Responding to the New York Times series on on the lax conditions at New Jersey’s halfway houses, Governor Chris Christie has ordered Department of Corrections Commissioner Gary Lanigan to step up inspections of the facilities and report violations and recommendations for changes to the Governor’s office.
“While many of the disturbing accounts reported in today’s New York Times documenting lax oversight and accountability in some of New Jersey’s halfway houses took place prior to this administration, we have an obligation to ensure the community placements program is effectively and safely operating today. This administration takes its responsibility to properly administer this program very seriously which is why we have increased monitoring of halfway houses with enhanced site visits, fines for noncompliance and a new inspection monitoring system that has led to a dramatic decrease in the number of walkaways under this administration.
“New Jersey has been on the cutting edge of pursuing policies that both ensure our most violent offenders stay off the streets, such as closing the early release loophole, and support a more rehabilitative approach focused on nonviolent offenders. We need to constantly ensure these policies are being responsibly and safely implemented which is why I am calling on the Department of Corrections Commissioner Gary Lanigan to immediately step up inspections of all halfway houses and report any violations and recommendations for changes to the deputy chief of staff for policy.”
Parts one and two of the NYTimes series can be found here and here.
In Chris Christie:The Inside Story of His Rise to Power, authors Bob Ingle and Michael Symons describe U.S. Attorney Christie’s reluctance to use Solomon Dwek as informant during the Operation Bid Rig investigation in 2006. “Do I really want to get in bed with this guy?” Christie is described as asking his deputies who were pushing for approval to make Dwek an informant.
Ironically given how Democrats and defendants have argued that the July 2009 arrests based on Dwek’s sting were politically motivated to help Christie, the Deputy U.S. Attorneys advocating the sting argued to Christie that he would have been acting politically if he did not approve Dwek’s cooperation.
If this Star Ledger article by Matt Friedman is an indication of charades to come this summer, the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee will make Joe Oxley’s confirmation hearing for his Superior Court Judgeship nomination a payback for the unceremonious end to former House Speaker, Senator and Commissioner of Community Affairs Joe Doria’s career when he his home was raided during the July 2009 federal operation.
Doria has been cleared of any wrongdoing. He has a letter from the U.S. Attorney, just like John Bennett does, but his career in public service is over. Maybe Doria can become Chairman of the Hudson County Democrats some day.
U.S. Senate nominee Joe Kryillos is in the Democrats sites as well. Dwek is the ammunition.
Democratic State Chairman John Wisniewski Tuesday issued a list of questions for Kyrillos, including how often he met with Dwek, what was discussed, who else was in attendance and whether he was ever contacted by law enforcement about it. “If you deny this and suggest Dwek is lying, does that raise the possibility with you that Dwek’s testimony that convicted others should be questioned?” Wisniewski wrote.
Kyrillos campaign spokesman Chapin Fay did not directly respond to Wisniewski, instead repeating that Kyrillos did nothing to help Dwek.
During the trial of Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez it was revealed that among the diobalical schemes Dwek deployed in the 14 years leading to his 2006 arrest was a life insurance scam. Dwek paid the life insurance premiums of people close to death who could not afford to keep their policies. Upon the death of the insured, Dwek would give the deceased’s family 10% of the policy proceeds and pocket the rest.
Dwek’s father tried to get Soloman a pardon from President George W. Bush. Maybe President Obama will pardon Dwek if he helps knock Chris Christie down a notch and helps keep Bob Menendez in the Senate.
Who is this woman who, only six years ago was not involved in politics and now has State Legislators and county elected officials feverishly working the phones to make sure she is elected Monmouth County GOP Chair on Tuesday evening at Colts Neck High School?
Late last week as I was finishing up my preparation for this series, I called two of the elected officials who had endorsed John Bennett for Chair. I trust these people’s judgment and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something.
“Tell me why John Bennett will be a better Chair than Christine Hanlon,” I asked both Republicans. Neither had an answer. Both said they liked Christine and that she would be a good Chairwoman. They both spoke of their friendship with Bennett and the support he gave them early in their careers as the reason for endorsements. Neither disagreed with my concerns about Bennett’s baggage.
One of them called me back over the weekend and asked, “Why do you think Christine will be a better Chair than John?” “Bennett is too much of a risk. Fair or not, he will become a campaign issue and a distraction. No one works harder than Christine and she’s motivated by something other than personal gain,” was my reply. “How can you say that about someone who has only been involved for a few years?” the person quickly asked. “Because I’ve taken the time to get to know her, just like I took the time to get to know you when you were running.” “Oh, I was just asking.” “That’s OK, I was just answering.”
