TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A New Jersey bill stemming from a $1.5 million confidential settlement related to the potential prosecution of supporters of Republican Gov. Chris Christie won approval Monday from a legislative committee.
The Assembly Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the measure that would make public whistleblower settlements involving state, county or town authorities. The bill now heads to the Democrat-led Assembly for a vote.
Committee Chairman John McKeon says the bill was inspired by former Hunterdon County assistant prosecutor Bennett Barlyn who claimed he was fired after he alleged the state dismissed an indictment involving Christie supporters.
Barlyn received the settlement in the case last year, ending a six-year legal fight but is barred by the settlement terms from discussing certain details, in particular logs maintained by the prosecutors that they deemed were privileged, he said. Barlyn testified Monday about the public details of the case.
McKeon called it “outrageous” that information involving public funds was being kept confidential.
“I want to know. We all should want to know,” McKeon said.
Republican Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carrol said keeping secrets is “anathema” when the public is involved.
Barlyn was suspended, then fired, in the fall of 2010, not long after the attorney general’s office took over Hunterdon County’s case against then-Sheriff Deborah Trout and two subordinates, who had been indicted on several charges, including official misconduct and falsification of employment records.
The state asked the judge to dismiss the indictment because it deemed it legally deficient. Barlyn said that’s a step almost never taken by prosecutors once a grand jury has spoken. No attempt was made by the state to correct any deficiencies and resubmit the case to a grand jury, he said.
The state attorney general’s office defended the lawsuit and has said it stands by its decision to dismiss the indictment.
Robert Hariri, an executive for biotech company Celgene and a member of Christie’s transition team in 2010, was interviewed in connection with the case but wasn’t charged. Hariri and his wife had donated thousands of dollars to Christie’s campaign, according to campaign finance records. Barlyn’s suit contended Hariri had been given a fake law enforcement ID by defendant Michael Russo, then Hunterdon County’s undersheriff.
Trout and Russo were active supporters of Christie’s 2009 gubernatorial campaign, and Russo told a reporter Christie would “have this whole thing thrown out,” Barlyn’s lawsuit claimed. An attorney representing Trout, Russo and former investigator John Falat Jr. didn’t return a message seeking comment on the settlement Monday.
Christie, directly and through spokesmen, has repeatedly denied having discussions with anyone in the attorney general’s office about the case, and he wasn’t named in Barlyn’s lawsuit.
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