Last November I wrote Strange Justice, a piece about my observations of the criminal sentencings of former Brookdale Community Community College President Peter Burnham and former Eatontown Detective Philip Emanulle.
Both men were charged with Official Misconduct. Burnham pled guilty to the Official Misconduct Charge and to Theft. He charged $24,000 on the college’s credit cards for personal expenses over an eight year period and used a $20,000 federal grant for his son’s tuition at Monmouth University for personal use after Brookdale had already paid the tuition. In addition to Official Misconduct, Emanuelle was charged with Sexual Assault, Criminal Coercion and Tampering with Evidence. The Sexual Assault and Official Misconduct charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. Emanuelle pled guilty to Coercion and Tampering. Emanulle got five years probation. Burnham was sentenced to five years in prison with the stipulation that he serve at least two years before he is eligible for release.
Burnham is in State Prison now. A mutual friend tells me prison has not been easy for Burnham. That is an understatement. It hasn’t been easy for his family either. Burnham had already lost his job and pension. What was unexpected by his family is that he also lost his Social Security Benefits as a result of his conviction.
On January 8, Marlboro resident Mark Trawinski was sentenced to five months in prison for tax evasion. Between 2002 and 2008, Trawinski didn’t pay the employment taxes withheld from his employees wages or the business’s employment taxes. He beat the government for $713,759 and used the money in part to purchase a $1 million home in Florida that he tried to hide from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and the IRS. In addition to his five months in prison, after Trawinski is released this spring he will be confined to his home for five months and he will undergo three years of supervised release. He must also pay back the $713,759 to the IRS.
Why is Burnham doing two years hard time for stealing $44,000 while Emanulle got off with probation for Sexual Assault and and Trawinski got five months for stealing $713,759? Official Misconduct.
Two former public servants were in Judge Thomas F. Scully’s courtroom this morning to be sentenced for crimes to which they had negotiated plea bargains.
The courtroom was crowded for former Eatontown detective Philip Emanuelle’s sentencing. On one side of the gallery were Emanuelle’s wife, and many supporters. On the other side was the 25 year old woman who said she was raped by Emanuelle while he was armed, the woman’s family and many supporters. The tearful and tragic emotion in the room was raw.
Emanuelle, 33, of Brick Township, served in the Eatontown Police Department for eight years. He was charged with one count of Sexual Assault, two counts of Official Misconduct, a count of third degree Criminal Coercion and a fourth degree count of Tampering with Physical Evidence.
The Sexual Assault charge and the Official Misconduct charges were dismissed as part of his plea agreement. He was sentenced to five years probation, the loss of his job, and prohibited from public employment for life for the Criminal Coercion and the Tampering with Physical Evidence charges. Emanuelle left the courthouse with his family and friends.
A different and smaller crowd was in the courtroom a short while later. There were no tears shed by former Brookdale Community College President Peter Burnham or his family. Burham quoted Kipling’s The Road Less Traveled, while pleading with Scully to give him a lesser sentence than the one to which he had already agreed to serve.
Burnham, who presided over Brookdale for more than two decades, pled guilty to stealing roughly $44,000 from Monmouth County’s community college; $24,000 in charges for personal expenses to the college’s credit cards over an 8 year period and $20,000 in tuition reimbursement for his son that had already been paid for by the federal government. He was sentenced to five years in State Prison with no eligibility for parole for the first two years. Burnham was taken into custody after sentencing.
Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor, Christopher J. Gramiccioni, described Burnhman as “a king who ruled Brookdale with an iron fist,” a greedy arrogant man compensated very generously with a pay package worth over $300,000 per year who still betrayed the public trust by stealing $44,000.
In contrast, Emmanuelle’s victim graphically described being forcibly raped after she declined to perform oral sex on the detective who was still wearing his gun during the act. She said another victim had come forth. Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Schweers told Scully that his office did not believe they had sufficient evidence to prosecute Emanuelle for the other woman’s allegations.
The victim asked Scully to disregard the plea bargain that she agreed to and send Emanuelle to prison.
Scully told Emanuelle that his actions were “utterly hideous.” The judge repeatedly expressed his shock at the high level of support Emanuelle was receiving from his wife, family and friends. Then Scully gave Emanuelle a longer probationary term than callled for in the plea agreement.
Burnham went to jail today. Emmanuelle went home.
The fact that these two sentencing hearings occurred back to back is legally irrelevant. While they occurred moments apart, they seemed like alternate realities playing out on the same stage after a brief intermission.
