Gov. Phil Murphy had a chance to investigate a top aide accused of sexually assaulting a woman, before the guy was hired for a government job. He blew it.
Even worse, so did the prosecutor. So while we welcome the probe that the governor promised Monday, to be headed by former Supreme Court Justice Peter Verniero, it still won't be enough.
Verniero is a Republican, so this is not just some partisan wash job. That said, though, we're a state that has been burned by the fictional Mastro report. So why take that risk?
Phil Murphy launches investigation into why alleged rapist was hired for top state job
Part of the Legislature's job is to oversee the executive branch. Sen. Loretta Weinberg is calling for hearings on the handling of sexual misconduct, but we also need to look at this case specifically, and why Al Alvarez flew under the radar for so long.
The woman who came forward is also a Murphy official, and has a credible story. Katie Brennan told the Wall Street Journal that Alvarez gave her a ride home, entered her Jersey City apartment on the pretense of using the bathroom and then forced himself on her until she managed to escape.
She immediately reported the assault to her husband, close friend and police, and got a rape kit done in the emergency room. Her accusations and the corroborating statements seem like solid evidence.
So our first question is, why did Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez's office decline to press charges?
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Now that the press has wind of this, she's handed it off to the Middlesex County Prosecutor, citing a conflict of interest, because she knows both Brennan and Alvarez. Suarez claims she didn't realize that earlier. We find that hard to believe. How close was this prosecutor, really, to Alvarez?
"I don't know how to answer that," said her spokesman, Raymond Worrall, on Monday night, when asked if Suarez is friends with Alvarez. He added, "You're going down a path that I'm not comfortable going down."
After Brennan reported the alleged assault to Hudson county prosecutors months ago, she says Alvarez claimed it was consensual. If that's his defense, it's dubious, given her reaction at the time. Women don't typically rush out to get a rape kit done, and call a husband and best friend, right after having consensual sex.
Brennan's friend said she was in such a state of shock that she was physically shaking. Now Suarez's office is trying to tell us a jury shouldn't have had a chance to weigh Alvarez's claim against the testimony of these three people?
And what about his reported offer to pay a $15,000 settlement to shut Brennan up? And another accuser who just came forward, saying Alvarez also sexually assaulted her, back in law school? Claims like Brennan's often expose a pattern of predatory abuse.
Legislative leaders should call on the Attorney General to investigate how the prosecutor handled this. Then they should hold their own hearings with subpoena power to learn how Alvarez was vetted for his job.
How is it possible that the governor never heard about this, when senior staffers like his chief counsel, Matt Platkin, knew the details as early as March?
The woman emailed both Murphy and his wife directly in June, citing a "sensitive matter." The governor moved to set up a meeting with her, but it never happened. Why didn't he express curiosity, or at least have the decency to hear her out?
Why did no one call the AG directly, instead of channeling this to its office of "Equal Employment Opportunity," to handle a sexual assault allegation? Was it just to give the appearance of consulting the AG, without really doing it?
Now they have a problem of public trust. "The folks in power are less than willing to investigate when it may gore their own ox," as retired lawmaker John Wisniewski, who helped shine a light on Bridgegate, put it.
It took real guts for Brennan to step up. None of this gets fixed without someone like her leading the way, at great personal cost. The very least we owe her is an investigation that isn't a sham.
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