NJ Herald wrong on motor-voter, as some say prison voting is next.

The New Jersey Herald ran a seriously limp editorial yesterday. 

Here's what they had to say: 

What's the harm in making voting easier? 

New Jersey this week became the 12th state -- the third so far this year -- to approve automatic voter registration when persons get or renew their driver's licenses.

Though voter registration had previously been possible at MVC offices in New Jersey, persons had to opt in. The law passed by the Legislature along party lines and signed by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday automatically would register eligible persons to vote unless they opt out. Eligible, by the way, means that among the criteria, they would have to be legal citizens. 

What the Herald doesn't explain is that at the request of several Democrat-leaning organizations, the majority Democrats amended this bill (A-2014) in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.  The committee added language to expand "required automatic voter registration" to other state agencies as well, including welfare and parole offices.  One Democrat claimed that this bill would "help convicts get onto the voter rolls once they have completed their sentences." 

As many who are paying attention to the New Jersey Democrats' agenda already know, the Democrats are very keen on extending voter registration to prison inmates convicted of crimes of all kinds.  Essentially, they want to turn prisons into massive get-out-the-vote operations in order to swing an election or two.  Is A-2014 a first step down that road? 

What is even more curious is what's left out of the bill.  Why isn't a potential voter automatically signed-up when he or she pays property taxes or the state income tax?  How about when someone applies for a hunting or fishing license -- or a firearms permit?  What about automatic registration when you apply for any one of the licenses required to operate a small business or a professional license or a license for self-employment? 

If the goal is to "increase voter turnout" -- then why not cast a wider net?  

The Democrats appear to know exactly which voters they want this law to reach and those they don't much care about.  We hope that A-2014 wasn't the product of mere cynicism and that some good will come from it. 

As for "increasing voter turnout", one suggestion does come to our mind and that is providing voters with more choices.  We'd love to see more parties but in much of New Jersey there are not even two.  In this year's Freeholder races in Sussex County, for instance, the Sussex County Democrats didn't even turn in petitions to run.  That means that only Republicans will be on the ballot in November.

Sussex County isn't alone.  In many other places the Republicans failed to turn in petitions.  Nobody needs a new law to address this.  Just candidates.  One party elections are a good way to kill turnout.

NJ Herald's attorney attends controversial event

Kevin Kelly, an attorney whose partner is the former Chairwoman of the Sussex County Democrat Committee, attended a private dinner and "planning session" with a national Democrat political consultant, candidate John McCann, and Sebastian Gorka -- a foreign policy advisor in the White House who was fired by the Trump administration.

In the picture above, all eyes appear to be on Kelly, who was deeply involved in the coup in Vernon Township -- as well as partnering with Democrat Dan Perez in a lawsuit against the Vernon GOP.  Kelly is the New Jersey Herald's attorney and a somewhat controversial figure in Sussex County. 

Sebastian Gorka, on the other hand, is a very controversial figure nationally (perhaps internationally).  So good job Herald! 

McCann slammed over ties to former Trump adviser Gorka - Politico

https://www.politico.com/.../mccann-slammed-over-ties-to-former-trump-adviser-gork... 

McCann slammed over ties to former Trump adviser Gorka. By MATT FRIEDMAN. 03/23/2018 05:01 AM EDT. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter. The former chairman of Bergen County's Republican Party is slamming a congressional candidate for raising money with Sebastian Gorka, a one-time adviser to President ... 

The former chairman of Bergen County‘s Republican Party is slamming a congressional candidate for raising money with Sebastian Gorka, a one-time adviser to President Donald Trump who wore a medal associated with a Hungarian group that collaborated with Nazi Germany. 

“It’s absolutely despicable. It shows that I have to assume that John McCann approves of this man,” said Bob Yudin, who chaired the Bergen County GOP from 2008 to 2016 and backs McCann rival Steve Lonegan for the GOP nomination in the 5th Congressional District. “This man seems to have sympathy toward fascists and Nazis, and this act of accepting support from him disqualifies John McCann in all ways and manners from being my congressman.”

