,089 in U.S. currency.

Troop C Highlights

the pre-existing New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority facilities is
underway and should soon be completed. Station personnel took part in
extensive training and exercises in order to prepare for any eventuality,
including the presence of an active shooter, in 2010. The training and
exercises are ongoing.
■ Overall Enforcement: Troop B initiated 5,122 criminal investigations,
arrested 4,578 suspects for various criminal offenses, and arrested
another 1,604 individuals for Driving While Intoxicated. Also, Troopers
responded to more than 14,000 traffic accidents – a decrease compared
with 1,363 the prior year.
■ Irvington Crime Reduction: Troop B serves a dual policing role
within the Township of Irvington. Troop B personnel staff a uniform contingent assigned to the Metro North Station, as well as a complement of
plain-clothes detectives who are assigned to the Strategic Investigations
Unit North (SIU). The mission of both entities is to reduce the overall
crime rate and the number of shootings. During the 2010 calendar year,
Metro North and SIU personnel conducted a total of 286 investigations
and arrested 278 individuals for various alleged crimes. Metro North

22

■ Vehicle Crash Reduction: Troop C has identified vehicle crashes
to be an ongoing issue in its jurisdiction. As a result, Troopers were
engaged in a variety of safety-related initiatives in 2010 that appeared
to pay dividends. Specifically, statistics show there were 4,278 crashes
on both public roadways and private property in 2010 – a 7 percent
decline compared with the prior year. Troop C personnel conducted 550
Aggressive Driver Patrols in 2010. Troopers conducted more than 6,000
motor vehicle stops and issued approximately 4,500 summonses for
hazardous driving offenses. Of the summonses issued, 1,823 were for
speeding and 712 were for driving while using a cell phone. The remainder were for various other violations.
■ Pedestrian Safety Initiatives: Troop C’s Traffic and Tactical Patrol Units
continued their educational and enforcement efforts regarding pedestrian
safety in 2010. Troopers conducted pedestrian safety enforcement details
in Farmingdale Boro in April and May, resulting in 18 summonses and five
warnings to motorists who failed to yield to pedestrians.
■ DWI Enforcement: Troop C personnel continued their aggressive
Driving While Intoxicated enforcement in 2010. The number of DWI
arrests increased in every category including “on view” arrests (up to 654
from 472 the prior year), arrests resulting from a vehicle crash (up to 156
from 131 the prior year) and arrests resulting only from testing only (up
to 89 from 78 the previous year.)
■ Protecting Young Drivers: In response to an increasing number of
vehicle crashes involving young drivers in the Graduated Driver’s License
(GDL) phase, Troop C personnel continued an overall GDL initiative at
Allentown, Seneca and Delaware Valley High Schools, all three of which
are located in the Troop’s primary area of responsibility. In April of 2010,

members of the Troop C Traffic Office, along with members of Troop C
Tactical Patrol Units, conducted awareness details at each of the three
high schools. A total of 283 vehicles were checked, and students were
given additional information about the current GDL. requirements. In
addition, students were given “Got your Decal?” brochures, as well as
traffic safety bulletins.

Troop D Highlights
■ Parkway Patrol/Enforcement: Troop D, Parkway Region, conducted
more than 74,000 motor vehicle stops in 2010 – a 21 percent increase
over the prior year. In addition, Troopers serving the Parkway Region
aided more than 45,000 motorists, an 18 percent increase. For the year,
Parkway Region Troopers wrote more than 43,182 tickets – a 43 percent
increase over the previous year – including more than 8,000 for speeding. Troopers also made 889 arrests for Driving While Intoxicated, a 28
percent increase over 2009.
■ Turnpike Region Drop in Fatalities: Troop D, Turnpike Region, reported a drop-off in accidents and fatal accidents in 2010. The Turnpike
Region had a total of 6,063 accidents in 2010 -- a 15 percent decrease
compared with the prior year. Fatal accidents declined by 27 percent.
In fact, the year ended with the fatality rate on the New Jersey Turnpike
at its lowest point since the start of record-keeping in 1961. In order to
help achieve this level of safety, Troop D’s Traffic Office relied heavily on
Intelligence Led Policing (ILP) and intensive data gathering and analysis.
Troopers along the Turnpike carried out 10 percent more motor vehicle
stops in 2010, issued 8 percent more tickets, and made 25 percent
more Driving While Intoxicated arrests. In addition, an in-house crash
database maintained by Troop D was used in conjunction with historical weather and traffic volume data for both commercial and passenger
vehicles. Troopers kept a look-out for aggressive and drunk driving, and
sought to ensure occupant safety through the proper use of seatbelts
and child restraints. Troopers also worked to ensure that large commercial vehicles were operated in a safe manner. Troop D also worked

in 2010 with the Turnpike Authority to ensure safety, via the analysis of
crash data, in work zones that are part of the massive New Jersey Turnpike Widening Project. That effort continues.

Emergency Management Section
■ Emergency Preparedness Bureau: In November 2010, the Emergency
Preparedness Bureau’s North Region worked cooperatively with the National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Minneapolis Police, and the New York State Police in developing and
presenting a course for emergency responders focused on responding to
a transportation incident. The course was entitled, “Transportation Disaster Response - A Course for Emergency Responders”. The training class
was delivered to first responders from across the nation at the National
Transportation Safety Board Academy in Ashburn, VA and provided the
participants with the tools to most effectively manage a major transportation disaster. Representatives of the North Region added credibility to the
training by relaying their personal experiences as first responders.
■ Transportation Safety Bureau: A four-month effort seeking to reduce
crashes involving commercial motor vehicles resulted in more than 8,700
stops by Troopers, nearly 2,700 tickets issued and nearly 4,000 warnings.
More than 2,000 trucks were inspected, resulting in the issuance of nearly
500 violations that took trucks out of service. In addition, Troopers made
38 criminal arrests. Significantly, crashes involving commercial motor vehicles declined in 2010 in each of four areas targeted under the program,
known as New Jersey Targeting Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT.) Also
in 2010, the Transportation Safety Bureau initiated a Mobile Safe Freight
Squad. The squad seized more than 400 pounds of marijuana, $84,000
in untaxed liquor and $1.5 million in bulk U.S. currency. Overall, Troopers
performed more than 30,000 commercial vehicle inspections in 2010,
including more than 4,300 on commercial carriers transporting hazardous materials by highway. The number of inspections on trucks hauling
hazardous materials accounted for 14 percent of all commercial vehicle
inspections, thereby exceeding the state’s goal of 10 percent.

23

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

Division of Consumer Affairs
The Division of Consumer Affairs is responsible for enforcing laws
designed to ensure fairness and integrity in New Jersey’s commercial
and investment marketplaces, and for assisting consumers who may
have complaints or questions about particular vendors or service
providers. The Division’s essential mission is to protect New Jersey
consumers from fraud and deception, and to ensure that the state’s
licensed professions and trades observe high standards of conduct.
In addition to investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud
and other consumer-related violations, the Division provides information to the public on a variety of consumer-related issues. More information on the Division is available at www.njconsumeraffairs.gov.

