In June, three state prosecutors from the embattled Office of Public Integrity and Accountability told a grand jury that Superior Court Judge Steven J. Polansky, the presiding civil court judge in Camden County, might be “corrupt” and part of an alleged criminal enterprise connected to Democratic powerbroker George E. Norcross and others – but the OPIA does not appear to have reported the issue to the court’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct.
The covert attack on a judge’s integrity only became public after attorneys Jeff Chiesa and Lee Vartan called out the claim in a motion to dismiss an indictment against a co-defendant, William Tambussi.
This is just the latest in a series of questions the OPIA has faced about its own integrity. Several defense attorneys — former federal or state prosecutors — have made allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, claiming that prosecutors have misled – and sometimes outright lied — to grand juries in a bid to win an indictment — and failed to turn over evidence.
New Jersey’s Rules of Professional Conduct would require the OPIA to report wrongdoings by a judge or prosecutor.
“If the top law enforcement official in the state believed that a judge was corrupt, or even if they believed it was a credible allegation, and if they have evidence of that, at least enough evidence to merit making a serious allegation to the grand jury, they had an ethical obligation to report it,” a sitting Superior Court judge who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the New Jersey Globe “At the very least, the men in the public integrity unit are getting it wrong 50% of the time.”
Without reporting the allegation and the existence of a complaint, Polansky has no real opportunity to defend himself.
Among the accusations in Norcross’ indictment is that the Democratic powerbroker influenced the City of Camden to derail a real estate deal by Carl Dranoff, a Philadelphia developer.
In grand jury proceedings, Assistant Attorney General Michael Breslin questioned one of his investigators, Erin Bancroft, about Dranoff’s lawsuit against the City of Camden.
Bancroft said Dranoff, in her interview with him, believed Polansky was biased against him, although he lacked specific evidence that the judge was corrupt.
Polansky, 67, was involved in Camden County politics for many years before becoming a judge in 2012. In 1998, he was the Democratic nominee for Congress in New Jersey’s 3rd district, winning 35% of the vote against Rep. James Saxton (R-Mount Holly). He later served as council president in Cherry Hill.
The Administrative Office of the Courts declined to comment on the allegations against Polansky.
Earlier this month, Superior Court Judge Mitzi Galis-Menendez ordered the state to turn over the disciplinary or misconduct of five prosecutors involved in prosecuting a former Hudson County assemblyman, including controversial Deputy Attorney General John Nicodemo.
Onetime tax appeal attorney Matthew O’Donnell became the state’s cooperating witness in 2017 and has netted as many as five tiny fish for OPIA.
In March 2022, O’Donnell, the state’s cooperating witness in a political corruption sting operation, pleaded guilty on two counts connected to using straw donors to obtain public contracts for his law firm, O’Donnell McCord, that could require him to serve three years in state prison. O’Donnell admitted to illegal activities related to his work as the Mount Arlington borough attorney and tax appeal attorney for multiple municipalities and counties.
In a revised plea agreement, O’Donnell admitted guilt to one count of second-degree conspiracy to commit misconduct by a corporate official and one count of third-degree conspiracy to commit tampering with public records and information. While the statutory maximum sentence is 15 years, the attorney general’s office has agreed to a deal that requires O’Donnell to serve two three-year prison sentences concurrently – a better deal than the one they had initially agreed to.
But the OPIA has not commented on the ethics of a decision to allow O’Donnell to profit off government clients – essentially, to continue committing crimes – while serving as a cooperating witness for roughly two years.
Still, there is no sign that the Office of Attorney Ethics or the Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Review Board has begun or concluded any investigations into Nicodemo or another former deputy attorney general, Eric Cohen.
Two years after Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone vacated the criminal conviction of a prominent Lakewood rabbi based on the state’s failure to disclose exculpatory evidence – a Brady violation. Nicodemo was the prosecutor on that case; he’s since been reassigned to a desk job at the Division of Highway Traffic Safety.
During his 2021 campaign for Bergen County Sheriff, the OPIA charged Saddle Brook Police Chief Robert Kugler with permitting police escorts for funeral processions to cemeteries involving a local funeral home he owns.
A year later, Judge Marilyn Clark dismissed the indictment after finding that Kugler didn’t violate any law and determining that Cohen, who prosecuted Kugler for the OPIA, left out critical information that might have benefited the suspended police chief to the grand jury that indicted him.
“Presenting evidence in fair context and presenting material exculpatory evidence is certainly required,” Clark said in her ruling. Clark has also demanded an explanation as to how the OPIA handled another case, but it’s not clear if she, too, lost a rope-a-dope match with the OPIA.
Cohen is no longer employed by the attorney general’s office.