Wow.  Looks like John McCann has pissed the bed again.

Democrat Perez says taxpayers are too stupid to decide

Last week, Warren County Freeholder Jason Sarnoski wrote in to the Herald to applaud Sussex County Freeholder candidate Herb Yardley for proposing that Sussex County voters be given the opportunity to decide on any future borrowing in the county.  That's right, Herb Yardley's idea is that before the county goes off on yet another half-baked scheme that will put it deeper into debt, the idea would get debated, placed on the ballot, and the voters would decide.

The idea is currently at work in Warren County and in individual municipalities in Sussex County -- like Newton, where the voters recently got to decide if they wanted to go $18 million into debt or not.   The proposal was placed on the ballot and voters were asked to approve more than $18 million in bonds to fund the expansion and renovation of the Merriam Avenue School.  The $18.69 million in new debt (bonds) would have increased the tax burden on the average home by $337 annually over the next 20 years.  959 voters said "no" and 238 voters said "yes" -- so the borrowing didn't happen.  

Dan Perez' philosophy is to take the power to decide away from the voters and give it to local politicians.  He would rather the taxpayers  pay an additional $337 in property taxes because -- in Dan Perez' philosophy -- average taxpayers are not lawyers like him, and so they are too stupid to be trusted to decide on issues like the debt they and their children and grandchildren will be paying over the next twenty years.  Dan Perez is liberal elitism at its worst.

When you think back on all the spending "mistakes" that the Sussex County Freeholder Board has made, can we afford more of them?  Dan Perez thinks so.

Dan Perez is a Democrat running for Freeholder.  Perez is a New York lawyer who has helped many a county insider with their legal troubles.  Perez is himself an insider, who has been appointed to two patronage jobs courtesy of the county Freeholder Board. 

Responding to Jason Sarnoski, Dan Perez argued the case for county political insiders across New Jersey.  Perez said to "trust" the political establishment in New Jersey, despite the fact that it is one of the most corrupt in America.

Democrat Perez pointed to urban Democrat machine strongholds like Hudson County, Essex County, Passaic County, Union County, and Camden County as places that Sussex County should emulate.  Perez asked his followers to reject the fiscal conservative example of neighboring rural Warren County in favor of these cesspits of county corruption -- where literally hundreds of politicians and patronage holders have been convicted or have pleaded guilty to corruption of one sort or another.  Perez is asking us to embrace this filth.

 Fortunately, most taxpayers know better.  They want their government back in their own hands.  They want a plan to get the county out of debt, so that we can begin to talk about getting property taxes under control. 

The people who pay property taxes know that the Democrats' talk of lowering them is pure bullshit (because they are the party of higher property taxes) and that the Republicans' hopes to lower them are pie-in-the-sky until we get spending and debt under control.  Neighboring Warren County has such a plan. 

While Sussex County was stumbling from crisis to crisis, from scandal to scandal, Warren County passed an ordinance that prevented its politicians from borrowing without first getting the approval of the taxpayers.  It is a reform that works!

What it does is this:  Before any long-term borrowing can happen, it must first go on the ballot for the voters to decide whether or not they think it is a worthy project and they want to pay for it.  The ordinance doesn't say that you can't borrow, it just says that you must get permission from the voters -- the people paying the taxes -- first.

Once this ordinance is passed, the politicians on the Sussex County Freeholder Board will have to ask the taxpayers for permission the next time someone comes up with a scheme to use tax money to place solar panels all over the place, or to build a new county administration building, or to finance the sale of the county dump to private investors.  It would put any of these crazy ideas on hold until the voters can properly scrutinize the plans and then place it on the ballot for the voters to decide.

No wonder insiders like Dan Perez are pissing their pants!

Some insiders make an argument that begins with the words, "what about an emergency" -- when they darn well know that the ordinance makes exclusions for emergencies.  It also makes exclusions for anticipatory borrowing, where the money is promised to the county.  What it ends is borrowing just to spend money and give contracts to other insiders. 

