Crime Victims to Governor: "You're doin' a heckuva a job, Jonny"

The December 21, 2008 Star-Ledger quoted Governor Corzine vowing that his two concerns for his re-election bid will be finances and ethics. People in New Jersey who follow politics know why he said that. He is concerned about the public perception on finances because his toll hike plan was a bust. He is concerned about the public perception of ethics because former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie has put away 130 corrupt New Jersey politicians while his Attorney General has been wasting taxpayer money litigating to keep the public from reading his e-mails.

On behalf of the crime victims and their advocates, he has much to learn - about squandering government money and ethics.


By dividing them into two different issues he condemns both efforts to failure. Ethics and finances are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are one in the same. As Director of the New Jersey Victims of Crime Compensation Agency, I worked hard to maintain a high level of support for crime victims and their service providers for two and one half years. During State fiscal year 2008 we processed 3,603 claims and paid over $12,000,000 to victims and service providers. Contaray to public pronouncements by both the Inspector General and the Attorney General, there is not one example of anything improper in any of those claims. This was accomplished with an ever diminishing staff. When I began on December 27, 2005, the agency had a staff of over fifty full-time people. In July, 2008, we were down to thirty-three. I was never given the authority to hire anyone, regardless of the reasons for the vacancies. Through the hard work and compassion of the people who worked there - many of whom voluntarily performed two jobs - we were able to serve the crime victims at a higher level than at any time in New Jersey's history. I was also able to expose fraud, waste and abuse. Two in-house attorneys who had worked there for over ten years had to be fired for corruption. One was operating a house closing business from his office. The other - who just happens to be the sister-in law of State Senator Robert Singer (R) 30th district - falsified her time sheets. Three patronage appointees had their positions eliminated by statute. We put a stop to a practice of hiring construction companies on a no bid basis (a practice I reported to the dismay of those who controlled it). In return for my successes I was fired and defamed.


The point of the above it this - a Governor must stand by people who do good work while ridding their agencies of corruption. If a Governor permits such people to be ruined by the political hacks who abuse government for their own greedy ends, that Governor fails the taxpayers both financially and ethically. Actions speak louder than words. Governor Corzine has told everyone familiar with this matter that if you work for the government you must keep silent about corruption or you will be punished. This corrodes confidence and makes any true ethics reform impossible.

For crime victims generally, the system is only getting worse. The VCCO is failing crime victims all over the state. The agency is delaying and denying claims submitted by victims of all types of horrible crimes. The goal of the current leadership seems to be to find any excuse possible to deny claims. Some readers may be thinking, "In these troubled times, maybe this is just a matter of saving taxpayer dollars." Such a sentiment is understandable - but it is wrong. The agency does not spend taxpayer dollars on victims. The funds used to pay thes claims comes from (1) assessments paid by defendants in the various criminal and municipal courts throughout the state, (2) a fees in commissaries at prisons and jails, and (3) a federal grant, which derives its funds from criminals in the federal justice system. The ironic and tragic truth is that by unnecessarily delaying and denying victims' claims, the current leadership is forfeiting federal grant money for subsequent years. This is because the federal grant is calculated as a percentage of the money spent on claims from the previous year. The federal government has built an incentive into the system to encourage crime victims' agencies to pay claims expeditiously. The current leadership is aware of this, they just do not care. Victims are going to lose what should be rightfully theirs. This will take the form of rape victims who will not get the mental health counseling they need, victims of domestic violence who will not be able to escape dangerous surroundings, victims of gang violence who will be bankrupted by medical bills, etc. Once again, the Governor's policy fails both financially and ethically.

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, "When you have chosen your part, abide by it, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself to the world." Jon Corzine is Governor because he chose to buy it. What makes his reconciliation with the political culture of the Soprano State so hideous is it is so unnecessary. He could be a true public servant, stand by his principles, and come to the defense of honest people in his government. But he is too weak for that. He has decided to "play ball" with the political bosses at the expense of those who truly need government and who truly work to make it more honest. In so doing he encourages those with political influence who abuse the government for their own enrichment and discourages those who stand up to corruption. His continued mistreatment of crime victims displays that even by his own standards - finances and ethics - Jon Corzine must go.


Copyright 2008, Edward Werner, All rights resrved

Please President-Elect Obama, don't take him from us

Open letter to Prersident -elect Obama:

Dear Mr. President-elect:

There have been many news reports of Governor Jon Corzine requesting consideration for an appointment to the upper echelon of your administrarrtion.

I respectfully ask you to consider the crime victims of New Jersey before you respond to the Governor's request.

All over the State of New Jersey, people who provide services to crime victims are waiting for word on their applications for federal grants. There has been a delay in informing these people if they will be able to make their living or close down. It has placed a great strain on professionals who are uniquely qualified to help those suffering traumatic grief. Governor Corzine seems unconcerned.

Earlier this year the Attorney General announced major cuts to the Offices of Victim/Witness Advocacy throughout the State. In Mercer County, which includes the high crime area in our Capitol, Trenton, they have been told there would be a seventy prcent cut in funding. This means they will have to reduce the number of people who assist crime victims. Victims will go without counseling. They will attend court hearings alone. They will be forgotten by the "Justice" system. Governor Corzine seems unconcerned.

By statute signed the Governor in July, 2007, he was supposed to appoint a Review Board to oversee the Crime Victims Compensation Agency. He has failed to nominate anyone. Instead he left me to run the agency with no help from his office for over one year. While I ran that agency, crime victims and service providers were assured of being treated professionally and paid quickly. I was fired in July in retaliation for reporting various examples of waste, fraud and abuse. The Attorney General replaced me with people who have no background in victims' rights and who show no concern for the people who need that office. They have created an unnecesary backlog of cases. People have been waiting for months just for a decision on whether claims will be paid. It will not be long before professionals will refuse to serve crime victims just as many will not now serve medicare patients. Governor Corzine seems unconcerned.