Amazon Making Plans to Open Two New Jersey Facilities, Expected to Create Thousands of Jobs, Including 1,500 Permanent Jobs
Trenton, NJ – Joined by company representatives, Governor Chris Christie announced today the beginning of a long-term partnership with global e-commerce leader Amazon.com starting with the company’s plans to begin construction on two state-of-the-art fulfillment distribution center facilities in the state in 2013. Today’s announcement establishes a future partnership committed to growing New Jersey’s economy and creating quality jobs. These distribution facilities are expected to result in at least $130 million in capital investment, along with the expected creation of several thousand quality jobs for our families, including plans for over 1,500 full-time jobs, as well as thousands of full-time temporary, seasonal and construction jobs. The investment commitment is contingent on the receipt of economic development incentives that make such investment economically viable for both the State of New Jersey and the company.
“In yet another positive sign in our state’s economic and job growth, I’m pleased Amazon is committed to helping New Jersey grow and create quality jobs,” said Governor Christie. “After months of hard work and collaboration, Amazon has joined the long list of companies that recognize New Jersey’s economic and business climate is improving. We’ve created an atmosphere of job creation, growth and investment, which is why we have taken another important step toward placing quality, good-paying job opportunities within reach of our families.”
Separately, Governor Christie also announced today that, working together, the Administration and Amazon have reached an agreement that provides certainty with regard to Amazon’s obligation to collect sales tax on purchases by New Jersey consumers. This agreement culminated after months of hard work and cooperation among Amazon staff, the Governor’s Office, the Treasury Department’s Division of Taxation, and legislative staff.
According to the agreement between the New Jersey Division of Taxation and Amazon, the company will voluntarily begin to collect and remit New Jersey sales tax by July 1, 2013, or as of the effective date of federal legislation concerning state sales tax collection from out-of-state retailers, whichever is earlier. This means New Jerseyans will no longer have the required responsibility of tracking and reporting use tax owed on their online purchases from Amazon, and the State will receive the sales tax it is due to fund programs and services for its residents.
The Christie Administration continues to take action on an aggressive, pro-growth agenda to prioritize job creation and economic growth for New Jersey families. Governor Christie secured passage of $2.35 billion in targeted, job-creating business tax cuts beginning in the current budget and has worked to secure New Jersey as the home for business investment and growth from companies of all sizes, including household names like Panasonic, Honeywell, BASF, Church and Dwight, Coca Cola and Bayer.
Since taking office, New Jersey has seen the creation of over 71,000 private sector jobs and experienced the best year of private sector job growth of the last decade in 2011.
Someone should tell Barnes, and Politickernj’s Darryl Isherwood, that Democratic NY Governor Andrew Cuomo is employing the exact same fund raising technique to promote his agenda in New York that Christie is using in New Jersey.
All of this ranting about PACs and 501(c)4’s circumventing the pay to pay laws is silly. The campaign finance system is working exactly the way it was designed to work. It decreases transparency and gives politicians something to shout at each other about while the public tunes out to pay attention to something more entertaining. That’s what the system was designed to do!
Note to Isherwood: The New York Times broke the story about Cuomo’s use of a 501(c)4.
Assemblyman Sean Kean says he and Judge Paul Escandon do not share a political agenda, that his proposed legislation to reform alimony and child support is not anti-women, and that he believes in the integrity, ethics and fairness of Escandon.
Kean was responding to Rachel Alintoff’s comment to Governor Chris Christie, “Judge Escandon is the former law partner of Assemblyman Sean Kean whose main platform is reducing Alimony for women. What will you do as Governor to make sure that Judges are kept from carrying out their own political agendas from the bench?”
“Alintoff has been having lots of people call my office about her case,” said Kean, “we tell them we are not familiar with the case and it would be inappropriate for a legislator to call a Judge about a case.”
Kean is the sponsor of two pieces of legislation regarding alimony and child support.
A685, which is co-sponsored by Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon. The companion bill in the Senate, S1388 is sponsored by Democratic Senator Nicholas Scutari, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Republican Senator Gerald Cardinale. The bill provides for modification of child support and certain alimony cases due to changed circumstances. Kean says this bill makes the Lepis decision, a 1980 NJ Supreme Court decision that defined “change of circumstances” for alimony cases legislated law rather than case law. “This bill puts the current case law into legislation,” said Kean.
