Judge denies request for special prosecutor in Christie case

A request to appoint a special prosecutor in the official misconduct case against Gov. Chris Christie for his alleged role in the Bridgegate scandal was denied Friday by a Superior Court judge.  

Assignment Judge Bonnie Mizdol of the Bergen Vicinage said in an 11-page opinion that she was dismissing the motion by Wayne resident William J. Brennan because he lacked standing to file it. 

Brennan, a retired Teaneck firefighter and an outspoken critic of government officials, wanted the court to disqualify the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and all New Jersey county prosecutors from examining any possible link to Christie in Bridgegate because the governor was essentially their boss.  

Last month, Christie’s former deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, and former Port Authority Executive Director Bill Baroni were found guilty of seven charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and civil rights violations by a federal jury for their roles in bridge scandal.  

On Wednesday, Brennan teed off against attorneys for Christie and the Attorney General and Bergen County Prosecutor’s offices in an hour-long oral argument on the motion.  

But Mizdol, in a written opinion released Friday, found that the court cannot entertain whether a special prosecutor should be hired for the case because the request was made by Brennan, whose involvement in the matter ended last month when probable cause was found for the citizen’s complaint.  

The law states that a private complainant may not act as the prosecuting attorney, Mizdol said.   

“Individual citizens cannot appropriate to themselves the law enforcement function,” she wrote. “It is the responsibility of the prosecutor to investigate and prosecute crimes.”  

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Brennan called Mizdol’s ruling “an act of judicial cowardice.”  

“The only one with standing to raise a conflict of interest is the person compromised by the conflict,” he said Friday. “This is not justice.” 

Christie’s attorney, Craig Carpenito, praised the decision, saying in an emailed statement that the court correctly left the matter in the hands of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, “which has a complete trial record and the record from three separate investigations ... on which to evaluate Brennan’s threadbare complaint.” 

Representatives for the Attorney General and Bergen County Prosecutor’s offices declined to comment on the ruling.   

On Wednesday, an attorney for the Attorney General’s Office, Jennifer E. Kmieciak, argued before Mizdol in a courtroom packed with media, but absent Christie, that Brennan’s standing with the complaint ended when Central Municipal Court Judge Roy McGeady allowed the case to move forward.   

Senior Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Catherine Foddai told Mizdol that there is “no reason to believe” the Prosecutor's Office cannot do its job.   

But in her decision, Mizdol homed in on the argument that Brennan did not have the authority to ask for the special prosecutor, making evaluating the objectivity of the prosecutor moot.    

“Complainant’s role in this matter concluded at the end of the probable cause hearing,” she wrote.  

“Public policy justifies maintaining the distinction between those who may or may not prosecute criminal matters,” Mizdol said in the opinion. “Principles of fairness and justice would be violated in allowing private citizens, who are not subject to the Rules of Professional Conduct, to use the judicial system to limit the freedom of others.”  

Mizdol added that Brennan could not file a written response to a motion by Christie’s attorney related to the appeal of the probable cause finding that's expected to be heard next month.  

“This court shall not accept any additional submission from Brennan,” she wrote.   

In Fort Lee Municipal Court on Sept. 28, Brennan filed a complaint against Christie alleging second-degree official misconduct. It says that on or about Sept. 11, 2013, Christie failed to order his subordinates to reopen access lanes to the George Washington Bridge that were closed for a purported traffic study. McGeady found probable cause on Oct. 13.  

Attorney General Christopher Porrino recused himself on Oct. 3. Then on Oct. 14, Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir Grewal, a Christie appointee, removed himself from the case, assigning First Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor John Higgins to take over.  

Brennan said he would hold a news conference on Monday to discuss next steps, which he said were “significant.”  

Carpenito, meanwhile, called Brennan’s motives “self-serving and not in the public’s interest.”