Bureau of Securities
Significant Cases
■ Distribution Plan to Compensate Victims of Robert Brennan Fraud:
In January 2010, a state Superior Court judge approved a distribution
plan to provide $5.15 million in restitution to approximately 27,000
investors defrauded by stock broker Robert Brennan. The court’s action was a significant milestone in the case against Brennan, who was
sued by the Bureau in August 1995. The original state lawsuit against
Brennan and L.C. Wegard, an investment firm that Brennan controlled,
alleged violations of the New Jersey Securities Law, as well as the state’s
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. That
same month, Brennan filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition.
The Bureau later obtained a $45 million, non-dischargeable judgment
against Brennan and L.C. Wegard, but Brennan claimed to have no assets with which to satisfy the judgment. An extensive search by Bureau
investigators followed, and the Bureau was ultimately able to uncover
assets Brennan had attempted to hide, including a pension fund set up
for himself. A court-approved receiver based in Princeton is handling
claims for restitution from defrauded Brennan investors.
Carr Miller Capital LLC Lawsuit: In December, the Bureau filed a lawsuit
against Carr Miller Capital LLC of Evesham, Burlington County, and

24

its three principals for their alleged use of a Ponzi scheme and other
means to defraud investors out of more than $40 million. Filed in
state Superior Court in Newark, the nine-count lawsuit charges that
the defendants violated numerous New Jersey Uniform Securities
laws by committing fraud, co-mingling funds and selling unregistered
securities. The Bureau requested, and obtained, court approval to
freeze the assets of Carr Miller and to have a receiver appointed to
oversee and control those assets.

Office of Consumer Protection/
Office of Weights and Measures
Significant Cases
■ Investigation of Moving Companies: Thirty-four moving companies
were issued notices of violation and assessed a $2,500 civil penalty after
each was found to be an unlicensed mover during an undercover investigation carried out in October 2010. Posing as a father and daughter
who needed to move the daughter’s personal items out of storage to the
father’s New Jersey home, Division investigators contacted movers who

25

Division of
Consumer Affairs

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General
and four were cited for being registered, but not displaying their registration numbers to the public as required. Two other contractors received
warning letters for minor violations of the Contractor Registration Act.
The law, which took effect in 2006, requires all contractors performing
residential work to register annually with the Division. In order to register,
contractors are required to disclose where their businesses are located,
provide proof they have insurance, and use contracts containing specific
consumer protection language for all projects costing more than $500.

had posted on Craigslist and on other Internet sites. When 19 movers
arrived at a self-storage facility in Belleville during the two-day operation,
Division investigators and State Police Troopers from the Transportation
Safety Bureau checked on their credentials and violations were issued
where appropriate. The other 15 movers were cited for unlicensed operation based on advertising of their services to the public. The Division
requires movers to be licensed annually. Movers must have cargo liability
insurance and meet other requirements in order to obtain a license.
■ Investigation of Home Improvement Contractors: Twelve home
improvement contractors were cited for violating New Jersey’s Contractor
Registration Act as the result of an undercover investigation carried out by
the Division. The investigation took place over the summer of 2010, and
investigators set it up at a vacant house in Morris Plains, Morris County.
Using print and on-line advertisements, investigators contacted suspected
unregistered contractors and asked them to inspect the residence and
provide estimates for needed improvements including driveway repaving,
basement renovations and waterproofing, installation of new wood floors,
bathroom renovations, masonry repairs and installation of a new fence.
Estimates for the projects ranged from $1,180 to $14,000. As a result
of the investigation, eight contractors were cited for being unregistered

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■ Operation Bling: A Precious Metals Task Force created by the
Division’s Office of Weights and Measures cited 49 gold and jewelry
buying businesses with a total of more than 1,600 consumer-fraudrelated violations during an inspection sweep that uncovered the use
of inaccurate scales. Violators were required to answer the charges in
municipal court, and ultimately paid a total of $106,000 in civil penalties. The Task Force began its inspections in June 2010 following receipt
of a consumer complaint by the Division. The Task Force carried out
unannounced inspections of jewelry stores and also transient buyers
of gold and jewelry who typically operate out of hotels. Among scales
confiscated by state investigators was one that had a spring mounted under the weighing platform. The spring would push back as an item was
being weighed, producing an inaccurately light reading. The businesses
charged were cited for use of scales that had been tampered with, were
unregistered, had not been inspected and were not approved for use
in New Jersey. Some were also charged with violating laws that require
detailed receipts to be provided to sellers. The detailed receipts are
important to individuals who may, after selling their jewelry, wish to dispute the transaction or attempt to reclaim the items during the 48-hour
period in which the buyer is required to hold them.

Professional Licensing Boards
■ Dr. Steven Brigham License Suspension: The state Board of Medical
Examiners temporarily suspended the license of Dr. Steven Brigham in
October 2010 after a nine-hour hearing focused on his practice of starting
late-term abortions in New Jersey, where he was not authorized to per-

form them, and finishing them in Maryland, where he was not licensed to
practice medicine. Brigham owns American Women’s services, which has
offices in several states. New Jersey law allows any physician to perform
first-trimester abortions. However Brigham, who is not an obstetriciangynecologist, is not authorized under state law to perform abortions of
fetuses older than 14 weeks. The abortions Brigham performed in Maryland involved women in their second and third trimesters. In successfully
making a case for emergent suspension, the state noted that, among other
things, Brigham administered drugs to his patients in New Jersey that
were essential to the abortion process, some of which caused fetal death.
The state also argued that the drugs Brigham gave his patients made their
travel to Maryland for the second part of their abortion procedures more
dangerous. As of this writing, a hearing to adjudicate the charges in the
administrative complaint is scheduled for April 5, 2011.
■ Crackdown on Unlicensed Practitioners: The Professional Licensing
Boards within the Division took action in 2010 against unlicensed individuals offering dental and medical services to the public. Working with local
law enforcement agencies, the Division’s Enforcement Bureau identified
a dozen individuals who were not licensed dentists or doctors, but who
nonetheless were treating patients. The unlicensed persons were arrested
and their treatment locations shut down. Among those arrested were Maria Medel, of Bound Brook, who was charged with running an unlicensed
dental practice out of a rented home in the borough. Medel was charged
in June following a cooperative investigation by the Division, local police
and the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office. The investigation began
when an individual who’d been previously treated by Medel developed
an infection and sought care from a licensed dentist in Eatontown. The
licensed dentist became concerned about the patient’s condition, inquired
as to who had done the prior dental work, and subsequently contacted the
Division. The unlicensed Medel was arrested after she allegedly examined
an undercover investigator from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office
and told him that she would perform certain dental work at a later date.
Also prosecuted in 2010 was Dr. Farid Hakimi, a podiatrist who had been
banned from practicing for several years in connection with inappropriate

conduct toward a female patient. Hakimi’s license was suspended in May
2006 after an Administrative Law Judge found that he “unnecessarily and
inappropriately exposed and touched the naked body of a female patient”
in August 2001. During the final 18 months of his suspension, however,
he was permitted to practice with a probationary license. A condition of
Hakimi’s probationary license was that he treat patients in the presence
of a board-approved chaperone. Jersey City police arrested Hakimi for
practicing without a license in late January 2010 after he examined an
undercover state investigator without the required chaperone present.
■ Customer Service Improvements: The Division embarked on a massive, Division-wide scanning initiative in 2010, taking a substantial step
away from the cumbersome and time-consuming manual processing of
paper applications for its regulated businesses and professional licensees, and a significant step toward a much more streamlined, automated
work flow and records management system dealing with digital images.
Those efforts, in tandem with the development of increased online
capabilities through the Division’s Website, are bringing the Division
within reach of its goal to decrease substantially the processing time for
professional licensure and business registration applications, thus getting people to work sooner.
■ Reorganization: Along with the move toward online automation, the
Division made significant strides in streamlining its overall organizational structure. The Office of Consumer Protection (OCP) Reorganization
was recently completed, consolidating that component’s enforcement
resources into six investigative units with an eye toward maximizing
existing staff and aggressively addressing the Department’s enforcement
priorities. Those units are as follows: Financial Fraud, Charities Fraud,
Cyber Fraud, Commercial Fraud, Regulated Businesses, and General
Investigations & Special Projects. Along with the current overhaul of
OCP’s Customer Service Center that’s under way, this reorganization will
further the Division’s goals of (1) more innovative and aggressive antifraud enforcement initiatives, and (2) increasing the early and successful
resolutions of consumer complaints.

