Verniero wrong choice to lead harassment investigation, Senators say

Gov. Phil Murphy made a mistake picking former Supreme Court Justice Peter Verniero to investigate the hiring of Al Alvarez, Senators from both parties said today.

“I’m not so sure he’s the best choice,” said eleven-term State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), who was a staunch proponent of impeaching Verniero from the top court in 2001 for allowing racial profiling by the New Jersey State Police as attorney general in the late 1990’s.  “If I had known in advance, I would have told the governor to pick someone else.”

Rice said that Verniero did not respect the views of minorities and questioned his ability to be objective as an investigator.

“Maybe he’s changed over time,” Rice said.

State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon says he’s bothered by the appearance of a conflict because Verniero’s law firm, Sills Cummis & Gross, contributed $100,000 to the Democratic Governor’s Association during Murphy’s 2017 gubernatorial campaign.

“One does not have to believe anything negative about Verniero to know this is a bad idea,” said O’Scanlon  “There is a potential for influence, even if it’s subconscious influence, over state contracts.”

In 2001, after Verniero had already spent two years on the top court, the State Senate held hearings into allegations that the State Police  systematically stopped and searched Black drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike.  Verniero was called before the panel and testified for over twelve hours.

The result was a call for severe action against Verniero, including censure, resignation, impeachment, or prosecution for perjury.

“Impeachment is the appropriate way to handle this,” Bill Gormley, who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the Associated Press at the time. Gormley sent a letter to the Assembly Speaker saying that Verniero misled Senators during his 1999 confirmation hearing and withheld information about racial profiling from senators and federal investigators.

Perhaps most damaging to Verniero might be comments made in 1998 by Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, who was serving in the State Assembly at the time and has a long memory.

The state was forced to pay a $350,000 judgment after a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Richard Carley, the former deputy director of criminal justice in the attorney general’s office.  That caused Verniero, then the attorney general, to announce a new program to combat harassment in state government.

Weinberg went at Verniero, asking why he didn’t enact the policy several years later after the state settled a lawsuit against former Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian using $378,000 of taxpayer monies.

Twenty years later, Weinberg is still pushing for state government to take sexual harassment issues more seriously.