A former Long Branch woman who appealed to Governor Chris Christie for help regarding unfair and illegal treatment by the Monmouth County Judge presiding over her divorce case says she has heard from the State Attorney General’s Criminal Division and the Governor’s office who have referred her case to the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct.
Rachel Alintoff, 36, told Christie during his town hall meeting in Garfield last week that Judge Paul X. Escandon stripped her of her parental rights of her 2 year old son, Hayden, without the legally required hearing, as punishment for her seeking an order of protection in New York, where she lives now, against her estranged husband Bryan who failed to dispose of a handgun as Escandon had ordered as part of a custody order.
Alintoff also told Christie that Escandon, after his ruling on her parental rights was overturned by the Appeals Court, denied her access to her clothing, money for legal fees and granted her only $1,100 per month in child support from her husband who earns, she says, over $500K per year on Wall Street.
Here’s a link to video of Alintoff speaking to Christie and the Governor’s response. The video will start with Christie recognising Alintoff. At the 43:58 mark Christie moves on to Peter, the young student who became famous for asking the Governor for a note to excuse him for missing school.
Here’s the text of Alintoff’s remarks and questions to Christie:
I am going through a divorce in Monmouth County in front of Judge Paul X. Escandon.
In October 2011, Judge Escandon stripped me of all my parental rights to my 2 year old son without the legally required hearing.
I had only supervised visitation. This was a punishment for an order of protection I was seeking in NYC (where I am currently living) when my husband failed to dispose of his handgun as per a court order. My son had to endure a month of barely seeing his mother until Judge Escandon was Summarily reversed by the Appelate Court for his illegal ruling.
Since then, Judge Escandon has gone on to make other illegal rulings against me such as denying me access to my clothing, granting no money for my legal fees and only issuing $1,100 in support a month to my son and me which puts us below the Federal Poverty Level. All while my husband makes on average over half a million dollars a year on Wall Street.
This is not an isolated incident. Judge Escandon has done similar things to other woman and has a habit of financiallly ruining women in his courtroom.
I have a 2-part question:
1) What will you do as Governor to ensure that Judges like Escandon follow the law or are taken off the bench?
2) Judge Escandon is the former law partner of Assemblyman Sean Kean whose main platform is reducing Alimony for women.
What will you do as Governor to make sure that Judges are kept from carrying out their own political agendas from the bench?
Alintoff, who first brought her situation to MMM’s attention as a comment in the post about the Garfield town hall meeting, says she’s heard from Jeanne Ashmore in the Governor’s Office and Detective Charles Crescenz in the Criminal Division of the Attorney General’s Office, both of whom told her the matter would be taken up by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct. Neither Crescenz nor Ashmore would comment to MMM. John Tonelli, Executive Director of the ACJC also declined to comment.
Alintoff emailed every member of the State Legislature today to inform them of her situation. Her father, Merny Schwartz, Phd, wrote to Chief Justice Stuart Rabner about Escandon’s conduct last December. Schwartz maintains a blog on his daughter’s case before Escandon, JudgePaulEscandon.blog.com.
Because The Asbury Park Press Is No Longer Relevant
The Asbury Park Press is outraged that Governor Chris Christie did not make the problems of the Lakewood school system a primary topic of his town hall meeting in Freehold yesterday. The Neptune Nudniks are also upset that Congressman Chris Smith hasn’t returned their calls for comment or held a press conference about the Lakewood schools since the paper and pay site ran their series CHEATED about the problems in Lakewood schools last week.
Christie spent much, if not most, of his town hall meeting yesterday talking about education reform. His focus was on tenure reform as a way to improve results in our failing urban schools and to stop paying “a Kings Ransom for failure” by flushing 15% of the state’s tax dollars into failing schools as New Jersey has done for decades.
If ever there was evidence that The Asbury Park Press has become irrelevant, it is their heavily promoted Cheated series, yesterday’s town hall meeting, combined with today’s rants by the Nudniks that Christie and Smith are not paying attention to them.
Why didn’t Christie talk about Lakewood yesterday to hundreds of residents in the APP’s coverage area? Because no one asked him. The governor was talking about education. The APP had just finished a “special series” on the Lakewood schools. Not one person in the audience of the town hall made the connection and asked the governor a question about Lakewood.