27

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

Division on Civil Rights
The Division on Civil Rights is responsible for enforcing the
New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) and the New Jersey
Family Leave Act. The LAD seeks to prevent and remedy unlawful discrimination in employment, contracting, housing, in schools
and other places of public accommodation. The Family Leave Act
provides eligible employees with leaves of absence in connection
with the birth or adoption of a child or the serious health condition of an eligible employee’s parent, child or spouse. As part of its
statutory mission, the Division receives, investigates and resolves
Complaints that the law has been violated. In a broader sense, the
Division’s mission is to foster attitudes of acceptance, equality
and respect among all people throughout the State. The Division
has regional offices located in Atlantic City, Camden, Newark and
Trenton. In December 2010, the Division closed its Paterson office.
In addition to processing and investigating complaints of unlawful discrimination, the Division receives – and responds to – more
than 15,000 inquiries each year from the general public regarding
civil rights law. More information about the Division is available at
www.NJCivilRights.gov.

Overview
The Division collected approximately $2.4 million in total monetary awards on behalf of the victims of discrimination in 2010. The
Division began the year with 806 cases under investigation and
closed the year with 829 cases — a three percent increase in its
investigative caseload. Broken down by category, cases included alleged discrimination in employment (610), housing (112), places of
public accommodation (52), multiple-dwelling reporting rule (42),

28

and Director’s Complaint’s (13). Despite reductions in staffing,
the Division continued its efforts to reduce case backlog, reduce
the intake of frivolous cases, and increase special investigations
focused on “pattern and practice” cases, which generally affect
large numbers of people and/or involve matters of significant public
interest. Regarding complaints filed by citizens, 31percent resulted
in a disposition unfavorable to the Complainant (Dismissal/Finding of No Probable Cause). Cases resulting in outcomes favorable
to the Complainant (Settlement/ Order) accounted for a record 42
percent of cases closed in 2010. The remaining cases were concluded administratively. Consistent with recent years, the majority of
complaints filed with the Division in 2010 involved race, disability
and sex. The Division received Complaints from residents in all of
New Jersey’s 21 counties, with the greatest number of Respondents
located in Camden, Mercer, Essex, Bergen and Burlington Counties. In addition to collecting $2.4 million in monetary awards, the
Division collected more than $133,000 in administrative costs and
payments in lieu of a penalty, which were deposited into the State
Treasury. The Division also fulfilled its obligations under work-sharing agreements with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the federal fiscal year ending September 30, 2010. These
two federal agencies paid the Division $317,500 and $395,448,
respectively to satisfactorily investigate and resolve dual-filed cases
alleging discrimination in employment and housing.

29

Division
on Civil Rights

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General
high school in Emerson, and was focused on the student’s perceived
sexual orientation. The alleged harassment, which was reported to
school officials numerous times, included name-calling and derogatory remarks from other students about J.C.’s perceived homosexuality, as well as physical assaults and threats of violence. In addition,
students on one occasion created a page on a social networking Web
site that described J.C.’s sexual orientation as “unknown,” and also
depicted him as a female. Students also are alleged to have circulated derogatory drawings of J.C., including at least one that depicted
him performing a sex act on another male. While the initial Complaint was filed by the parents of J.C. Jr., the Division subsequently
joined the complaint. As of this writing, the case is in Conciliation.

2010 Significant Cases/Orders
School Bullying
■ Emerson Board of Education FPC: In a widely-reported anti-bullying action, the Division issued a Finding of Probable Cause against
the Board of Education in Emerson Borough, Bergen County, for
allegedly failing to take sufficient steps to stop the harassment and
bullying of a male student that went on for six years. According to
the Division, the district failed to effectively deal with continued verbal, physical and cyber-harassment of the male student – identified
only as J.C., Jr. – that began in 2002 and continued through 2007.
The harassment occurred while J.C. was attending junior and senior

30

■ Old Bridge Township Board of Education FPC: In another
school-related anti-bullying case, the Division issued a Finding of
Probable Cause against the Board of Education in Old Bridge Township, Middlesex County, for allegedly failing to take sufficient steps
to stop the harassment and bullying of a student during his years
attending a township middle school. According to the Division,
the school district failed to deal effectively with the harassment of a
Jonas Salk Middle School student – identified only as H.D. because
he is a minor – that began in the fall of 2004 and continued through
the end of the school year in 2007. The harassing conduct included
derogatory remarks from other students about H.D.’s perceived
sexual orientation, as well as his Jewish faith. The district’s own documentation shows that, during one stretch between early September
2006 and late January 2007, there were at least 11 reported incidents
of harassment against H.D. involving 14 different students. In two
of the cases, no action was taken because of a lack of information.
In the remaining cases, a total of 12 students received discipline
ranging from a verbal warning to after-school detention to in-school
suspension. However, the bullying of H.D. continued. The Finding
of Probable Cause cites Old Bridge for failing to take affirmative
steps to prevent the bullying of H.D., and for dealing with it only via

“after-the-fact” discipline, without any prevention measures or efforts
at broader outreach to students. While the initial Complaint was
filed by H.D.’s parents, the Division subsequently joined the Complaint. Conciliation failed to resolve the case and, as of this writing,
it is awaiting a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge.

Sexual Harassment
■ Avenel First Aid Squad FPC: The Division issued a Finding
of Probable Cause against the Avenel-Colonia First Aid Squad in
Woodbridge Township, Middlesex County, in connection with charges that its leaders sexually harassed a female squad member then
retaliated against her for objecting to the harassment. Also named
as Respondents in the Finding of Probable Cause were first aid
squad captain Carmen Parisio and assistant captain Wayne Tasaki,
both members of the squad’s four-member executive board. The
Respondents were accused of sexually harassing Emergency Medical
Technician (EMT) Jennifer Braun during a period of several months
in 2009. They also were accused of subjecting the young woman to
workplace reprisals, including eventual termination, after she made
clear that she opposed the sexually-charged work atmosphere. In her
Complaint Braun said that, for a period of months starting in January
2009 and continuing into April, when she was discharged, she was
repeatedly subjected to demeaning comments and inappropriate
questioning by Parisio and Tasaki about her sexual preferences, the
size of her breasts and other sex-related topics. Other incidents
described by Braun involved Tasaki and Parisio allegedly offering unsolicited comments concerning their anatomy and/or sexual prowess.
Six former Avenel-Colonia First Aid Squad members interviewed by
the Division corroborated that graphic, sexually-charged conversations were a regular occurrence at squad headquarters. The Division
joined Braun’s Complaint against the first aid squad and its leadership. Conciliation failed to resolve the matter and, as of this writing,
it is assigned to the Office of Administrative Law for a hearing.