Insiders like Dan Perez are livid over this legislation and at how it threatens them and their fellow insiders.  But taxpayers are sick and tired of being pissed-on by people like Dan Perez.  This is a reform that is long overdue.

Why won't the Herald print letters from Republicans?

Again and again, we are hearing from very credible people that the New Jersey Herald has ignored letters to the editor that they sent in to be published.  Some have said that the Herald continued to ignore their letters even after they re-submitted them. 

While the Herald has printed letters from Democrat Party politicians who hold or who have held political patronage jobs, local politicians connected through legal dealings with Democrat candidates, and vendors on the make for some county contracts -- the Herald has ignored letters from local town council and committee members, local philanthropists, community activists, and ordinary subscribers who support Republican candidates.  The Herald was quick to print a letter from the former Democrat Party Chairman of Warren County but ignored a letter from a sitting Warren County Freeholder who wanted to correct a falsehood printed in the newspaper!   We hope he remembers that when taking those votes on where to publish notices next year. 

And that raises an important point.  The Herald is not a blog.  It is a newspaper that is underwritten by the taxpayers of Sussex County.  The State makes taxpayers underwrite the private corporation that owns the Herald by mandating that county and local governments spend property tax revenues to advertise government notices in the Herald.  In the era of the Internet, most argue that forcing taxpayers to spend money on print advertising is out-of-date, inefficient, and a waste of taxpayers' money.

So you do have skin in the game.  And as the Herald gets your tax dollars to support its private, profit-making enterprise -- you have every right to complain if you feel the coverage you are receiving isn't fair or if you feel you are being ignored.

Here's how to make your voice heard.

You can write to the publisher of the Herald:

Mr. Keith Flinn

Publisher

New Jersey Herald

2 Spring Street

Newton, NJ 07860

kflinn@njherald.com

Or you can write to the out-of-state corporation that owns the Herald:

Mr. Ralph M. Oakley
President/CEO

Quincy Media Corporation
130 South 5th Street

Quincy, IL 62306
roakley@quincymedia.com

Please let us know if this helps to resolve your problems.

Sex Scandal involving the County Prosecutor's office?

There are many residents of Sussex County who acknowledge that their local newspaper -- the New Jersey Herald -- is too chummy with county insiders on the Freeholder Board, SCMUA, and in county government.  Others disagree, but the Herald has shown a less than even-handed interest in certain stories.

For instance, the Herald has yet to cover the following story.  It concerns a major accusation of wrongdoing in Sussex County.  It appeared last month in The Record of Bergen County, its Passaic County affiliate, the Paterson Press, and on NorthJersey.com -- but not in the Herald.  The Herald must be aware of this, but have been silent on the subject.

Accusations surface in sexual assault case: Was it political pressure or police mishandling?

Abbott Koloff, Staff Writer, @AbbottKoloff Published 5:00 a.m. ET Sept. 29, 2017 | Updated 10:42 a.m. ET Sept. 29, 2017

The woman was getting divorced. The man told her he was in the midst of a breakup.

After a chance meeting over the winter, the two — who had known one another in high school — decided to meet for a drink. It was an opportunity to catch up and commiserate over failed relationships.

But that January night in a Sussex County bar has led to an immensely complicated case peppered with accusations of retaliation, political pressure and mishandling of the case by police.

An investigation, including a review of police and court records as well as interviews by The Record and NorthJersey.com, shows:

• Sexual assault allegations were brought by the woman to the state police.
• A trooper filed the charges in a municipal court; they were dismissed the next day in Superior Court, at the behest of the Sussex County prosecutor.
• The woman, through the police union, claimed she was pressured by the Prosecutor's Office into dropping the charges.
• The union strongly hinted that prosecutors were motivated by the defendant’s father being a “politically-appointed executive in Morris County.”
• The Prosecutor's Office denied those accusations, saying that there wasn't enough evidence to pursue the case and suggesting that state police overstepped their authority in bringing the charges.