I have read where you got invlolved in public service because, deep down, you do not like to see people be mean to one another. I believe you mean that sincerely. With that thought in mind, I respectfully ask you to rememeber innocent crime victims when Governor Corzine applies for a position in your administration. Please remind him he needs to see to it that grants are delivered to victims' service providers, that victim/witness advocates in prosecutors' offices need funding, he needs to appoint a review board for the Crine Victims' Compensation Office, and he needs to find sensitive people to run the Crime Victims' Compensation Office.

Please Preident-elect Obama, when Governor Corzine asks for a promotion to your administration, remind him of the things he has left undone. Thank him for the offer of his services but tell him, "The crime vicitms of New Jersey need you more".

Sincerely,



Ed Werner

Copyright 2008, Ed Werner, All Rights Reserved

"What are they to make of us, these souls fresh from God?", Victor Hugo

Open letter to all Prosecutors in New Jersey

Dear Sirs/Madams:

It is with great sadness that I must write of one of the Victims of Crime Compensation Office’s (“VCCO”) new policies – excluding children who are victims of molestation. Some of you are already aware of this horrendous policy initiated under the direction of Attorney General Anne Milgram, but to those of you who are not, the new leadership of the VCCO will not find Endangering the Welfare of a Child (NJSA Section 2C:24-3) an eligible crime for compensation. In many cases of child abuse, this is the formal charge against the defendants.

Legally, there is no excuse for this. Under NJSA 52:4B-11(10), the VCCO may order compensation for personal injury for any crime of violence. Beyond this, under Administrative Code section 13:75-1.2, all rules governing the VCCO shall be liberally construed to permit the VCCO to secure equitable determinations in all matters before the agency. The VCCO’s large measure of discretion has been recognized by the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey in White v. VCCB,76 N.J. 368, A. 2d 206, 1978. When I was relieved of my responsibilities as Director on July 16, 2008, the VCCO was not only on stable financial ground, it had a $4,000,000 surplus. The new leadership of the VCCO has decided to disregard statutory obligation, administrative code direction, and State Supreme Court precedent in order to deny coverage for these children. In plain English, the VCCO has the authority and the means to provide medical care and mental health counseling to these children, but it has chosen to deny them.

The legal argument for mental health counseling and medical care to abused children - though compelling - is nothing compared to the equitable argument. Only a cold-hearted bureaucrat would consider denying this sort of assistance to a child in need, but that is the new VCCO under the direction of Attorney General Anne Milgram. The VCCO is supposed to provide needed care to innocent victims of violent crimes. These children, their fragile bodies disfigured and scarred, their souls fresh from God tormented and anguished, should never be forsaken as an excuse to save money (the VCCO does not use tax dollars to pay claims, it is funded primarily by criminal defendants' fees) or to cover the asses of spineless bureaucrats. These abused children are some of the most innocent victims of some of the most violent crimes in our State.

I am aware that a prosecutor’s job is often a thankless one, and it should not be unnecessarily burdened by the heartlessness of the bureaucrats currently in charge of the VCCO. But on behalf of these children I must respectfully ask that until sanity is restored to the VCCO, please remember to charge all defendants with crimes the VCCO will cover and do not charge them only with Endangering the Welfare of a Child (NJSA section 2C:24-3).

Respectfully submitted,

Edward G. Werner

To the VCCA, with Love

As written in previously posted entries, the New Jersey State Attorney General has attempted to ruin me personally and professionally. I do not want that part of the story to shroud the privilege I had to lead the Victims of Crime Compensation Agency for two and one half years.

On April 22, 2008, I addressed the people who work at the Victims of Crime Compensation Agency in honor of National Victims' Rights Week. At the time I delivered these words, I had no way of knowing I would be fired and replaced by the very sort of bureaucrats described therein. I may never be reinstated at the VCCA, and the Attorney General may never concede the errors that have left innocent crime victims out in the cold.

On the other hand, I would like the people who did such fine work to get some recognition. And no matter what happens in the future, I hope they never forget that for one brief shining moment, there was a place in New Jersey State Government where artists were able to realize their potential and suffering victims were healed.


T0 THE VCCA, WITH LOVE

In the year 415 B.C.E., the citizens of Athens gave their highest award to the playwright Euripides. The play for which he received the award was not about great triumphs on the battlefield, fetes on the Olympic fields of competition, or a soap opera about the gods. It was a play about the pain and suffering in the aftermath of war. The award was presented to him in gratitude for reminding them of the horror of war, lest they enter into one without just cause.
At one point in the play, the main character is holding the body of her murdered son in her arms and she says to him, “Tis I, Old, homeless, childless, that for thee must shed Cold tears, so young, so miserably dead.”

There are misguided people who would call us bureaucrats. Stereotypical government workers. Dilettantes with puny souls, blithely adhering to the dictates of statute and administrative code.
You are artists. People come here in pain and you help them heal. There is no higher calling anywhere. There is no more important vocation anywhere. Not just in State government. Anywhere.

The statute and administrative code? They are the Cider House Rules. We are here to be open hearted and open minded to people who cry cold tears. Shooting victims who do not have money for medical care. Rape victims who do not have money for counseling. Parents of murdered children who do not have money for a funeral. The victims of domestic violence who need money to escape. You see to their well being and answer their prayers when nobody else will.

By far the greatest privilege of my professional life has been to be among you to witness pure greatness. Last year alone, you provided over $16,000,000 in help to thousands of people with nowhere else to turn. Your work is inspiring because you do it so well, and especially because you do it without recognition or accolades. After years of this public service you have come to know the only rewards you will ever get are the ones you feel in your hearts. So on this, National Victims’ Rights Week, on behalf of the Government of the State of New Jersey, and as Director of the VCCA, I recognize all of you for your professionalism, your diligence, your compassion, and your integrity.

And on behalf of people who cry cold tears, Thank you.



Edward G. Werner, Director of the New Jersey Victims of Crime Compensation Agency
April 22, 2008




Copyright (c) 2008, Edward Werner, All rights reserved

VICTIMS OF THE SYSTEM

Crime victims across New Jersey are unnecessarily suffering due to multiple failures of our political system. The state government agency charged with compensating innocent victims of violent crime was operating like a well-oiled machine for the last two and one half years. It is now a mess; failing to serve victims and forfeiting funds.