■ Galilee Baptist Church Settlement: In July the Division announced a settlement requiring Galilee Baptist Church of Trenton
and its pastor, Reverend John H. Harris, Jr. to pay former church secretary Minnie Davis $50,000 to resolve allegations the woman was
sexually harassed by Harris and then fired after reporting his alleged
conduct to church officials. In addition, Harris and Galilee Baptist
agreed to pay the Division $7,500 to cover administrative costs and
a fee in lieu of statutory penalties. The agreement also required the
church to establish clear, written anti-discrimination and harassment
policies, and to designate a representative to receive and investigate
any complaints made under the policy. Under the settlement there
was no admission of liability by either Harris or the church. Minnie
Davis was hired by Galilee Baptist as a secretary in 1997, and her job
description was later expanded to that of secretary/church clerk in
1999. Davis claimed to have had a consensual relationship with Harris that began in 2001, but said she broke it off in 2003 and made
clear she wanted no further involvement. Despite her repeated statements disavowing any interest in him, Davis alleged, Harris continued for years to pressure her in the workplace. In March 2008,
Davis sent a memo to the deacons and trustees of Galilee Baptist
accusing Harris of repeatedly propositioning her, touching her inappropriately and other harassing actions. She also reported that, as a
result of her rejection of his overtures, Harris took retaliatory action
such as minimizing her work duties, requiring her to provide 30 days
notice when seeking time off and implying that she was stealing.
Harris and the church denied all allegations. However, the Division
issued a Finding of Probable Cause against both in 2009.
■ Newport Swim & Fitness FPCs: The Division issued Findings of
Probable Cause against a Hudson County fitness club, its former
executives and a former pool supervisor in connection with complaints filed by two ex-employees that they were sexually harassed on
the job, then discharged for reporting it. Named as Respondents in
the two Findings of Probable Cause were TFC Partners, Inc., doing

31

Division
on Civil Rights

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General
business as Newport Swim and Fitness of River Drive South, Jersey
City, former club executives Jim Delaunay of Chester, N.Y., and Gina
Bucci, of Clifton, Passaic County, and former pool and lifeguards
supervisor Orlando Pizarro, of Jersey City. Two sisters from Jersey
City who worked as lifeguards at Newport Swim and Fitness from
July 2006 through 2007 were both terminated in February 2007
after approaching club management and alleging that Pizarro was
sexually harassing them. Both young women then filed discrimination complaints with the Division charging sexual harassment and
retaliatory discharge. Pizarro was accused of subjecting the two
sisters to sexually harassing comments, including references to his
own anatomy, sexual preferences and proclivities. Delaunay and
Bucci were charged with failing to adequately address the allegations
raised by the two victims, one of whom was a minor at the time.
All three Respondents are no longer employed at Newport Swim
& Fitness. Among other things, the Division found that the club’s
ownership was negligent in that it failed to put in place an effective
system for preventing the harassment of employees. The Division
joined the two ex-employees’ Complaint, which is in Conciliation as
of this writing.

Race-Based Discrimination
■ Nathan/Bank of New York Mellon Settlement: The Division
announced in April that the Bank of New York Mellon had agreed
under a settlement to pay former employee Paul Nathan a total of
$188,037 to resolve allegations the worker was harassed on the job
at a bank office in Hudson County, then discharged after he complained about a hostile work environment. In addition to agreeing to
pay former mail operations employee Nathan to resolve his complaint, the Bank of New York Mellon also agreed to pay the Division
$5,000. The Division earlier had joined in Nathan’s discrimination
complaint. Nathan, of Flushing Meadow, N.Y., was employed with

32

a securities and asset management company owned by the Bank of
New York in Hudson County when he filed his original discrimination complaint in late 2006. He subsequently amended the complaint to include retaliation after his employer fired him. (The Bank
of New York later merged with Mellon Financial Corp. and became
the Bank of New York Mellon.) An employee of the company’s
Enclosing Mail Operations department, Nathan charged in his
original complaint that he and another African-American worker
were routinely assigned to the largest, most difficult and burdensome equipment in the so-called “green room” without assistance
in lifting heavy materials. The green room was where the company’s
master mailer machines were located. Nathan’s complaint charged
that non-African-American workers were not regularly assigned to
such green room duty and, if they were, received help in dealing with
the heavy lifting. A Finding of Probable Cause issued by the Division
reported that a half-dozen other Bank of New York Mellon employees interviewed by State investigators corroborated Nathan’s account
of disparate treatment. Two witnesses corroborated Nathan’s claim
that the green room was also referred to as “the plantation.” Nathan
also told investigators he was targeted for acts of harassment by coworkers because of his acknowledged homosexuality. Among other
things, Nathan charged that he’d been called names and subjected
to derogatory comments about his sexual orientation, as well as at
least one racially and sexually offensive photograph and caption, and
a threat that he would be sodomized with a stick. The Bank of New
York Mellon acknowledged placing Corrective Action Notices in the
personnel files of two management employees implicated by Nathan.
In addition to the $188,000 settlement pay-out, the bank agreed to
expunge from all records any indication that Nathan was terminated,
and to put in place effective anti-discrimination and anti-harassment
policies and procedures.

Other Keynotes
■ Mediation, Conciliation and Litigation: The Division’s Mediation
Unit successfully mediated 73 cases and obtained a total of $376,123
in monetary awards for complainants. The Mediation Unit offers
the parties in a discrimination complaint an opportunity to resolve
the matter amicably, and in the early stages. Through the program,
parties to a complaint can voluntarily meet with one of the Division’s
mediators shortly after the complaint is filed. In doing so, the parties can potentially resolve the matter and avoid a lengthy investigative and litigation process. Conciliation is essentially a final attempt
to resolve a discrimination complaint after it reaches the stage in
which a Finding of Probable Cause is issued. In 2010, 12 Findings of
Probable Cause were successfully resolved through Conciliation, resulting in a total of $303,787 in monetary awards to complainants. If
Conciliation fails to resolve a case, the matter is referred for a hearing presided over by an Administrative Law Judge. Deputy Attorneys
General assigned to the Division of Law prosecute such cases on
behalf of the Division on Civil Rights. In 2010, 39 discrimination
complaints were tried before an Administrative Law Judge, resulting
in total awards of $577,543 to the victims of unlawful discrimination.
■ Training and Outreach: Through its newly re-established Bureau
of Prevention, Outreach and Public Education, the Division conducts
civil-rights-related training initiatives throughout New Jersey. In 2010
the Bureau hosted a number of community roundtables and presented
regional workshops, in addition to participating in several statewide
conferences focused on such timely issues as the rights of those with
disabilities, sexual-orientation-based discrimination and bullying.

33

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

Division of Highway Traffic Safety
The mission of the Division of Highway Traffic Safety is to prevent
vehicle-related crashes and the property damage, injury and death they
cause. To achieve its mission, the Division undertakes an array of traffic
safety programs relating to education, enforcement and engineering.
The bulk of the Division’s funding comes from the federal government,
via the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Funding received by the Division is used to develop and implement a comprehensive statewide traffic safety plan, and is also distributed among local,
county and state agencies in the form of traffic safety grants. Among
the Division’s chief priorities are occupant protection, impaired driving,
pedestrian safety, distracted driving, aggressive driving and bringing
the message of traffic safety to New Jersey’s diverse populations.
More information is available by visiting the Division’s Web site at
www.nj.gov/oag/hts.

Fatalities Data: Traffic Deaths Down
Highway Fatalities Down A total of 556 highway fatalities were reported to the State Police Fatal Accident Investigation Unit in 2010,
a decrease of nearly 5 percent compared with the prior year, and
the lowest number of traffic deaths reported since 1948. Of those
fatalities, 305 were drivers, 97 were passengers, 140 were pedestrians
and14 were pedal cyclists. Allowing that one highway death is too
many, an encouraging trend in 2010 was that fatalities were down in
most categories. For example, there were 10 fewer drivers killed on
New Jersey highways, and 17 fewer pedestrians lost their lives.

Keeping Alcohol & Drugs off the Road
■ Over the Limit, Under Arrest: From August 20 through September 6 of 2010, the Division participated in the national Over the
Limit, Under Arrest impaired driving crackdown. The goal was to
mobilize all police agencies throughout New Jersey to raise awareness about the dangers of impaired driving through a combination
of stepped-up enforcement and media activity.

