Gov. Phil Murphy has withdrawn the nomination of Pearl Minato, a former top state prosecutor, to serve as a Superior Court Judge.
Minato, the former director of the Division of Criminal Justice, and was at the embattled Office of Public Integrity and Accountability during an itsy-bitsy corruption sting operation involving the state’s cooperating witness, suspended attorney Matt O’Donnell, while working in the attorney general’s office.
Murphy originally nominated Minato in December 2023, but her ties to the OPIA and opposition from several key senators made her confirmation improbable.
Much of Minato’s work on the O’Donnell-related prosecutions remains sealed or confidential. Still, multiple attorneys, all former prosecutors, have alleged that Deputy Attorney General John Nicodemo and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability lied to a grand jury and committed Brady violations as part of a pattern of prosecutorial misconduct.
The 56-year-old Minato retired from the attorney general’s office in June to avoid the pitfalls of grifter Jill Mayer, a former acting Camden County Prosecutor who was confirmed to a judgeship in 2022 did not take the oath of office after a rejection of a second pension after miscalculating the waiting time between retiring and taking a judgeship. The state appellate court ruled in her favor in late 2024, but she had taken another job and declined the judgeship.
Minato began receiving a $112,475-a-year pension in June; by waiting six months to go on the bench, she can double dip with a $175,000-a-year judicial salary – a legal and prevalent practice in New Jersey.