I am Ed Werner. It was my privilege to serve as the head of that agency from December 27, 2005 until July 16, 2008. The agency I inherited had many good people who were expert in their work and sincerely cared about helping victims. Unfortunately, like much of New Jersey government, it was riddled with corruption. I did my best to keep the agency operating at a high level while rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse wherever I found it.

As you will read below, I accomplished both, and the government has tried to ruin me for it.
The saddest part of all is the unnecessary suffering of the innocent victims with nowhere else to turn.

Copyright (c) 2008 Edward Werner. All rights reserved

VICTIMS OF THE SYTEM

BACKGROUND

In 1997, I was a 36 year old self-employed securities attorney supporting my wife and four children in Jackson, New Jersey. On September 27th of that year my eldest son, Eddie, was raped and murdered by a neighborhood teenager who had himself been the victim of a sexual predator. I continued to practice securities law as best I could for as long as I could, but I no longer had the same zeal for my profession. My clients were very understanding and my adversaries were very courteous, but I knew I had to take my life in a different direction.

I learned there were other people who had turned their lives around after such a tragedy. One was Maureen Kanka, who spearheaded the movement to pass Megan’s Law after her daughter Megan was brutally murdered. Another was Richard Pompelio, who led the fight for the New Jersey Constitutional Amendment for Crime Victims, the Crime Victim’s exception to the Open Public Records Act, and the Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights after his son Tony was murdered. Another was Kathy Garcia, who opened and operated the Center for Traumatic Grief, the only mental health center in New Jersey designed for homicide survivors, after her nephew Jimmy was murdered.

These people became my heroes. I aspired to become an activist to accomplish some goal that would leave a positive legacy. In June, 2002, after becoming a public voice on several issues and an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the State Assembly, I was struggling financially and personally. Through the beneficence of Governor Jim McGreevey, I was offered a position as Deputy Attorney General in the Department of Law and Public Safety. For the next three and one half years in that capacity I worked on several different types of issues. I dealt with Megan’s Law enforcement, I was Counsel to the Office of Victim/Witness Advocacy, and for a time I prosecuted violators of the New Jersey State labor laws.

In December, 2005, I was nominated by Acting Governor Richard Codey to serve as Chairperson of the State Government’s Victims of Crime Compensation Board (“VCCB”). The VCCB was created by statute in 1973 to provide financial assistance to innocent victims of violent crime. In order to be eligible for VCCB assistance, a person had to (1) be an innocent victim of violent crime, (2) have suffered physical injury as a result, (3) cooperate with law enforcement, and (4) have no other source of funds. An eligible victim was entitled to $25,000 in the form of reimbursement of medical costs, funeral costs, mental health therapy, etc. In some instances, the VCCB would pay money directly to the victim for reimbursement for lost wages or loss of support.

In an effort to keep the VCCB apolitical, it was made “in but not of” the Department of Law and Public Safety. The designation “in but not of” is used to provide an agency a relatively wide degree of latitude. In practice, it means the people making the day-to-day management decisions are not subject to much oversight.

At the top of the organizational structure was a Board composed of five individuals, one of whom was the Chairperson. Each Board member, as well as the designated Chairperson, was nominated by the Governor with the advice and consent of the State Senate. With the advice and consent of the State Senate I was sworn in as Chairperson and officially took office on December 27, 2005.

DECEMBER, 2005-JUNE, 2007 - CHAIRPERSON OF THE VCCB
JULY, 2007-JULY, 2008 –ACTING DIRECTOR OF THE VCCA

VCCB REORGANIZATION LEGISLATION

During the time of my employment at the VCCB, I spoke out against several forms of waste, fraud and illegal activity. First, I advocated passage of legislation to rid the VCCB of wasteful spending. When I became Chairperson there were three Board Members, each of whom was paid an annual salary in excess of $100,000. One of the Board positions was vacant and remained unfilled until it was eliminated by the reorganizing legislation. The three sitting Board members were political appointees with no background in victims’ issues.

[The remainder of this narrative refers to time periods during which the name of the agency was changed from the Victims of Crime Compensation Board, to the Victims of Crime Compensation Agency (“VCCA”), and finally to the Victims of Crime Compensation Office. For ease of reading, I will hereafter refer to it as the VCCA even though each reference may pertain to a time period of a different incarnation.] Legislation had been written to reform the VCCA, primarily to rid the agency of the Board positions. The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services studied said bills and concluded there would be $400,000 in savings if the legislation was enacted into law. I testified in favor of bill A2322 before the Assembly Budget Committee and bill S218 before the Senate Appropriations Committee during State fiscal year 2007. Although it was well known that the Board members were superflous to the agency, only the sponsoring Senator and I testified in favor of passage before the legislative committees. Both bills passed and the legislation was signed into law by Governor Corzine on or around June 30, 2007.

THE SENATOR'S DAUGHTER

One aspect of the above referenced legislation designed to root out waste was the attempt to rid the VCCA of what is referred to in New Jersey politics as a "lo-show" job. Cathleen Russo Delanoy (“Delanoy”), daughter of former Senator John Russo, had been employed at the VCCA for at least four years prior to my appointment. John Russo has been and continues to be a powerful person in New Jersey politics. Although retired from the State Senate, he continues to be active in Ocean County politics as the “patriarch” of the Democratic Party while also operating as a lobbyist for the one of the most prominent Republican party bosses in New Jersey – Dale Florio. Delanoy is also the sister-in-law of the sitting Republican Senator from the 30th Legislative District, Robert Singer. Delanoy held the title Assistant Board Counsel. Her responsibilities were very limited. Her main task was to arranging hearings for victims who believed their claims were wrongly limited or denied.