34

The Division invited hundreds of police agencies to support the initiative, and provided 187 of those agencies with overtime enforcement
grants of $4,400 each.
Other police agencies were asked to support the effort through their
own resources. The 17-day crackdown resulted in 1,707 arrests for
Driving While Intoxicated, an increase of nearly 200 arrests compared with the prior year.
The 417 police agencies that participated also issued more than
10,000 speeding summonses and more than 6,000 tickets for failure
to wear a seat belt.
■ Cops in Shops: The Division provided funding to support the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control’s Cops in Shops program. In Cops in
Shops, local police work undercover in participating retail locations, either posing as store employees or taking up positions outside the store
to catch adults who attempt to buy alcohol for underage drinkers. During the summer phase of the program, 31 shore-area police departments
took part in the effort and arrested a total of more than 200 people. The

35

Division of
Highway Traffic Safety

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General
short distance down the road by uniformed officers. The initiative was
used to help reinforce New Jersey’s pedestrian law, which was amended
April 1, 2010 and requires motorists to stop and remain stopped for
pedestrians in delineated crosswalks. The Division is also working on
crosswalk safety in partnership with Downtown NJ, a statewide organization that works with local government officials, businesses and community organizations to promote municipal downtown areas and reinforce
the pedestrian safety message in town centers.

Occupant Protection
■ Click It or Ticket: The Click It or Ticket campaign was conducted May 24 through June 6, 2010 and resulted in the issuance
of 35,671 seat belt tickets by participating police agencies. Key
elements of the effort included targeted seat belt enforcement by a
total of 401 police departments – 81 percent of all police forces in
the state. Of those policing agencies, 157 received $4,000 overtime
enforcement grants.
fall “college” phase of the initiative took place in cities and towns where
colleges or universities are located, as well as in neighboring communities. Conducted from November through June 2010, the program
resulted in many more arrests. Since its launch in 1996, Cops in Shops
has resulted in the arrest of more than 8,000 underage persons and
adults on charges related to the illegal purchase of alcohol, and helped
save countless lives by keeping potential drunk drivers off the road.

Protecting Pedestrians and Bicyclists
■ Cops in Crosswalks: Through this program, police agencies
throughout New Jersey took part in a pedestrian safety enforcement
and education program designed to increase awareness about properly sharing the road. As part of Cops in Crosswalks, undercover police
officers posed as pedestrians and tried to traverse marked crosswalks.
Motorists who failed to halt for the undercover officers were stopped a

36

Awareness of the Click It or Ticket campaign and the importance
of wearing a seat belt were further enhanced by the distribution of
educational materials by partner agencies throughout New Jersey. In
addition to summonses for failure to wear a seat belt, participating
police wrote nearly 6,000 tickets for speeding, made 592 arrests for
Driving While Intoxicated and issued more than 1,000 tickets for failing to properly restrain a child passenger.
■ Kyleigh’s Law: On May 1, 2010, Kyleigh’s Law (N.J.S.A. 39:313.2a) took effect. The new law is designed to help prevent teen
driver deaths and injuries. It mandates the display of red, reflector
decals on the front and rear license plates of any vehicle operated
by a permit or probationary license-holder under age 21. The new
decal provides an additional tool for law enforcement officers to
use in their continuing efforts to enforce the state’s Graduated
Driver License Law.

Prevention
■ Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day: The Division once again coordinated a statewide effort to engage the public and media during the
national observance of Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day, held annually
on October 10. On this day, motorists are asked to slow down, buckle
up, avoid distractions and follow all rules of the road in an effort to
achieve zero highway fatalities for a 24-hour period. In New Jersey,
three people were killed in highway crashes on October 10, 2010.
There were two reported fatalities on Oct. 10 of the prior year.

■ Traffic Safety Training Courses: State and local police attended
numerous highway traffic safety and crash investigation courses
funded by the Division in 2010. Hundreds of police officers attended such courses as Crash Investigation I and II, as well as
Traffic Crash Reconstruction and other specialized training classes
including: pedestrian/bicycle crash investigation, motorcycle crash
investigation and computerized collision diagramming.
■ Motorcycle Safety Education: A total of 7,100 riders throughout
the state were trained in 2010 through motorcycle safety education
programs designed to help riders acquire – or refresh – the knowledge,
skills, attitudes and habits needed to safely operate a motorcycle. The
courses were conducted solely at private locations and were taught by
instructors employed by public and private educational institutions.

Grant Funding Highlights
■ State and Community Highway Traffic Safety: The Division awarded
52 grants totaling approximately $6.4 million in 2010 to provide seed
money for innovative programs, and to otherwise support highwaysafety-related enforcement, education and awareness initiatives.
■ Driving Under the Influence: The Division awarded 328 grants
totaling $3.5 million to support programs that combat driving under
the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
■ Seat Belt Safety/Occupant Protection Grants: The Division
awarded 46 grants totaling $1.8 million in Safety Belt Performance
funds to support enforcement of seat belt safety laws among other
initiatives. The Division also awarded 161 grants totaling $771,000
in Occupant Protection Incentive Grant funds to support programs
that encourage proper restraint of all vehicle occupants.
■ Child Safety Restraints: The Division awarded 23 grants totaling
$591,600 to be used for enforcement of child safety seat laws and
to support public education programs focused on proper use and
installation of child safety restraints.

37

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

Division of Gaming Enforcement
The mission of the Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) is to protect
the public interest by maintaining a legitimate and viable casino industry
free from the influence of organized crime, and to ensure the honesty,
good character and integrity of casino operators, vendors and employees.
Through its various bureaus, the Division oversees all aspects of gaming
in Atlantic City, including license investigations of individuals and companies, inspections of individual slot games and systems, the auditing of
gaming returns, and criminal and regulatory prosecutions. Criminal cases
identified by the Division are investigated by the New Jersey State Police
and prosecuted by the Division of Criminal Justice. For more information
about the Division of Gaming Enforcement visit www.njdge.org.

■ Regulatory Prosecutions Bureau—Compliance: The Regulatory
Prosecutions Bureau is responsible for prosecuting violations of the Casino Control Act and the regulations promulgated by the Casino Control
Commission as they relate to casino operations. The Bureau initiated 28
new violation actions and 29 forfeiture actions in 2010. It also resolved
22 formerly-pending regulatory violation actions and 24 forfeiture actions
before the Casino Control Commission. Collectively, these concluded
cases resulted in more than $600,000 in fines, penalties and forfeitures.
Monies collected as a result of the fines and forfeitures are awarded to the
New Jersey Council on Compulsive Gambling, which uses the funds to
educate compulsive gamblers and to combat gambling addictions.

Significant Matters

■ Regulatory Enforcement Bureau Tracks All Elements of Casino Operations: The Regulatory Enforcement Bureau is responsible for monitoring
casino operations and information technology, enforcing the exclusion
and self-exclusion lists and alcohol beverage control laws, performing
casino forensic audits, and overseeing all aspects of homeland security for
the casino industry. The unit investigates such areas as casino computer
systems, surveillance issues, underage drinking and gambling, casino
credit and employee theft. In addition, it performs security vulnerability
assessments of each casino property and coordinates the homeland security needs of the casinos with local, state and federal law enforcement.

■ Casino Licensing: As a result of economic conditions, the Division
investigated a number of corporate restructurings and refinancings in
2010, including four transactions by Caesars Entertainment Corp. and
one by Borgata. The Division also analyzed and issued recommendations concerning the Trump Entertainment bankruptcy plan of reorganization and, following a preliminary investigation, the status of a bond
holder’s application for interim casino authorization. In addition to these
actions, the Division closely monitored the financial conditions of a
number of struggling properties to ensure they could meet their legal
obligations and thereby maintain their casino licenses.
■ Technical Services Bureau: The Technical Services Bureau ensures
the integrity and fairness of all electronic gaming equipment used in
Atlantic City. In addition to completing more than 900 gaming submissions annually, the Bureau is also called upon to assist law enforcement
with technical aspects of casino-related investigations, and to testify
in court proceedings if necessary. In 2010, the Bureau continued to
improve its efficiency as evidenced by a reduction in the average number
of days required to review and make recommendations, or package submissions, from 32 to 22. In addition, the Bureau established an Internet
portal to allow manufacturers and casinos to track the status of their
submissions, print approval letters and identify revoked software. These
computer applications have been lauded by the casino industry and have
eliminated the need to telephone inquiries and hard-copy mailings.