As a result of the tangled mess,17 state troopers have been reassigned; a labor grievance has been brought against state police officials; and the Sussex County Prosecutor this week released a detailed, two-page statement defending the office's handling of the case.

New Jersey State Police (Photo: File / NorthJersey.com)

Mike Bukosky, a police union attorney, said in an email that the troopers "used their training and experience to act 100 percent in good faith to assist and protect the parties involved."

Sussex County Prosecutor Francis A. Koch has denied that any members of his staff acted improperly or for "any alternative motive,"  and that they all sought “solely to uphold the law,” and always take into account "victims’ rights." He specified that none of his employees knew the defendant "or anyone in his family."

Sex assault alleged

The saga began when a woman, who The Record and Northjersey.com is not identifying, walked into the Sussex Station of the state police in Frankford on Jan. 31. Her claim: she was sexually assaulted nine days earlier in the parking lot of Boomer's Place, a bar in Hampton. 

A week later, after giving his own statement to police, the man she accused was arrested and charged with second-degree sexual assault and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact.

Ian M. Schweizer, 35, spent one night in the Keogh-Dwyer Correctional Facility in Newton before records show the charges were dismissed and he was released.

Records also show he was living at the same Newton address as his father — Glenn Schweizer, who recently retired as the executive director of the Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority.

The case hinged on what appear to be two very different statements about what happened in the early morning hours of Jan. 22 — each version laid out in affidavits signed by a state trooper, Justin DeLorenzo.

Ian M. Schweizer spent one night in the jail in Sussex County before charges against him were dismissed (Photo: Sussex County Sheriff's Office)

Schweizer told police that he and the woman were kissing in the parking lot of Boomer's and that she touched him sexually before he put his hands down her pants, according to an affidavit. DeLorenzo wrote that Schweizer said "he went too far by doing so and it upset the victim at which time the victim entered her vehicle” and “abruptly departed."

The woman, in an interview with The Record, said she knew Schweizer from when they were students at Kittatinny Regional High School years ago.

They planned to get together after a brief conversation during a recent chance meeting, she said, when she told him she had been going through a divorce and he told her he had a young daughter and also was going through the breakup of a relationship.

She said she “never touched him in a sexual way."

She told police she backed away when Schweizer tried to kiss her, according to court papers, and that he grabbed her as she told him to stop.

The affidavit said Schweizer "pushed her against the exterior of her vehicle and forced his hands down her pants" before she "screamed and pushed him away from her. She immediately entered her vehicle and fled.”

DeLorenzo wrote that Schweizer sent a text message to the woman a short time later, at 2:47 a.m. “Sorry if I got carried away,” it said.

“I told him he really scared me,” the woman told The Record.

DeLorenzo filed the related complaints and affidavits on Feb. 7 in the regional municipal court in Wantage.

Boomer's Place in Hampton Township (Photo: Abbott Koloff)

A prior arrest

The woman told The Record that she waited nine days before going to police because she was "in shock" and had been replaying the incident over and over in her mind.

The affidavit says she contacted a friend who worked at the bar shortly after the incident to tell her about it. She said in The Record interview that she decided to go to police because she became afraid after learning Schweizer recently had been arrested for violating a restraining order in Morris County.

Schweizer was charged on Dec. 31, 2016 with simple assault in a domestic violence case out of Mount Olive, where he had been living, according to court records.

He struck a woman in the leg "with an unknown instrument used as a weapon," police wrote in a criminal complaint. The woman suffered an unspecified injury and declined treatment, according to an incident report. Court records do not specify whether a child who lived at the home witnessed the incident but indicate that a child was "present."

In January, Schweizer was arrested twice, on the 18th and the 30th, for allegedly violating a restraining order, according to Morris County Jail records. The status of charges related to those arrests were unavailable this week.

Schweizer pleaded guilty to the simple assault charge on March 27 in Mount Olive municipal court, records show.