To digress, under the statute, victims were entitled to a hearing before a panel of Board members to dispute any denial or limitation on their claims. Delanoy’s job was to arrange a hearing each Wednesday for them to address their complaints directly to the Board. Most of these hearings were held in our Newark office, but several times per year the Board would travel to a different location for the convenience of the victims. Delanoy came to the Newark only on Wednesdays. On the remaining days of the week she was supposed to be working at an office maintained by the VCCA in Trenton. Delanoy was the only person who used that office.
The VCCA reorganization legislation had a provision designed to eliminate Delanoy’s position. It accomplished this by amending the statute to change the official location of the VCCA’s office from Trenton to Newark, thereby eliminating the antiquated statutory requirement to maintain a Trenton office. The thinking here was that if the Trenton office was closed, Delanoy would likely ask her father and brother-in-law to get her a different political job closer to home, and the agency would be rid of her. I know this was the design of the legislation because it was fully discussed in a meeting held at the Statehouse in one of the Governor’s counsel’s offices. This meeting was held in the Spring of 2007 and was attended by former VCCA Chairperson Richard Pompelio, Senator Loretta Weinberg, Governor’s Counsel Karen Fiorelli and myself. Karen Fiorelli was the representative of Governor Corzine for this matter. I had not met her prior to this meeting, but it was obvious from her familiarity with this legislation that she had been working on it for quite some time.

The plan came to an abrupt end when Senator Russo found out about it. I had been meeting with legislators to lobby for passage of the legislation. In June, 2007 I met in the field office of Senator Kenny, Chairperson of the powerful Appropriations committee, before which bill S218 was pending. At our meeting he informed me he had received a telephone call from Senator Russo, advising him of the statutory change of office location. He expressly told me he would permit the bill to leave his committee if and only if it was changed back to designate Trenton as the official site of the agency so as to keep Delanoy’s lo-show job safe.

The next time I checked the bill, section 6 had been amended to delete any reference to Newark and once again make Trenton the official location of the agency. Apparently, upon direction of Governor’s Counsel Fiorelli, the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services (“OLS”) changed the bill to reflect Senator Russo’s demand. The final version of S218 was written on June 14, 2007. This version listed several changes made just prior to passage. Tellingly, there was no reference to the change of section 6, even though that was a nonnegotiable demand to get it passed.
At the time of passage, it had been determined the VCCA would no longer be “in but not of” the Department of Law and Public Safety, but would be “in” the Department of Treasury. This meant that the agency would be less independent than in the past. I would now have supervisors to whom to report in the Department of Treasury.

At my initial meeting with my new Supervisor, David Ridolfino, I informed him of the Delanoy situation. He accepted it as the way things are done in New Jersey government. I also informed other people in the Department of Treasury about this including Douglas Ianni, Executive Administrator of the Department of Treasury.

A few months later I was called to testify on the record at a Department of Treasury inquiry into Delanoy’s attendance. I testified I had been informed by Senator Kenny that Delanoy’s position was special because of her family connections. During this investigation, I received three telephone calls requesting privileged information about the investigation. One was from Senator Russo and the other two were from former Ocean County Prosecutor, Dan Carluccio. I refused to answer their questions.

On all three occasions I expressly called Ianni because I perceived a threat. I was concerned because I had repeatedly made it clear to both Senator Russo and former Prosecutor Carluccio that I would not divulge any information about the Delanoy investigation to them, yet they repeatedly prodded me. I told Ianni I felt this was an implied threat – i.e. they understood I would not divulge any information but they were calling me just to attempt to intimidate me. Ianni took no action.Upon a finding that Delanoy had repeatedly falsified records in that she failed to report at the Trenton office on days for which she submitted signed time sheets, her employment was terminated. Delanoy was also compelled to repay that part of her compensation for the days on which it was acknowledged she had falsified her time sheets.

CATASTROPHIC VICTIMS' CONSTRUCTION COSTS

On May 19, 2008, I submitted a confidential memorandum to Ridolfino in which I requested an audit. I had previously made this request to Ridolfino verbally. The memo describes an internal system that appears to have been created for embezzlement.

To digress, in 1999 the VCCA statute was amended to add a provision for victims who were catastrophically injured. The statutory amendment was drafted by former Board member Jacob Toporek. Under this amendment, the VCCA was permitted to pay an additional $35,000 of benefits to a crime victim with a catastrophic injury. Much of this assistance was in the form of wheelchairs and construction of home improvements for victims who had lost the use of their legs.

Paranthetically, Toporek was a person of considerable political influence. He had been the beneficiary of a statutory amendment whereby any Board member who served ten years - he being the only Board member to have ever done so - had tenure. Prior to serving as a Board member he was Governor Brendan Byrne’s Appointments counsel. He now serves as the Executive Director of the New Jersey State Association of Jewish Federations. While serving as a Board member of the VCCA, Toporek was well known for abusing his privileges. As an example, in testimony before an Assembly Committee in 2005 , he was forced to admit that he had taken 66 days off in the first eight months of that year and planned to take more. He was also largely responsible for running the agency for years during which crime victims had to wait over one year for payments of claims and, in many instances, their claims were denied for specious reasons. He has since been appointed by Governor Corzine to the New Jersey-Israel Commission.

The May 19, 2008 memo to Ridolfino was prompted by his failure to take any action after I had made the faulty internal system known to him verbally on many occasions. The VCCA had been paying for construction projects for catastrophically injured victims with virtually no internal controls. I was concerned for the following reasons:
i. The internal case processing system – i.e. our computer tracking system – was designed to fail to capture information on catastrophic claims;
ii. The agency had never had a bidding process for hiring firms to do this construction
work;
iii. Only one Investigator had had the authority to choose a firm for this work. There was no formal process by which he was determining reasonableness of cost. When I asked that Investigator about this, his precise words were, “I just hire some goomba”;
iv. For years while the VCCA was “in but not of” the Department of Law and Public
Safety there was no oversight. The VCCA had the authority to submit any payment voucher for this sort of work and the Department of Law and Public Safety merely rubber stamped it;
v. The only type of claim for which the VCCA refrained from seeking restitution from criminal defendants was for catastrophic claims. This is a policy that has no basis in the statute or administrative code. It is simply the way things had always been done. By refraining from seeking restitution, the VCCA ensured no person would ever ask to review these expenditures for reasonableness;
vi. The same three people have been in charge of catastrophic claims, setting up the
VCCA’s internal computer system, and internal controls since 1999; and
vii. There has never been an audit of this process.