38

In 2010, the forensic audit units conducted a total of 618 investigations
of casino internal controls to verify compliance with casino regulations,
including monthly analyses of currency transaction reports and suspicious activity reports. The Casino Information Technology unit conducted 1,098 investigations, including computer system security checks
to ensure that the systems are providing accurate revenue information
and remain free from unauthorized access. The Casino Operations Unit
conducted a total of 5,820 investigations, including detailed analysis
of surveillance systems, security procedures, compliance with underage gambling and drinking laws, use of unauthorized service industry
vendors, and compliance with rules-of-the-game and gaming equipment
specifications. For minor regulatory infractions, the Regulatory Enforcement Bureau issued 89 Notices of Non-compliance. These matters
required corrective action on the part of the casinos, but did not rise to
the level of necessitating further legal action.

39

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control
The mission of the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control is to
regulate how alcoholic beverages are sold and to foster moderation
and responsibility in alcohol consumption. The Division pursues its
mission by regulating and licensing the manufacture, distribution,
sale and transportation of all alcoholic beverages within the state.
Essential to state control of the liquor industry is the concept that
licensees are granted a privilege to sell alcoholic beverages, and
that this privilege can be revoked. If a licensee violates any law or
regulation, the ABC Director may suspend or revoke the license
or impose a fine and/or other appropriate condition. The Division
is the official repository for licensee ownership information. The
Division is also the sole issuing authority of manufacturing and
wholesale licenses, as well as a variety of special permits to enable
the sale of alcoholic beverages in conjunction with charitable and
business-related events. More information about the Division is
available at www.nj.gov/oag/abc.

Case Highlights
■ Revocation of license of UHR, LLC t/a Hooters & Sidepockets: In
the wake of an underage patron’s death in a one-car accident within
minutes of leaving the tavern in Union Township, Union County, as
well as other reported incidents involving underage patrons being
served, the Division moved to revoke UHR’s liquor license. In June
the Division did, in fact, issue an order revoking the license and
ordering divestiture, by end of the current license term, of other

Overview
ABC enforcement actions generated approximately $2.1 million in
total penalties and fines in 2010. The Division’s Investigations Bureau conducted 436 investigations and 415 inspections of retail and
wholesale businesses. In addition, Bureau personnel were involved
in 1,138 undercover operations in 864 licensed establishments,
resulting in the arrest of 157 persons and the “carding” of 2,584 persons to verify they were of legal age to purchase or consume alcohol.
Three-hundred-eighteen cases involving a total of nearly 1,200
administrative charges were referred to the Division’s Enforcement
Bureau for review. Enforcement Bureau personnel also provided
technical and investigative guidance on 656 municipal enforcement
issues. The Division’s Licensing Bureau processed approximately
9,200 retail licenses and approximately 95,000 other permits.

40

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Division of
Alcoholic Beverage Control

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General
licenses held by owners of more than 20 percent of UHR’s stock.
Twenty-year-old Chantal Mueller died in a single-car crash less than
10 minutes after leaving Hooters in January 2007. Mueller, who
weighed 107 pounds, had a blood alcohol concentration of .302 percent after consuming 11 ounces of 80 proof alcohol – more than four
times the legal limit. An investigation determined that Mueller continued to be served even after a tavern employee observed her to be
visibly intoxicated. UHR was cited by the Division for a total of four
license violations involving Mueller and other underage patrons. The
charges included three citations for selling alcohol to an underage
person and one for selling alcohol to an intoxicated person.
■ Route 17 Entertainment Corp. t/a Satin Dolls and Sea-Card Enterprises, Inc. t/a AJ’s Gentlemen’s Club: The Division filed charges
in 2010 alleging that Anthony Cardinalle, an individual who is criminally disqualified from holding a liquor license, held an undisclosed
interest in license-holders Route 17 Entertainment (Satin Dolls) and
Sea-Card (AJ’s Gentlemen’s Club). Satin Dolls, site of the fictional
“Bada Bing” club on the HBO drama “The Sopranos,” is located in
Lodi, Bergen County. AJ’s is located in Secaucus, Hudson County.
Cardinalle’s wife was the sole disclosed shareholder of both licenses.
Cardinalle, who was previously convicted of federal tax evasion, was
not listed as a shareholder in the licenses. In addition to charging that Cardinalle held undisclosed interest in both premises, the
Division also charged failure to maintain accurate financial records.
Under terms of a settlement, the licensee of record paid the Divi-

42

sion $1.25 million in lieu of license revocation, and the two licenses
were transferred to the licensee’s daughter. In addition, new management was hired to oversee the two licensed premises, and a certified
public accountant and compliance officer with ABC experience were
hired to ensure that all Division regulations are followed. The settlement also required that the two licenses be sold by 2015 to a bona
fide third party.

Kerry Dyke, an eighth grade
student of Perth Amboy
Catholic School was the first
place winner of the Division’s
2010 Annual Calendar Contest
and had her work featured on
the 2011 calendar cover.

■ Cage 3 Group, LLC, t/a Marlton Tavern: In 2010 the Marlton Tavern in Evesham Township, Burlington County, agreed to serve an 18day license suspension and pay the State $45,000 to settle charges
related to its employment of persons who engaged in narcotics
activity on the premises, and who had prior convictions for crimes or
moral turpitude. The settlement resolved license violations related
to the arrest, in 2005 and 2008, of employees who’d engaged in
drug transactions on tavern premises and were ultimately convicted.
The tavern had also been cited for employing persons disqualified
from working on licensed premises because of prior convictions for
crimes of moral turpitude (aggravated assault and possession of
cocaine with intent to distribute.)

43

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

Juvenile Justice Commission
The mission of the Juvenile Justice Commission is to foster public
safety and reduce juvenile delinquency by holding young offenders
accountable, providing them opportunities to achieve positive change,
and promoting their return to the community as productive, law-abiding citizens. Now in its second decade of existence – the agency was
created by statute in 1995 – the JJC continues to focus on serving the
needs of at-risk youth and those adjudicated delinquent by the courts
and placed in its custody. The year 2010 presented many challenges, as
the JJC continued to provide quality services and facilities during fiscally
challenging times. All areas of the agency were scrutinized with the goal
of reducing spending while not compromising the programs needed to
support at-risk youth, provide rehabilitative services for young people
under JJC supervision, and structure reentry initiatives that help juvenile
offenders make the transition back into their home communities. More
information about the JJC is available at www.nj.gov/oag/jjc

Keynote Developments/Initiatives
JDAI Effort a National Model
The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) continues to serve
as a model program for the nation, as data for the 12 New Jersey counties that were active in JDAI throughout 2010 demonstrates. According
to the latest data:
■ On any given day, there were 381 fewer youth in secure detention in
2010, with youth of color accounting for 90 percent of this decrease.
■ New Jersey JDAI sites reduced the total number of juveniles admitted
to county detention for a technical violation of probation by 13.5 percent
■ Across 11 JDAI sites reporting detention alternative outcome
data, the success rate in 2010 averaged approximately 79 percent.
Throughout these sites, an average of less than 4 percent of juveniles
were discharged from a detention alternative program due to a new
alleged offense.
■ The number of girls in detention on any given day decreased by