Each case was probably disposed of justly on its own merits. But viewed together, back to back, by a layman, it seemed that the cop got away with rape while the college president went to jail for a relatively minor infraction. Burnham’s infraction seemed very minor compared to Emanuelle’s crime. Yet Burnham’s next five years will be much harsher than Emanuelle’s.
Prosecutor: The Brookdale investigation is ongoing
Curley calls for resignation of Trustees
Former Brookdale Community College President Peter Burnham, 68, pleaded guilty to one count of third degree theft by deception and two counts of second degree official misconduct today before Judge Thomas F. Scully in Monmouth County Court, according to Acting Monmouth County Prosectuor Christopher Gramiccioni.
In a plea agreement, Burnham accepted a five year prison term. During the first two years he will be ineligible for parole. Gramiccioni said the parole leniency is in consideration for Burnham’s cooperation with the investigation into Brookdale which is ongoing. The prosecutor said he expects Burnham, who was released on his own recognisance today, will serve two years after he is sentenced on September 21st.
Gramiccioni said the Brookdale investigation has been going on for the last 15 months. He declined to say who else at the college is being investigated.
Burnham admitted using college credit cards for more than $24,000 in personal expenses and to defrauding Brookdale and the federal government of $20,398 in funds intended for his son’s college tuition. Both Brookdale and the federal government paid the young Burnham’s tuition at Monmouth University. Monmouth later cut a refund check to Burnham for $20,398. He kept the money.
Freeholder Director John Curley, the “whistle blower” on the Brookdale scandal, today called upon those members of the college’s Board of Trustees who served during Burnham’s tenure as president to immediately resign.
Curley said that two Trustees have been replaced sense Burnham’s resignation. He wants all but the two replacements to resign today. Curley first shed light on Burnham’s spending irregularities in a statement issued to MMM in February of 2011.
Monmouth County Prosecutor Peter E. Warshaw, Jr was nominated by Governor Chris Christie to become a Superior Court Judge on June 14. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold his confirmation hearing today. He is likely to be confirmed by the full Senate before the end of the week, ending his 18 month tenure as county prosecutor.
First Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni is expected to be nominated to replace Warshaw as the chief prosecutor in Monmouth County. Word in the legal community is that Gramiccioni, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney under Christie, was the governor’s first choice to become Monmouth County Prosecutor in 2010 but that he was 18 months short of the residency requirements.
Former Monmouth County Sheriff Joe Oxley, also former Monmouth GOP Chairman, was nominated to the Court on May 14. Oxley’s confirmation has yet to be scheduled by the Democratically controlled Judiciary Committee, due in part to a Star Ledger report that federal informant Soloman Dwek accused Oxley, Senator Joe Kyrillos and Assemblywoman Amy Handlin of trading favors for campaign contributions.
Dwek’s allegations were revealed in discovery documents in the civil case of former Hudson County Assemblyman Louis Manzo who unsuccessly sued the U.S. Attorney’s office to recover $100K in legal fees that resulted Manzo’s 2009 Operation Bid Rig indictments. Manzo was accused under the Hobbs Act of accepting bribes from Dwek in exchange for future help in zoning and permit applications should Manzo be elected Jersey City Mayor. Manzo was running for Mayor for the fifth time when the alleged bribe occurred. Federal Judge Jose Linares threw out the charges on the basis that the Hobbs Act applied only to elected officials, not candidates. The Appellate Court affirmed Linares’ ruling.
The discovery documents in Manzo’s civil case miraculously found their way to the Star Ledger in what Kyrillos called an “oppo (opposition research) dump” by U. S. Senator Robert Menedez’s reelection campaign. Kyrillos is the GOP nominee to unseat Menendez and a minority member of the State Senate Judiciary Committee which reviews judicial nominations.
Expect the Judiciary Committee to schedule Oxley’s confirmation hearing in September or October as the general election campaign is heating up. Democratic Senator Ray Lesniak has called for Dwek, who is in federal prison, to testify at Oxley’s hearing. That would put Kyrillos, as a member of the committee and also accused by Dwek of trading favors for contributions, in a hot seat at the height of the U.S. Senate campaign.
In another potential twist in this tangled web, Gramiccioni was one of the federal prosecutors working on the Bid Rig investigations, including Manzo’s, according to Bob Ingle and Michael Symons in Chris Christie: The Inside Story Of His Rise To Power (page 90). Should Gramiccioni be nominated Monmouth County Prosecutor, as expected, his nomination will also be subject to a Judiciary Committee hearing.
Gramiccioni’s wife, Deborah, is Governor Christie’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Cabinet Liason.