Ridolfino responded by passing this confidential memorandum to the office of the InspectorGeneral and to a Mr. Daniel Foster, Administrator in the Department of Law and Public Safety. I called Ridolfino to voice my concern about sending the memorandum to Foster. I told Ridolfino that Foster was an old friend of one of the individuals who were responsible for setting up the computer system. Ridolfino responded in a dismissive manner. Shortly thereafter I received a very angry telephone call from Foster. He told me that the VCCA was going to be in the Department of Law and Public Safety and I should not send any more memoranda to Ridolfino or anyone else in the Department of Treasury. All such memoranda should be sent directly to him and only him. I explained the memo had been sent to Ridolfino because I had discussed this issue with him before and I was still within the Department of Treasury. He answered with a greater degree of anger that he did not owe me an explanation and I was absolutely not to refer to this issue to anyone else but him. As of this writing, there has been no apparent effort by anyone to determine if any funds have been embezzled on these construction projects.

INVESTIGATION BY THE INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE

After several months of reporting to the Department of Treasury, I was informed by Ridolfino there would be an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General. I immediately welcomed their investigators to the agency. I expressly told everyone working at the VCCA to cooperate fully. I went so far as to invite them to our weekly Supervisors’ meetings.

To digress, the VCCA processes thousands of claims each year. With a full-time staff of only 38 people, for the first eleven months of State fiscal year 2008, the VCCA received 3824 new claims. During that same time period, 2160 claims were deemed eligible for compensation and paid, 224 were deemed eligible with no compensable losses, 434 were deemed ineligible, 785 were closed for administrative reasons. The people who work at the VCCA are diligent and professional in every way. Most of them have worked there for ten years or longer. They have both a tremendous amount of knowledge and a sincere desire to serve the people who come there for help. Most people in New Jersey have never heard of the VCCA because it is not an agency that advertises. It is well known to law enforcement agencies, medical professionals, and funeral directors – they are the people who most often refer people to the VCCA.

It is understandable that the general public does not know much about the VCCA. What is far more troubling is how few people in government care to learn about it. I have done everything I could to make the agency more familiar to government officials, but, sadly, most of them have no interest. The reason is simple – crime victims do not have hundreds of thousands of dollars to finance lobbyists in the halls of power or to swell politicians’ campaign coffers. As the payer of last resort, most of the people who come to the VCCA are poor.

On the other hand, I have found that once people understand what we do, they universally like it. The VCCA costs taxpayers virtually nothing. During the years I have been the head of the agency, we have paid approximately $13,000,000 in benefits to victims per year, with administrative costs of approximately $2,500,000. Our revenue comes almost exclusively from criminal defendants. Each year we received approximately $7,000,000 from fees charged to guilty defendants in the various courts throughout the state, approximately $2,500,000 from fees charged to inmates at the commissaries in the prisons and jails, approximately $5,000,000 from a federal grant, which money is derived from criminals in the federal system, approximately $500,000 from restitution paid to the agency by criminals, and only $1,500,000 in tax dollars from the general fund. Indeed, tax revenue does not even cover the cost of administering the office, and in return, every year thousands of citizens injured by violent crime get the help they need.

I have made efforts to lobby for additional funding while simultaneously seeking recognition and awareness for the good work done by the VCCA. I looked for ways to increase our revenue while not increasing the burden on taxpayers. One simple way to accomplish this would be to simply increase the assessments charged to defendants. Under current law, defendants are assessed, either $100, $50, or $30 per offense. They are charged the highest assessments for the most serious offenses. New Jersey has not increased its assessments since 1993. As one example of how overdue the assessment increase is, in 1993 the VCCA spent approximately $2500 for victims of domestic violence all year. In 2007, the VCCA spent approximately $2,500,000 for victims of domestic violence. OLS has analyzed this legislation and concluded the VCCA would realize several million dollars per year if enacted. These bills have been introduced - they are S1230 and A1834 - but they are not being advanced.

I drafted one piece of legislation myself based on what is already being done in two other states. In Illinois and Nevada criminal defendants are compelled to pay their victims’ assessments as a condition of return of their bail. Passage of this legislation would not only immediately increase revenue to the VCCA, it would actually save taxpayers money by relieving parole and probation officers of the task of trying to collect these assessments once criminals are back on the streets. These bills - A784 and S1438 – have also been introduced but are not being advanced. I have met personally with legislators and/or their representatives in an effort to lobby for their passage. I have met with Senator Adler, Assemblyman Greenwald, Senator Weinberg, Assemblywoman Greenstein, Senator Lance, Assemblyman Gusciora, as well as representatives of Senator Sweeney, Senator Codey, Assemblyman Payne, and others to lobby for these bills.

When Ridolfino informed me the Inspector General was going to be investigating us, I looked upon it as an opportunity to display the good work we were doing and to seek constructive criticism. After an initial meeting with their investigators, I invited them to our weekly Supervisor meetings. The claims are processed by a team of investigators who report to a Supervisor. Each Supervisor has at least ten years of experience, so they are each well versed in the issues that arise and how we respond to them. As they are reviewing the claims, they set aside any one for which they are uncertain as to whether the victim’s claim should be paid. Each Tuesday, we meet in the agency’s conference room where we go over the claim and the issue. A debate ensues at which everyone is free to voice their opinions about whether the claim should be paid. Sometimes the debates get spirited, and often there is a compromise reached before the decision is final. BUT IN EVERY CASE THERE IS SERIOUS CONSIDERATION OF THE NEEDS OF THE VICTIM AND OUR ABILITY TO MEET THOSE NEEDS IN KEEPING WITH THE SPIRIT AND LETTER OF THE LAW. The Inspector General’s investigators sat in on these meetings for approximately six months.AT NO TIME DID ANY OF THEM APPROACH ME TO INDICATE THEY HAD ANY CONCERNS ABOUT THIS APPROACH OR THE EXTENT TO WHICH WE WERE NOT ADHERING TO THE STATUTE. It was clear to me in speaking to them that they had absolutely no background in this area and were ignorant of the agency, its governing statute, and administrative code. If they had checked, they would have discovered the governing statute and administrative code are filled with qualifying language, giving the agency leniency to meet its goal – i.e. to assist innocent victims of violent crime who cooperate with law enforcement and have no money to pay for necessary services. This is the clear sentiment of the statute and administrative code and they have been so interpreted by the State Supreme Court.