44

about 58 percent across the 12 JDAI sites.
■ A total of 5,079 fewer youth were admitted to juvenile detention
in 2010 – a decrease of nearly 54 percent – when 2010 data is compared with data from the year prior to JDAI’s implementation at each
of the 12 sites.
While nationally, JDAI operates in 109 local jurisdictions spanning 26
states, New Jersey is the only state to be designated a national model for
detention reform by the respected Annie Casey Foundation of Baltimore.
Consistent with the national JDAI experience, cost-savings have been
realized in New Jersey as the result of JDAI. Significant juvenile population reductions have allowed several counties to close their detention
centers and house their youth in other counties’ facilities. Gloucester,
Passaic, Sussex, and Monmouth Counties each closed their juvenile
detention centers by the end of 2010, and entered into agreements with
other counties to house their juveniles. These agreements resulted in
millions of dollars in cost savings for the sending counties and substantial revenue increases for the receiving counties of Camden, Essex,
Morris, and Middlesex.
Nationally, in established JDAI sites, detention reform has proven to
be a springboard for broader juvenile justice system reform and related
cost-savings. Research indicates that detained youth are more likely to
be committed by the courts to state custody than youth with similar histories who have not been detained. It makes sense, then, that a reduction in the number of youth held in detention would lead to a reduction
in the number of youth committed to state custody — typically the
costliest of all placements. In New Jersey this has proven to be true.
Across the most established JDAI sites (i.e., the five original sites) commitments to the JJC have been reduced by 55 percent. This reduction in
commitments has the potential to save the state millions of dollars.
Since JDAI’s inception, juvenile arrests have continued to decline. This
trend demonstrates that, consistent with the national picture, JDAI is an
effective public safety strategy in New Jersey. In 2009, the most recent

45

Juvenile Justice
Commission

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General
year for which Uniform Crime Report data is available, juvenile arrests
were down in all twelve JDAI counties compared with data from the last
year before JDAI was implemented in those counties. As of the end of
2010, three more counties – Middlesex, Cumberland, and Warren – had
launched JDAI efforts, bringing to 15 the total number of participating
jurisdictions. The three new counties join the following counties, who already have JDAI programs: Atlantic, Camden, Essex, Hudson, Monmouth,
Bergen, Burlington, Mercer, Ocean, Union, Passaic and Somerset.

Creation of Therapeutic Mental Health Unit
The JJC opened a secure mental health unit at its Juvenile Medium Security Facility in January 2010. Known as “H-Wing,” this unit was created
to serve committed youth requiring the highest level of custody, with
persistent mental health pathologies and corresponding symptoms. The
opening of H-Wing resulted in the provision of a full continuum of care
for residents with mental health needs.

Program Units
The JJC has developed a therapeutic milieu treatment setting in three
housing units at the New Jersey Training School in Monroe Township.
The goal of the effort is to expand and enhance rehabilitative options
available to young people in JJC’s secure care facilities. The concept
is an adaptation of the Missouri Model, developed by the Missouri
Division of Youth Services. The model includes a focus on changing
thinking, rather than merely changing behavior. The model includes the
implementation of therapeutic units focused on cognitive behavioral
treatment, personal development, and group process.
The units will provide the JJC with a continuum of rehabilitative services
that promote positive growth and activities necessary for rehabilitation.
The treatment provided will be evidence-based and will be individualized based on residents’ risks and needs. It will also provide incentives for Level 2 (moderate security) residents who would otherwise be
ineligible for community program placement due to the nature of their

46

charges. All aspects of the environment are planned and designed to
provide a comprehensive experience for the residents. The core values
of the therapeutic milieu are: respect, communication, relationship
building, participation, process and responsibility. The units hold a
maximum of 30 residents and include a behavioral management system
that incorporates positive incentives and consequences appropriate to
each individual resident. A comparable program for female residents
was instituted in 2010 at the Juvenile Female Secure Care & Intake Facility-Hayes Unit, known as the “Exceptional Residents Program.”

Behavioral Management Program
The JJC fully implemented its Behavior Management Program in 2010.
The program utilizes a system of rewards and sanctions as a tool for
staff to encourage positive resident behavior and discourage negative
behavior. The Behavior Management Program is structured on a classification system that assigns residents to the lowest custody level (Custody
Level 1 or a community program) to the most secure level (Custody Level
3 or the Johnstone Campus’ secure facilities in Bordentown.) Residents
receive the most privileges in Custody Level 1 and the fewest privileges
in Custody Level 3. This “level system” offers incentives to exhibit positive behavior, school accomplishment, etc. as a means to gain Level 1
status and, accordingly, the greatest number of privileges. The Behavior
Management Program’s Incentives/Disincentives Grid delineates the
privileges each resident receives.
The Behavior Management Program is a true “accountability” system
that teaches residents that they determine their own level of privileges
by controlling their own behavior. Staff support is built into the program
to help residents who exhibit positive deportment maintain their status,
and to help those who display less than acceptable behavior to improve
their situations. A particularly important component of the Behavior
Management Program is a new level (Custody Level 2.1) that serves as
a support to the incentives/disincentives model. This new level was
incorporated into the program for residents who score Custody Level 1

classification, but are ineligible for transfer to a community program due
to the nature of their charges, i.e. murder, sexual assault/rape, fire setting, etc. In such cases, the Level 2.1 designation allows such residents
to be afforded Level 1 privileges within a Level 2 setting.

Secure Care & Transitional Services
Implementation of the Behavior Management Program and use of a
revised classification tool enabled the restructuring of the agency’s
secure care facilities to a more “operationally-friendly” function in 2010.
The JJC’s juvenile reception function was relocated from the Johnstone
Campus’ Juvenile Reception & Assessment Center (JRAC) to the New
Jersey Training School (NJTS) in May 2010. All juvenile intake processes
now take place at that location.
The former JRAC facility received the residential, operational and counseling components formerly located at the Juvenile Medium Security
Facility (JMSF) – a Level 3 facility. As a result, the former JRAC became
a Level 3 facility. The JMSF serves as the JJC’s Level 3 facility.
The NJTS serves as a Level 2 facility and contains self-contained, independent units (or cottages) that allow staffing levels to be adjusted according
to supervision needs. It also houses the Level 1 Program Units for those
residents who are ineligible for transfer to a community program.
The changes in the secure facilities have realized $4.8 million in cost
savings for the JJC, most importantly as they have allowed for significant
staff reductions in the custody ranks, the collapsing of housing unit
posts at JMSF, and the redeployment of personnel as a result of the Behavior Management Program and the revised classification process, both
of which have contributed to enhanced operational effectiveness.

Apprenticeship Program
Restructuring within the JJC’s Office of Community Programs resulted
in the removal of younger residents from the Albert Elias Residential
Community Home to the Green Residential Community Home, which

services younger juveniles. This allowed for creation of a residential program for juveniles in possession of a high school diploma or GED who
needed an opportunity to earn credentials for future employment. The
JJC’s Office of Education, in collaboration with Mercer County Community College, subsequently offered students a 16-week apprenticeship
course in medical billing and training. Completion of this course will
result in the issuance of a certificate that is recognized by employers in
the medical field.

