Essex prosecutor arrested for drunk driving still trying cases

After celebrating her 30th birthday in March, Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Bryashia Atchison was arrested for drunk driving after Edgewater police found her passed out in a parking lot with her car driven over a curb.

Atchison told police officers that she’d been drinking in Edgewater before being questioned around 8:20 PM on Saturday. March 8, and seemed surprised to learn she was still there – she thought she might be in Newark.

“You kind of told me something just now that’s a little alarming, so I have to perform some tests on you,” Patrolman Evan Bringas told Atchison.  “You kind of just admitted to me that you were drunk.”

The video of the arrest was released by Transparency Bodycam.

A tearful prosecutor told police officers, “I don’t want to drive.  I just want to go home.”

“ We’re a little past that right now, unfortunately,” Bringas told her.  “Standing close to you, I smell alcohol on you.”

Atchison begged police officers to allow her to call the father of her young son.  Three sources with knowledge of the situation have identified that man to be NFL safety Jabrill Peppers.

“I don’t have anyone,” she said.  “You guys have each other.  I don’t have anyone.”

“We’re not doing anything to you,” Patrolman Tyler Iafelice told her.  “Your car is on the curb, and you just admitted to us that you were drinking and driving, so we have to try to perform some tests on you.”

Atchison said she wasn’t experiencing any medical problems, but vomited in the patrol car on the way to the Edgewater police department.

She did not identify herself as a prosecutor; the patrolman discovered her badge after she’d arrived at the station.

Prior to moving to New Jersey, Atchison was a cheerleader for the Cleveland Cavaliers, crowned Miss Greater Cleveland 2015, competed in the Miss Ohio pageant, and worked as a legal extern in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Newark.

Atchison served as a Superior Court law clerk in Essex County for one year before she became an assistant prosecutor in September 2021.

The prosecutor’s office did not disclose Atchison’s arrest more than four months ago, and only did so reluctantly today.

“Assistant Prosecutor Bryashia Atchison remains employed by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. Ms. Atchison self-reported an incident that occurred in March, and we are monitoring the matter closely.  Appropriate adjustments have been made to her case assignments as warranted,” said Carmen Martin, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office.  “While we cannot comment on personnel-related administrative matters, any administrative action, if necessary, would be taken after the case has been adjudicated.”

Martin had initially refused any comment, suggesting that the New Jersey Globe ask questions through the Open Public Records Act process.

Still, the prosecutor’s office doesn’t hesitate to make statements involving those they accuse of crimes.

The New Jersey Globe contacted Atchison on her office phone and on her cell phone.  She hung up both times.  The charges against her remain pending.

Atchison is not the first public official to deal with drunk driving charges.

The New Jersey Supreme Court publicly reprimanded Justice Robert Clifford, who was convicted of drunk driving in 1989.  The court said that ”a public reprimand is essential both to vindicate the interests of the judiciary and to maintain the public’s confidence in it.”

Princeton police had stopped Clifford for driving while intoxicated; he refused a Breathalyzer test and was taken to the local police station. He later pleaded guilty and lost his license for one year.

Clifford served on the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1973 until his retirement in 1994.  He was arrested again for drunk driving in 2000 after his car collided with a small bridge in Bernards Township, where he lived.  Since a decade had passed since his first DUI, state law allowed him to be treated as a first-time offender.

Since 2005, twelve New Jersey judges have faced DUI/DWI charges, court records show.

State Sen. Robert Martin (R-Morris Plains) was arrested for drunk driving and pleaded guilty in 2005.  He lost his license for three months and was able to keep the charges out of public view for nearly a year.

The news about Martin came out after he defended Attorney General Zulima Farber on issues related to her own driving record.  Martin, a Seton Hall law professor and longtime municipal prosecutor, won one of four Republicans to vote to confirm Farber’s nomination

In a “do you know who am I am?” moment, Farber got in trouble in 2006 after her boyfriend, former Assembly candidate Hamlet Goore, was stopped in Fairview for driving an unregistered vehicle.  Driven by a New Jersey State Trooper, Farber arrived at the scene, and coincidentally, tickets were withdrawn, and police declined to impound the car.

A special investigation found that Farber did not violate any laws or ethical rules, but the incident became politically tricky for Gov. Jon Corzine, and she resigned.