RELIEVED OF MY DUTIES BY DANIEL FOSTER

On July 16, 2008 I was summoned to the Office of the Attorney General, ostensibly to meet with Mr. Frank Croce and Mr. Phil Hopkins for a discussion of administrative issues. After an hour long meeting with them I was told to report to the office of Mr. Daniel Foster. Upon entering Mr. Foster’s office he told me I was being immediately relieved of my duties and ordered me to hand in my credentials. He said I would remain on salary. I was shocked. I asked why and his only response was it was a result of the Inspector General’s report. I asked him what was in the report. He told me any and all questions must be asked of Mr. Shavar Jeffries. I later learned that Mr. Jeffries would serve as the interim Director of the VCCA.

I was driven home by police officers. When I arrived at my apartment at approximately
3:30 pm I found there were telephone messages from newspaper reporters asking why I had been relieved of my duties. I could not understand how so many reporters had heard I had been relieved of my duties in such a short period of time. I learned how that evening when I went on the internet and saw that the Attorney General had gone to the press to inform them that the Inspector General’s report uncovered discrepancies in payments made by the VCCA that she found “deeply troubling.” Attorney General Anne Milgram had actively spread defamatory comments to all of the news agencies covering New Jersey.

I must emphasize two points. (1) At no time had anyone from either the Inspector General’s Office or the Attorney General’s Office given me any indication there was any question about the payments made by the agency under my leadership. I was given no opportunity to respond to any findings of the Inspector General. (2) The Attorney General issued a statement on her official website and disseminated her criticisms of me to various news agencies without informing me in advance. After serving as the head of that agency for two years and six months without any indication of any dissatisfaction with my performance, I found out why I was being relieved by reading it in the newspaper. A headline on page 5 of the July 21, 2008 New Jersey Law Journal read, “Crime Victim Agency Head Removed as Inspector General Questions Payouts”. The headline on page A3 in the July 17, 2008 Asbury Park Press read “Victims Compensation Chief Suspended in Payment Probe”. The headline of the article in the July 17, 2008 Star-Ledger read “Agency Exec ousted amid fiscal probe of crime victims aid. Investigation suggests inappropriate payouts.” Moreover, On July 16, 2008, the official web site of the State Office of the Attorney General, Attorney General Milgram stated, “In a letter to the Attorney General, Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper wrote that the Victims of Crime Compensation Agency had not consistently complied with its statute and regulations and had issued payments to victims without sufficient management and oversight.”

In sum, the Attorney General had gone out of her way to publicly disparage me. Her statements to the press were an attempt to put me in the same class as John Lynch, Joseph Ferriero, Sharpe James, and Wayne Bryant as well as other public officials who have been removed from office for corruption. This was appalling to me for several obvious reasons. First, I am not a career politician. As written above, I was a securities attorney who became active in victims’ rights and other issues after the murder of my son Eddie on September 27, 1999. In all the years I have practiced law in New York and New Jersey – i.e. since 1989 – I have never been the subject of any sort of allegation of unethical conduct. Moreover, I am the first to admit that my appointment to the position as head of that agency was an undeserved privilege. I did not do anything special to warrant that appointment, quite to the contrary. Because I have never lost sight of that fact I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN MINDFUL TO DO MY BEST TO EARN THAT POST BY WORKING HARD TO HONESTLY TO PROVIDE THE BEST FOR VICTIMS WHILE BEING CONSIDERATE TO THE INDIVIDUALS WHO WORK THERE. I would never do anything to disgrace Eddie’s memory and Anne Milgram has no legal or moral right to suggest otherwise!

The official website of the Attorney General fails to say that (1)said letter was solicited by the Attorney General, (2) the investigation was and still is, ongoing, (3) the investigation covered a period of time that extended two and one half years before I was employed at the VCCA, (4) at no point in the letter did the Inspector General indicate I was employed at the VCCA for any of the alleged wrongdoing, (5) the letter did not allege I was responsible for any of the alleged wrongdoing, (6) the two attorneys on staff from whom I was to take legal advice on these issues had both been terminated for corruption, (7) I was left to make all judgments without the benefit of the statutorily mandated Review Board - the Review Board was to have been nominated by Governor Corzine over one year ago - he still has not nominated anyone for it, (8) the Department of Treasury oversaw all payments and withheld many payments until it was satisfied they were appropriate, and (9) from the time I was made aware the agency was to be made part of the Department of Law and Public Safety i.e January, 2008, I provided the Attorney General with a full complement of reports to make her aware of the work we were doing. I had been supplying these monthly reports to both the Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Treasury since July, 2007. These reports provided a complete analysis of the volume and type of work accomplished, and a thorough accounting of all agency finances including revenue, expenditures, and funds on hand. In addition, as recently as July 7, 2008 I prepared and delivered to representatives of the Attorney General, including Daniel Foster, a complete analysis of the agency specifically for the Department of Law and Public Safety. I had personally delivered this report to at least five individuals at the Department of Law and Public Safety. At no point did anyone from the Attorney General’s office give me any indication they disagreed with how I was performing or the policies implemented under my direction.

In sum, I have been publicly disparaged by the Attorney General. Her allegations against me are false and she knew them to be false when she made them. They were designed to excuse her firing me and to damage my professional reputation. Everywhere I have gone to seek employment or discuss this situation I have been met with the same response. Everyone thinks I must have been caught stealing. This has made it impossible for me to secure new employment. In fact, Attorney General Milgram has never spoken to me, she has never come to the offices of the VCCA, and has no knowledge of any of the claims for which she alleges I was fired. Attorney General Milgram’s only alleged source for this information was a letter she solicited from the Inspector General regarding an unfinished investigation of the VCCA.

