A highly-regarded former federal prosecutor who handled high-profile public corruption matters is the new executive director of the State Commission of Investigation.
Bruce Keller will replace Tiffany Williams Brewer, who resigned in January after a tenure that lasted just four days. She stepped down one day after the Asbury Park Press reported that she was living in Maryland and working as a law professor at Howard University.
The 70-year-old Keller will take the reins of a once-feared and now beleaguered independent corruption-busting agency that has, without a day-to-day leader, become dysfunctional and sometimes toxic. The previous executive director, Chadd W. Lackey, was killed in a car accident nearly one year ago.
Keller joined the U.S. Attorney’s office in 2015 and worked on complex appeal matters, including Bridgegate and the prosecution of county party chairs in Bergen and Ocean counties. He was the special counsel to three federal prosecutors: Craig Carpenito, Philip Sellinger, and Vikas Khanna.
“Bruce Keller is an exceptional attorney with deep investigative experience who had a terrific career at the U.S. Attorney’s office,” said Khanna. “SCI is lucky to have him as executive director.”
The SCI commissioners decided to bring in an outsider to run the agency. Keller’s appointment was unanimous.
“Mr. Keller brings a wealth of expertise in the areas central to our mission: organized crime, corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse of public funds,” said John P. Lacey, the SCI chairman. “We are confident his leadership will strengthen our efforts to protect taxpayers and uphold government integrity.”
Keller said he was honored to “lead an institution with such a storied record of exposing wrongdoing, advancing reforms and protecting the public.”
The Legislature created the SCI in 1968 as part of a package of crime-fighting bills pushed through by Gov. Richard Hughes after allegations that a North Jersey assemblyman worked to cancel a Senate hearing on organized crime at the request of reputed mob boss Jerry Catena.
The SCI was created with enormous investigatory power, largely to keep the Legislature out of the organized crime investigation business. The commission had the authority to authorize wiretaps, compel top mob bosses to testify, and even temporarily jail those who refused to appear before them. They would refer their findings to law enforcement and act independently of politics.
While the SCI has broad jurisdiction, it now addresses issues of smaller scope than those that dominated its original mission.
But Keller appears poised to restore the agency to its original mission.
“The Commission’s independence is its greatest strength,” he said. “Its ability to follow the facts wherever they lead has earned it the trust of the people of New Jersey. That commitment to fearless, nonpartisan inquiry will continue to guide our work.”