Troopers and prosecutors clash over sexual assault charges

In the Sussex case, DeLorenzo consulted with other troopers before filing the criminal complaints, according to the police union. Court records show a municipal judge, Glenn Gavan, found probable cause for the charges.

Bukosky, the union attorney, said that ruling indicated the judge found police actions "to be entirely appropriate.”

It is not clear, however, whether the judge knew that prosecutors had not approved the charges. Gavan did not respond to an email requesting comment.

Koch said his office declined to approve the sexual assault charges — and then moved to have them dismissed — because "the office did not believe there was sufficient evidence to establish probable cause."

That move set off a dispute between the two agencies.

The State Troopers Fraternal Order filed an amended unfair practice charge with the state Public Employment Relations Commission, known as PERC,  a little more than two weeks ago.

The complaint alleged that some troopers were improperly moved out of the Sussex barracks because they pursued the woman's sexual assault complaint against the wishes of prosecutors.

According to a union letter to the state, at least seven of the troopers had been based in that county. They included DeLorenzo, who filed the sexual assault charges in apparent defiance of prosecutors, and Darran Crane, a union representative.

Bukosky said this week that some of the 17 reassigned troopers were sent to Sussex County to replace disciplined officers.

The union said in the grievance that Schweizer's father had “political ties” but did not accuse him of taking any actions to intercede in this case on behalf of his son. It also characterized Schweizer's statement to police as a "confession."

Schweizer's attorney, Robert Schwartz, denied that characterization, saying it “was not a confession” and “did not fulfill the elements of the crime being charged.”

Schwartz also noted that a Superior Court judge later did not approve a request by the woman who made the accusations for a final order of protection, checking a box indicating the allegations had “not been substantiated.”

This week, Koch, the Sussex County prosecutor, took the unusual step of addressing the allegations in some detail, saying in a statement that he felt "compelled to respond" even though the labor complaint was directed at state police officials who disciplined the officers and not at his office.

He said he made the decision to drop the charges after reviewing affidavits and taped interviews. He also pointed to new legal requirements — part of the bail reform law that went into effect on Jan. 1 — requiring police to get an assistant prosecutor’s approval before filing charges for indictable offenses.

The prosecutor said during a Feb. 8 Superior Court hearing that his office wanted to “more fully investigate this matter,” according to a court transcript. This week, he said he doesn't anticipate filing charges in the case.

Superior Court in Newton, Sussex County (Photo: Abbott Koloff)

Explosive charges by the union

In its grievance, the union alleged that members of the Prosecutor’s Office tried to get the woman to agree with their decision to dismiss the charges, telling her the defendant was remorseful and “didn’t ‘fully’ rape her.” They added that a jury would not believe she would have been able to fight him off, as she told police, because he is 7-feet tall. Schweizer is 6-foot-7, according to court records.

“They were trying to get me to say it didn’t happen,” the woman said in her interview with The Record, adding that she filed a complaint against the Prosecutor's Office with the state Attorney General's Office. "I know the truth, and that’s what matters.”

Assistant Prosecutor Seana Pappas and Lt. Jennifer Williams participated in the interview with the woman, which lasted 2 1/2 hours, according to the union.

In a phone conversation with DeLorenzo, Pappas allegedly threatened to "start a war" if the trooper went ahead with the charges. The union said troopers also received calls from First Assistant Prosecutor Greg Mueller, who allegedly said there would be repercussions for their actions, and from Koch himself saying that he intended to dismiss the charges.

The union alleged that unidentified “members of the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office” contacted high-ranking state police officers about the matter leading to "every member of the Sussex County State Troopers Unit involved in the case” being transferred on or about March 1 “in retaliation” for actions taken related to the sexual assault charges.

The state police have not yet filed a response to the grievance and declined to comment on the case, citing a “pending internal investigation.”

The state Attorney General’s Office also declined to comment.

The dispute will now work its way through the administrative law system, with a conference set for October.

Joe Malinconico of Paterson Press contributed to this article.