Judge tosses indictment against NJ prison guards accused of assaulting inmates

by New Jersey Monitor

‘Unconstitutional’ delays, deficiencies in state’s case constitute ‘prosecutorial negligence,’ ruling says

A state judge has thrown out a criminal indictment against prison guards and administrators accused in the brutal 2021 beatdown of women incarcerated at the troubled Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, a decision the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office immediately vowed to appeal.

In a sharp rebuke Thursday, Superior Court Judge Christopher J. Garrenger found numerous deficiencies in how prosecutors instructed the two state grand juries that indicted more than a dozen correctional officers for misconduct and related offenses in September 2022 and superseded that indictment in November 2023.

Garrenger declared the indictments “unconstitutionally vague” in specifying which defendants did what. He also determined prosecutors violated the speedy-trial rule, a constitutional protection that is meant to ensure a fair trial and presumes that delays longer than a year can become prejudicial. The judge blamed the bulk of the case’s delays on prosecutors’ “negligence” and “mismanagement.”

“While some delay is attributable to legitimate complexity and procedural posture, the State has not provided sufficient justification for the extraordinary four-year period from arrest to the current pre-trial stage,” Garrenger wrote.

He dismissed the indictment with prejudice, meaning the state cannot seek a new indictment or file new charges.

“Any other result would reward prosecutorial negligence and deny defendants the fundamental protections the Constitution guarantees,” he wrote. “The court further recognizes that dismissal of an indictment on speedy trial grounds is a draconian remedy; however, the specific circumstances here warrant this extraordinary relief.”

Bonnie Kerness, coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee’s Prison Watch, sits on the board of trustees that advocates for the women incarcerated at the Hunterdon County lockup, who now number around 380. She said the ruling fails to hold officers accountable for clear wrongdoing.

“It’s horrific, it’s frustrating, it’s concerning. How do we protect the women?” Kerness said.

The ruling was the latest in a string of losses for the attorney general’s public integrity and accountability office, whose fumbles have prompted calls for an outside probe as well as legislation to limit the length of its investigations.

Some renewed those calls in the wake of Garrenger’s ruling, with Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (R-Morris) demanding legislative hearings “to compel Attorney General Platkin to testify under oath and explain how this happened, why prosecutors dragged their feet for four years, and how he intends to restore even a shred of justice for these women.”

“This is an unconscionable failure of leadership. Women who were beaten, brutalized, and humiliated behind bars have now been denied justice — not because the evidence was lacking, but because Matt Platkin’s office botched the prosecution,” Dunn said on social media.

The prison’s board of trustees similarly blasted Platkin’s office for its “appalling failure.”

“We are equally shocked and also outraged by the failure of the Attorney General and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability to properly prepare this case for trial, a failure that signals to us an unconscionable disregard for women in state custody,” the board said in a statement. “Justice has not been served here, and we ardently support efforts to appeal the dismissal and demand accountability for those responsible for this colossal failure to support women in state custody.”

First Assistant Attorney General Lyndsay V. Ruotolo remained defiant, saying her office strongly disagrees with Garrenger and will appeal his decision.

“The charges in this case stem from deeply troubling allegations: that corrections officers orchestrated unlawful uses of force against women entrusted to their care and then concealed their violent and unlawful conduct through false reporting,” Ruotolo said in a statement.

She added: “If the Appellate Division, which already reversed the trial court once in this matter, agrees with us again, and our office is permitted to bring these charges to a trial jury, we are confident in our proofs. As alleged, this behavior constitutes a profound breach of duty and a grave betrayal of the public trust.”

Attorney Jeff Garrigan, who represented one of the defendants, called the decision “comprehensive and well reasoned.”

“His Honor saw through the specious arguments the State presented in an attempt to justify the inordinate delays they caused and rightfully dismissed the indictment. If the State doesn’t have the capability of presenting a coherent and timely prosecution, they shouldn’t bring the case at all. It will be a long time before my client and his family recover emotionally and financially from the harm the State caused,” Garrigan said.

