The New Jersey attorney General’s office is doubling down on its support of embattled Deputy attorney General John Nicodemo after allegations of prosecutorial misconduct were leveled against him by four attorneys — all former federal and state prosecutors — and several state legislators.
Nicodemo has been accused of holding back evidence from defense attorneys and lying to grand juries to obtain indictments.
“Our office takes all allegations of prosecutorial misconduct extremely seriously, and we hold ourselves to the highest standard,” a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said. “To be clear, no court has found intentional misconduct by any prosecutor or detective in (the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability). The one case where a Brady violation was found involved a violation that the Court explicitly determined was not willful and involved material that had previously been produced.”
That case involved Osher Eisemann, a Lakewood rabbi convicted of money laundering and corporate misconduct in 2019. In 2022, Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone vacated the conviction and set a new trial after determining that the state had information that would have exonerated Eisemann that the state did not share the information with the rabbi’s attorney.
But Eisemann’s attorney, Lee Vartan, pushed back strongly on the narrative advanced by the attorney general’s office.
The attorney General’s comments are not accurate. The Superior Court held that OPIA committed a Brady violation—withholding evidence that the Court noted, ‘goes to the central issue of [Eisemann’s] guilt and has the probable effect of exonerating [him],’” Vartan said. “And to be clear, we believe that OPIA withheld that evidence intentionally. We filed a motion alleging that the State’s Brady violation was intentional, which motion will be heard next week.”
Paone’s decision was appealed to the appellate division and then to the New Jersey Supreme Court without success.
“That case notably has now been sent back for a new trial, and we look forward to being held to our proofs,” the spokesperson said.
Eisemann seeks to dismiss the charges and will return to court on March 6.
Attorneys representing two Atlantic County charter school officers skirted bidding requirements to award a furniture contract to a company owned by one of the defendants. Their attorneys, William Hughes, Jr. and Vincent Sarubbi, claim Nicodemo presented false testimony to a grand jury.
In court filings, the attorney general’s office denied those allegations.
attorney Leo Hurley, Jr. alleges that Nicodemo withheld key documents in the state’s prosecution of former Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell (D-Bayonne).
In the prosecution of former Jersey City Board of Education President Sudhan Thomas, there are questions regarding the OPIA’s conceptual intercept procedures that authorized the state’s cooperating witness in a small fish corruption sting operation, Matt O’Donnell, to wear a wire.
In a statement to the New Jersey Globe, the attorney general’s office accused defense attorneys of making Nicodemo their scapegoat.
“We have seen allegations of prosecutorial misconduct being increasingly used as a tool to seek favorable resolutions for defendants or a way out of being held responsible for criminal activity,” the spokesperson said. “However, defense allegations are not the same as facts.”
While not mentioning Nicodemo by name, the statement defended the besieged one-time prosecutor.
“If our office ever believed a prosecutor working for the Department had committed intentional misconduct, we would say so, and there would be serious consequences. But that is not the case. We will not back down when we know our prosecutions are just and we have acted in good faith,” the attorney general’s spokesperson said. “Our office does not comment publicly on ongoing criminal litigation. We have already responded to some allegations in Court and will continue to do so.”
Nicodemo has since been reassigned to an administrative job with the Division of Highway Traffic Safety and is no longer a line prosecutor. The attorney general’s office would comment on details of Nicodemo’s latest transfer but said the Division of Highway Traffic Safety” is increasing its focus on enforcement and community engagement and accordingly, staff members with relevant experience have been assigned to the division”
“At a time when trust in government is at an all-time low, there is no higher obligation than holding officials accountable who abuse their office and violate the public trust,” the spokesperson said.
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