Step Up/Step Down Programming
Youths who are released from a JJC community program may be returned
to that program as part of their reentry process if they appear to be
heading toward non-compliance with the conditions of their release.
This graduated sanction allows youth at risk of violating the conditions
of their release to refocus their reentry efforts and, with the support of

47

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

New Jersey Racing Commission
The core mission of the Racing Commission is to govern, direct and regulate horse racing and pari-mutuel wagering in New Jersey. The Commission conducts vigorous oversight of horse racing matters throughout the
state to ensure that racing is conducted in a fair, responsible and lawful
manner. Commission staff members also provide administrative support
to encourage the growth of the horse racing industry through expansion of wagering opportunities. The Commission was extremely active in
2010 in its oversight of the industry and responded in a timely fashion to
ever-changing industry needs. Originally scheduled to hold six meetings,
the Commission held six additional meetings, one of which resulted
in the approval, after special legislation was enacted and signed by the
Governor, of the amendment of racing dates for Monmouth Park that
created an “elite meet” of 50, $1 million dollar purse dates. This action
was lauded by the racing industry nationwide. For additional information, visit the Racing Commission Web site at www.nj.gov/oag/racing

Highlights
■ New Chairman Sworn In: Attorney Dennis A. Drazin was sworn in as
Chairman of the Racing Commission on May 14, 2010. Chairman Drazin
has a history of extensive involvement in horse racing, having owned and
bred thoroughbreds in New Jersey, New York, Kentucky and Florida. He
is president of Drazin and Warshaw, a Red Bank based law firm. In his
previous position as president and legal counsel of the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, he was instrumental in coordinating
efforts to secure additional funding for the Monmouth Park meet.
■ Steroid Testing: The Commission increased its drug testing capabilities during the year through enforcement of rules that allow testing
for steroids in race horses. The Commission purchased specialized
equipment for such testing, which is conducted at the New Jersey State
Police Forensic Laboratory located at the Meadowlands Racetrack. Two
forensic scientists were added in 2010 to conduct the tests. Including
tests for steroids, more than 39,000 samples were evaluated during the
year resulting in 31 “positives.” The Commission also continued with its
out-of-competition testing program, conducting such testing twice at
race track grounds and on five occasions at off-track stabling facilities.

48

■ Off-Track Wagering: The three Off-track Wagering facilities in New
Jersey processed nearly $142 million in wagers on in-state and out-of-state
races in 2010. The off-track wagering site in Woodbridge, Middlesex County
– reportedly the highest volume off-track-wagering facility in the United States
– captured $90 million in bets. The Commission authorized a fourth off-track
wagering facility planned for Bayonne, Hudson County in 2010. That project,
however, is on hold pending resolution of racetrack ownership issues.
■ Account Wagering: Account wagering is operated by the New Jersey
Sports and Exposition Authority and offers state residents the opportunity
to place bets via computer and telephone on horse races taking place in
New Jersey, as well as on races happening in other jurisdictions. Since its
first full year of operation in 2006, the betting volume for account wagering has grown from $60 million to nearly $87 million in 2010.
■ Endorsement of National Racing Compact: The Commission approved a resolution in 2010 supporting a proposal to create a National
Racing Compact. The Compact would encourage and facilitate interstate
cooperation among member states, as well as uniformity in the regulation of racing by those states. The Compact would also be a central
forum to collect racing data, research same and consolidate resources
needed for the rule-making process, resulting in a cost savings to all
members. At least six jurisdictions must pass legislation in order for the
Racing Compact to be formed.
■ Approval of Scientific Games Purchase: The Commission authorized
the purchase of Scientific Games, LLC following a comprehensive investigation by staff into the potential buyer’s suitability to own and operate the
wagering hub. In September, Sportech PLC was approved and now runs
the Quantum Data Center East that processes all wagers made at New
Jersey Racetracks, Casino Race Books in Atlantic City and the New Jersey
Account Wagering System, as well as the state’s three off-track wagering facilities. In addition, as a cost saving measure, the data center is a
regional hub processing pari-mutuel wagering from out-of-state locations.
■ Adoption of Rules: The Commission promulgates rules and regulations to support and enforce its regulatory functions. During 2010, the
Commission adopted six new rules, including one that enhanced the
standards for rider safety vests and helmets.

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2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

State Athletic Control Board
The State Athletic Control Board is charged with the regulation
and supervision of all contests and exhibitions of unarmed combat
held within the State. The Board’s main purposes are to ensure the
health and safety of contestants and ensure integrity and fairness in
all contests. The agency collects ticket and television taxes, licensing fees and disciplinary fines as its revenue sources. The presence
of combative sporting events often leads to increased casino drop,
higher hotel occupancy rates, employment opportunities and other
taxable revenues. Additional information about the State Athletic
Control Board is available at www.nj.gov/oag/sacb.

Highlights
■ The Board successfully regulated 25 professional boxing events,
19 professional mixed martial arts events, 21 amateur mixed martial
arts events and 5 muay thai events.

bers at a formal open public hearing.
■ Chief Boxing Ringside Physician Dr. Domenic Coletta was inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame.
■ Chief Martial Arts Ringside Physician Dr. Sheryl Wulkan was
honored in Orlando, Florida as the Ringside Physician of the Year by
the American Association of Professional Ringside Physicians.
■ Counsel Nicholas Lembo was inducted into the Action Martial
Arts Hall of Fame.
■ The Board’s physicians screened two contestants and prevented
them from competing in 2010. As a result, one contestant underwent life-saving brain surgery. The other was found to require heart
surgery, which was successful.
■ The agency collected nearly $250,000 dollars in overdue child
support payments from the purses of licensed contestants.

■ Major events such as the UFC on pay- per-view, and championship caliber ESPN boxing featuring Tomasz Adamek, were held at
the Prudential Center in Newark. Meanwhile, world championship
boxing featuring HBO’s KO-of—the-Year winner, Sergio Martinez,
and Kelly Pavlik, was staged in Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. At
smaller levels, the agency regulated events from North Bergen to
Wildwood Crest.
■ Commissioner Aaron Davis was a keynote speaker at the Association of Boxing Commissions annual convention held in New Orleans.
He continues to Chair the Code of Conduct and other committees.
■ Commissioner Davis’s decision to deny a boxing license to highprofile boxer Hector Camacho, Sr. was upheld by the Board Mem-

5050

51

2010 Annual Report • Office of the Attorney General

Victims of Crime Compensation Office
The Victims of Crime Compensation Office (VCCO) was created
under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act of 1971 to provide financial assistance to eligible victims and their families for
a variety of victim services, including, but not limited to, mental
health counseling, medical services and financial support. For more
information about the Victims of Crime Compensation Office, visit
the Web site at www.nj.gov/oag/njvictims.

Highlights
In 2010, the VCCO received 3,305 claims and reviewed 2,197
supplemental and reopened claims, for a total activity of 5,492
claim submittals. Of the claims submitted, 1,750 claims were paid
and 2,096 were administratively closed or denied as ineligible, for a
total of 3,846 claims concluded.
A total of approximately $9.5 million in victims’ compensation was
paid in 2010. Of this figure, approximately $6 million was paid
to victims of assault, $1.7 million was paid to the surviving family
members of homicide victims, $844,465 was paid to victims of sexual assault, and $438,874 was paid to the victims of child abuse.
Because of compensation provided by the VCCO, the financial
burden on crime victims and their families is lessened. VCCO pays
a myriad of crime related expenses. Among the expenses paid were:
■ $4.8 million in crime-related medical or dental expenses.
■ $1.7 million in economic support including loss of earnings,
relocation and stolen cash.
■ $1.2 million in funeral expenses.
■ $838,976 in mental health counseling services
■ $887,000 paid to families for loss of financial support.
In 2010, the VCCO continued its Outreach Program in an effort

to educate service providers and the public at largconcerning on
available victims’ benefits. These efforts included launching a new
Web site containing updates, and numerous training seminars to
EMTs, SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) staff and hospital
personnel, staff from county prosecutor’s offices, municipal courts,
medical service providers, youth groups, non-profits, governmental
agencies and the public at large.
In addition to federal grant and state funding, the VCCO also
receives funding via penalties assessed against offenders. In 2010,
funding received from these sources included:
■ $4.9 million (net) in penalty revenue Funds collected through
the courts.
■ $2.7 million in commissary funds collected through jails.
■ $219,585 in restitution assessments from offenders.
■ $174,441 in subrogation from civil suits.

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www.nj.gov/oag

NEW JERSEY OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

DEPARTMENT

OF

LAW

AND

PUBLIC

SAFETY