Why did Christie pick now to replace Bergen County prosecutor?
It was no secret that Governor Christie wanted someone else leading the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office. The question at hand is: Why now?
Related Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli's long tenure drawing to close
Related: Timeline: Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli's tenure
A little more than two years ago, Christie thanked Prosecutor John Molinelli for his many years of service and said he looked “forward to a swift confirmation for his successor.”
Since then, Christie was reelected, the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal broke, and he began a campaign for president that has had him out of state for most of the summer and much of the fall. All the while, Molinelli remained prosecutor, while a list of complaints against him piled up.
Now Molinelli says Christie told him his reign as chief law enforcement officer of Bergen County is over, which raises questions about the timing of the move – an election is days away – and reopens a politically fraught confirmation process that could set up another stalemate with Democrats who control the Senate.
Christie’s office declined to provide any details or comment. And many of the legislators who will be involved in approving Molinelli’s successor had little more than speculation to offer as to why Christie decided now was the time for Molinelli to finally go.
“I would not say it’s surprising. I’m surprised it’s taken so long,” said Union County Democrat Nicholas Scutari, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the panel responsible for vetting nominations. “This is something that we thought eventually was going to happen. [Christie] didn’t want him there a couple years ago. Now I guess he’s ready to make a change.”
But Molinelli’s announcement Tuesday was “all too coincidental” with a letter from Bergen County Freeholder Chairwoman Joan Voss to the governor this month, said Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge.
Molinelli, whose second term expired in 2013, recently came under fire for his handling of the official-misconduct case of former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa, and for his fight to deny Carlstadt Mayor William Roseman’s entry into a trial diversion program in a case involving the borough providing health insurance for his ex-wife.
Molinelli’s granting permission for Teaneck dermatologist Gangaram Ragi to enter Pretrial Intervention twice following allegations of sexual assault and groping female patients recently became an issue in the freeholder race and at the board’s meetings.
Voss, a Democrat, sent a letter to the Republican governor, as well as to the state’s acting attorney general and the assignment judge of Bergen County’s Superior Court, notifying them of the complaints against Molinelli.
“Clearly the impetus has been this poorly written letter from the freeholder chairwoman,” said Sarlo, who sits on the Judiciary Committee. “I’m a firm believer that the letter gave the governor’s office coverage” to seek Molinelli’s removal.
Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg agreed.
“I think he, the governor, saw the opening and said, ‘All right, if I nominate someone and the Bergen County senators don’t sign off or the judiciary doesn’t have a hearing, then John Molinelli stays as a holdover. But if I take over the office I have my prosecutor there,’” said Weinberg, D-Teaneck.
Voss questioned the speed and timing of Christie’s actions, noting that transcripts of complaints made against Molinelli were mailed out only Friday.
“The letter does not in any way render any conclusion, nor does it request action,” Voss said in a prepared statement.
Another member of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Kevin O’Toole, R-Essex, offered a counter-theory. “He’s been there an extraordinary amount of time,” O’Toole said of Molinelli. “I wouldn’t make more of it than that.”
Finding and confirming a replacement for Molinelli isn’t likely to be a swift process, lawmakers said.
Bergen County legislators have a history of invoking “senatorial courtesy,” an informal practice that allows a senator to block nominees from his or her home county. It’s especially difficult to find consensus on a nominee in Bergen when there are five senators from two parties who can shoot down a nominee. It was a factor in a six-month backlog of judicial nominations for the state Superior Court in Bergen earlier this year, and in 2008 the use of the custom left roughly a third of the court’s bench empty.
When Christie told Molinelli in 2013 that he wouldn’t be renominated, the governor said he intended to replace Molinelli with Glen Rock resident Gurbir Singh Grewal, who works in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark. But the Senate never scheduled hearings on the nomination, allowing Molinelli to continue serving.
Grewal’s name resurfaced Tuesday; he declined through a spokesman to comment, and Christie’s office has not filed any formal notice or announced a replacement.
Sarlo said there are “no names at this point” and that Christie “has made it clear to me that the next prosecutor will be in line with the [choice of] Bergen County senators.”
Christie and the Democratic-controlled Legislature have often clashed over nominees. Four other county prosecutors in the state have not been nominated by Christie, and the acting attorney general, John Jay Hoffman, has served for two years without nomination. Six of the 23 positions in Christie’s Cabinet are occupied by individuals who have not been confirmed by the Legislature, and a seventh, Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox, is expected to depart at the end of the week.
Christie has complained that legislative leaders have told him they won’t put up nominees for a hearing and confirmation vote.
“We’ve gone way beyond the issue of senatorial courtesy,” said Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Demarest, a member of the Judiciary Committee. “I believe the governor has to almost get an agreement beforehand for the Senate president – or whoever the powers may be – to make these determinations before he puts forward a nomination, which is something I haven’t seen before.
“I would love it if we could put somebody in there and stabilize this office rather than be in flux.”
Staff Writers John C. Ensslin and Jean Rimbach contributed to this article. Email: racioppi@northjersey.com