The Inspector General is investigating the activity of the VCCA during a period extending back in time to Richard Pompelio’s term as Chairperson. As I have written above, there was a time I considered Mr. Pompelio to be a hero. Unfortunately, he no longer holds that station. The circumstances under which his term as Chairperson came to a close are much in doubt. Although he alleges he left voluntarily, many people familiar with the agency have reason to believe he was forced to resign. In my term of office I was very disappointed in some of the requests he made of me. In particular, on several occasions he asked me to provide confidential information from case files. When I refused his unethical requests, he would hasten to remind me that it was he who nominated me for this position and I should expect to do him favors. On more than one occasion I told him I would do anything I could for him as long it was legal and ethical. That was not good enough for him. In retribution, he then began an effort to have me removed. On November 30, 2007, he wrote a correspondence to Governor Corzine falsely claiming to be speaking for victims around New Jersey asking that I be removed. He had the temerity to invoke the names of other victims’ activists - without their knowledge - implying that they also wanted me removed. Two of those named in his letter discovered what he had done and took the opportunity to set the record straight. Now that Pompelio has gotten his way - i.e I have been removed from office - the people who are hurting are the same ones he claims to want to help.
In truth, he has ceased to be a true vicitms' advocate and is nothing more than a self-promoter
whose efforts result in revictimizing them.

The Inspector General’s July 15, 2008 correspondence to Attorney General Milgram outlined preliminary findings of her investigation into the VCCA. The letter contains broad, unsubstantiated allegations about practices at the VCCA and five sentences concerning specific claims paid during the five year period of the investigation. The only reference in the July 15, 2008 letter to a questionable practice that pertained to my time at the agency was the issue of the potential for abuse in the catastrophic claims (discussed above). This issue was brought to the Inspector General’s attention by me! All of the other allegations either pertain to the time before I worked at the agency or pertain to expenditures that are appropriate under the VCCA’s statute and administrative code.

Clearly, Attorney General Milgram had an agenda: Solicit a letter from the Inspector General during an investigation, find in the letter some excuse to fire me, and then take the initiative to discredit me on the Attorney General’s official website and any newspaper that would print the defamation.

THE MEETING WITH THE INSPECTOR GENERAL

In my dealings with various legislators, I have had the privilege of meeting a true profile in courage. Assemblyman Nelson Albano is a crime victim himself. His son Michael was killed by a repeat offender drunk driver in 2001. He is the voice of victims in our State Legislature.

I appealed for help to Assemblyman Albano. After being relieved of my duties, I asked him if he would call the Attorney General so that I might have a hearing to respond to any allegations made against me. Assemblyman Albano telephoned the Attorney General and asked if she could explain why I had been relieved of my duties. She offered him no substantive explanation except to confirm there was nothing criminal or fraudulent involved. She promised him I would be afforded the opportunity for a hearing.

On August 6, 2008 Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper wrote a correspondence to my attorney confirming a meeting at which I would be given an opportunity to be heard. On
August 18, 2008, accompanied by my attorney, I met with the following people from the Inspector General’s Office; Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper, and three individuals who had personally investigated the VCCA - two attorneys and one investigator. Although they had reviewed hundreds, if not thousands of case files, they had only four matters about which they claimed any impropriety. One claim was from 2003, two years before I began working there. One claim was for a victim who had been stabbed by her ex-husband who, as it happenend, had failed to pay child support for an extended period of time. The victim’s wounds were so severe she had to be hospitalized. The VCCA paid her child support while her ex-husband was incarcerated, in keeping with agency policy. The theory supporting this coverage was he could not earn money for support payments while incarcerated, so the VCCA made them instead. Inspector Mary Jane Cooper opined that a rule in the administrative code should have resulted in a denial of this claim. I believed then, as I do now, that this is not the sort of situation anticipated when the administrative code was written. Although there may be a sound policy objective to limit claims based on reasonable expectations, to enforce a rule that would allow child support payments only if the victim had been receiving them at the time of the crime but to deny them if the victim had not been receiving them would be to revictimize children of so-called “deadbeat dads”. I believed then, and I believe now, I made the correct decision in making these child support payments for this victim. The Inspector General then claimed I had no authority to approve payments made to Dr. Frances B. Pelliccia. Dr. Pellicia was performing examinations on children who were victims of assault and/or sexual abuse in Hudson County. Many of the children she treated were referred to her by the Hudson County Prosecutor. She is a fully licensed physician and a trained sexual assault nurse examiner. I showed the Inspector General the statute section that specifically addressed payments to experts to examine alleged victims to determine if they were truly victims. The Inspector General dropped her objection to these payments.

It was painfully obvious the Inspector General and her staff had not the slightest understanding of the VCCA or crime victims’ issues. For example, Inspector General Cooper asserted she did not know family members of murdered people are considered victims. I respectfully asked her to read the VCCA statute and the New Jersey State Constitution at the break so that she could be more enlightened on the subject as we proceeded. Inspector General Cooper also seemed to be absolutely unaware of the qualifying language throughout the VCCA statute, the administrative code, and the State Court precedents, all of which instruct those charged with running the agency to do so with an open mind so as to achieve the general goal of the statute – i.e. provide necessary financial assistance to innocent victims of violent crime who have no other source of funds.

After that meeting I was confident I would be reinstated, or at least reassigned to a new post from which I could serve victims. After all, the Inspector General had examined hundreds, if not thousands of case files and found nothing else about which to claim I had in any way authorized improper payments. I waited to hear from someone from the Office of the Attorney General.

FIRED BY DANIEL FOSTER

On Tuesday, September 2, 2008 I received a telephone call from Daniel Foster. I immediately reminded him I was represented by counsel and his call should be directed there. He spoke through my words and coldly said “You are terminated effective September 12, 2008.” I was given no further explanation from him or anyone else in the State Government.

THE HORRIBLE RESULT

INNOCENT VICTIMS PAY THE PRICE

I began receiving troubling news from victims and their service providers. Since I was relieved of my duties, the agency has absolutely failed to do its job. The bureaucrats with whom the Attorney General has replaced me have no background in victims’ rights, have no familiarity with victims’ issues, are ignorant of the agency’s history, and are indifferent to the pain they are causing.