Attorney Michael Rubas, who represented another defendant, called the case “another example of OPIA prosecuting matters that should never have been brought in the first instance.”

“For the last five years, my client’s life has been devastated by these baseless charges, and she is looking forward to putting this behind her,” Rubas said.

Ruotolo noted that Garrenger’s ruling did not exonerate the defendants or erase the allegations against them.

“Rather, it rests on legal conclusions and distorted characterizations of the record about the pace of proceedings and the way in which the law was presented to the members of the grand jury,” Ruotolo said. “Those conclusions are mistaken and our office will continue to seek justice for the victims in this case.”

The officers have been suspended without pay since they were arrested.

Victoria Kuhn, commissioner of the Department of Corrections, said she was “profoundly disappointed” by the ruling and urged the attorney general’s office “to pursue every legal avenue necessary to bring justice to the victims.”

“Once the criminal case has officially concluded and jurisdiction is returned to the NJDOC, the Department will complete a thorough administrative investigation by the Special Investigations Division and ensure appropriate disciplinary action, up to and including removal from employment, is issued for each and every individual responsible for such egregious conduct,” Kuhn said in a statement.

The case dates to Jan. 11, 2021, when about 20 officers on an overnight shift forcibly removed a handful of women from their cells in the prison’s restrictive housing unit, leaving several gravely injured.

One woman who asked to use the bathroom instead got pepper-sprayed by an officer and punched more than 25 times in the head and body by another officer as other guards pinned her down and pulled her hair, according to the ruling. Another woman was beaten so badly her eye socket was fractured by officers who had turned off their body cameras in violation of state law, attorney general directive, and departmental regulations, according to the decision.

Video showed two other women got assaulted even while they complied with officers and were handcuffed, with officers shouting “stop resisting” as they dragged one through the darkness on her back with her hands cuffed over her head and her sweatpants pulled down, according to the ruling.

Throughout the incident, Sean St. Paul, the prison’s associate administrator, allegedly walked around telling the women: “If you guys continue to mess with my officers … we will continue to f*** y’all up every day” and “We’re going to do it like Northern State. It’s going to be like a man prison,” according to the ruling.

Prosecutors said the attacks were intentional and planned as retribution for “splashing” incidents, in which women threw milk, coffee, spit, and urine at officers, according to the ruling. During and after the cell extractions, the officers then failed to follow departmental regulations, including recording such encounters and reporting unusual activities like overnight removals to superiors, and plotted together to cover up what they had done, prosecutors contended.

The first officer was arrested within a month, with more arrests following throughout 2021. The grand juries took longer to return indictments, in which they formally charged the officers with aggravated assault, official misconduct, conspiracy to commit official misconduct, and tampering with public records.

The officers indicted were: St. Paul, Anthony Valvano, Luis Garcia, Matthew Faschan, Jose Irizarry, Courey James, Tara Wallace, Gustavo Sarmiento Jr., Brandon Burgos, Desiree Lewis, Marika Sprow, Sgt. Amir Bethea, Lt. Eddie Molina, and Major Ryan Valentin. Prosecutors dropped charges last December against a 15th defendant, who’s identified as A.B. in the ruling because the charges were expunged.

The case drove Marcus Hicks, the former Department of Corrections commissioner, to resign and helped spur Gov. Phil Murphy to move to close the troubled prison, which also had a history of sexual misconduct that prompted federal authorities to intervene and declare oversight. The closure remains ongoing, with Kuhn noting Friday that the engineers and architects are in place for the construction of a new women’s prison.

Since 2021, Kuhn said department officials have upgraded security cameras to eliminate blind spots, required all correctional officers to wear body-worn cameras, implemented trauma- and gender-informed training, and “embraced cultural reform at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility that is now permanent and routine.”

“I am determined to ensure this progress continues,” she said.