There are new allegations of prosecutorial misconduct against embattled Deputy Attorney General John Nicodemo, this time from a former Camden County prosecutor who wants a judge to dismiss his client’s indictment.
Vincent Sarubbi, who served as a county prosecutor under three governors, claims that Nicodemo “overtly misrepresented” a statute to indict Peter Caporilli, the founder of a charter school.
“A prosecutor’s job is not to advocate at all costs to obtain a particular result on behalf of its client but, rather, to see that justice is done,” Sarubbi said in a court filing on Monday. “Here, there is zero doubt that the Office of the Attorney General, through its advocates, Deputy Attorney General, John Nicodemo and others, not only failed to see that justice was done, but instead, intentionally misled a grand jury with the sole purpose of obtaining an indictment based on misrepresentations of fact and the law.”
The accusations against Nicodemo mirror those made last week by William J. Hughes, Jr., a former Assistant U.S. Attorney representing Caporilli’s co-defendant, Michael Falkowski.
According to Sarubbi, Nicodemo excluded critical portions of a statute from the grand jury and subsequently confirmed that the entire statute had been read.
“Jurors are not experts on the law. That is why one of the duties of a prosecutor in presenting a case to a grand jury is to fully and properly explain the law,” Sarubbi said. “Here, on multiple occasions, the State abjectly failed in this duty.”
Instead, after allegedly misrepresenting the law to the grand jury, Nicodemo is accused of “then doubling down by misrepresenting that the law (State Police) Detective (Caitlin) Brennan read to the jury was a complete and accurate recitation of the relevant statute. It had not.”
Nicodemo, a 61-year-old former professional actor who became an attorney eleven years ago, faces a multitude of allegations of wrongdoing.
Superior Court Judge John Paone found Nicodemo intentionally withheld crucial evidence and disregarded a court rule requiring prosecutors to disclose important information in the government’s possession to the defendant’s lawyers in his prosecution of Osher Eisemann, a prominent Lakewood Rabbi. As a result of Nicodemo’s Brady violation, Paone has ordered a new trial.
He also failed to seal a list of potential government targets in a small fish corruption sting operation, forcing a quickie court hearing to seal the documents retroactively.
An attorney representing Holmdel in a civil lawsuit against O’Donnell accused Nicodemo of communicating about the case directly to a Superior Court judge without notifying him.
Last week, the attorney general’s office said they will review allegations made against Nicodemo.
“Any allegation of misconduct on the part of an employee of the Department of Law and Public Safety is thoroughly reviewed,” a spokesperson said.
Nicodemo is no longer working as a line prosecutor and has been assigned an administrative desk job as a diversity officer for the Division of Criminal Justice.
Still, despite multiple allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, Nicodemo has had twelve raises in the last six years. His salary jumped from $74,508 in 2017 to $145,053, a 94.7% increase. That includes two in 2020, two in 2021, three in 2022, and two in 2023, according to records released by the attorney general’s office.