The agency, now demoted from an agency to just an office, is renamed the Victims’ of Crime Compensation Office (“VCCO”). It is denying victims the help they need. They are making it standard policy to make victims wait at least one year and maybe two before they will advise if their claims are eligible. They have made a policy determination to deny all claims for victims of endangering the welfare of a child – i.e. most child molestation victims. It has gotten so bad that the 21 County Prosecutor's Offcies Victim/Witness Coordinators have written directly to the Attorney General reporting mental health service providers are already indicating a lack of willingness to serve crime victims. They have been reduced to asking if the VCCO is willing to consider emergency applications. According to their correspondence, there is not even any clear method by which victims may appeal if their application is denied!

It is clear, the bureaucrats running the VCCO do not know what they are doing and they do not care. I attempted to educate them on at least one basic fact they need to know in order to run the agency properly. As I explained above, this agency is NOT DOLING OUT TAXPAYER MONEY. The money at their disposal comes from defendants and incarcerated populations in our prisons and jails and from a federal grant. Their new policies are nothing less than an illegal abuse of authority. The amazingly stupid aspect of their new policies is that they are not saving money – they are costing money. The federal grant that funds a substantial portion of the agency is a rolling fund that is intended to be spent generously in order to increase the federal grant in subsequent years. This is an example of what our governor is fond of referring to as a recurring stream of revenue. While the Attorney General’s new policies are being implemented to the detriment of current victims, her ignorance is now sowing the seeds of a real financial crisis for the agency in the coming years because its federal grant will dry up. On September 11, 2008 I wrote a correspondence to Mr. Jeffries and sent copies to both Attorney General Milgram and Governor Corzine. I attempted to enlighten them as to how the federal grant works and why they are destroying the recurring stream of revenue by denying and delaying the payment of claims. Already, mental health counselors are planning to shut their doors to crime victims because the funding to serve them is no longer available. It will only be a matter of time before physicians will refuse to treat crime victims the same way some of them will not treat Medicare patients. Parents of murdered children will face bankruptcy because they will have no way to pay funeral directors.

We should not deceive ourselves to thinking this is a novel issue. It is the sad state of our political system. Referring to rampant corruption in New York over one hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote in his autobiography, “…we American citizens tend to breed a mass of men whose interests in governmental matters are often adverse to ours, who are thoroughly drilled, thoroughly organized, who make their livelihood out of politics, and who frequently make their livelihood out of bad politics. They know every little twist and turn, no matter how intricate, in the politics of their several wards, and when election day comes the ordinary citizen who has merely the interest that all good men, all decent citizens, should have in political life, finds himself as helpless before these men as if he were a solitary volunteer in the presence of a band of drilled mercenaries on a field of battle….The large number of men who believe vaguely in good are pitted against the smaller but still larger number of men whose interest it often becomes to act very concretely and actively for evil; and it is small wonder that the struggle is doubtful.”

I appealed one more time to Assemblyman Albano to intercede on my behalf. I was convinced that if I could only have the opportunity to meet with Governor Corzine I could enlighten him and he would rectify this. In response to Assemblyman Albano’s request, I was contacted by Ms. Michellene Davis and she made an appointment with me. Unfortunately, she broke the appointment the day before I was to meet with her. She assured me she would reschedule shortly thereafter. In spite of my repeated telephone calls, no appointment was rescheduled. Out of frustration I sent a correspondence to her office via facsimile on September 26, 2008. I have received no response.

In recent days our Governor has preened in front of cameras on our Statehouse steps and pontificated on his new plan to rearrange the money changing between politicos in what he is calling a new effort to make the government more ethical. The newspapers have also reported he is doing this at the behest of his pollsters. While he parades himself in the media this way, he shows his contempt for true ethics by permitting this travesty to go on. I am not so naïve as to be shocked that one honest public servant can be fired for his or her integrity. What makes this situation so hideous is that the real tragedies are occurring every day in the unnecessary revictimization of our state’s most aggreived.

The Governor’s ambivalence to his Attorney General’s inept catering to politics as usual is now depriving poor sexually abused children of the care they need, women who are victims of domestic violence have no means of escape, rape victims may not get the medical care and counseling they need, parents of murdered children may not be able to provide a decent burial, and those who have lost wages or support because that have been shot or stabbed and cannot perform their jobs will either have to beg, borrow or steal to survive.

I did everything the way it had to be done to help as many victims as possible while always abiding the law and doing everything possible to keep my supervisors in the Department of Treasury and Office of Management and Budget, as well as the Attorney General herself, fully informed. When I was fired that agency was not only on sound financial ground, we had a $4,000,000 surplus. I am proud of everything I ever did there, and I welcome scrutiny of every moment I was there.

CHALLENGES TO ATTORNEY GENERAL ANNE MILGRAM

As Attorney General Anne Milgram has seen fit to attack me publicly, I now issue a series of public challenges to her:

1. I want her to divulge any instance in which I authorized a payment to any victim or service provider that was in any way a violation of the spirit and letter of the law.

2. I challenge her to explain why I should be fired in such a defamatory manner.

3. I challenge her to admit how many case files have been culled through by the Inspector General.

4. I challenge her to explain why I should be fired for my decisions when the Governor has still not appointed the Review Board - that he is statutorily mandated to appoint - that was supposed to review all policies

5. I challenge her to explain why the agency is now telling victims’ advocates they must wait a year or longer to learn if their claims will be deemed eligible

6. I challenge her to explain why the agency will no longer be paying claims for victims of endangering the welfare of a child

7. Finally, I challenge her to explain why the agency is delaying and/or denying claims when that will result in destroying the agency’s recurring stream of revenue from its federal grant.


There are some who will say I was too liberal in paying claims. They are wrong. I stand by every decision I made and every action that agency took while I was in charge. If the Attorney General was truly interested in victims and she believed my policies were too generous, she could have simply told me that and I would have explained to her why I was doing what I was doing. She never gave me the chance. No, the problem here is not one honest Director of one State Government agency being too generous. The real problem here is the absence of a Theodore Roosevelt in charge of State government to make sure that when we get an honest person in charge of an agency, the political bosses of this State don’t have the ability to root him or her out. And the real tragedies that are to follow will be borne by the poor victims with nowhere to turn.


Respectfully submitted,

Edward G. Werner




Copyright (c) 2008 by Edward G. Werner. All rights reserved