Judge back on bench after getting the boot
TRENTON » Mayor Eric Jackson has patented his own brand of McCarthyism.
This one, however, has nothing to do with threats of communist influence embodied during the Second Red Scare and more to do with the alleged obstructionist ways of the Jackson administration in an ongoing game of musical chairs in Trenton’s municipal court.
Judge John McCarthy, whose last day on the bench was supposed to be earlier this month, is back on the bench and officials won’t explain the reasons.
City spokesman Michael Walker told The Trentonian earlier this month that McCarthy’s last day was Sept. 8.
That changed after the newspaper published a story detailing how Jackson didn’t mention to City Council members at the last meeting his plan to get rid of McCarthy and appoint another part-time judge to replace him.
Part-time judge Geraldine Eure, a former school board member with her own baggage, was approved by City Council earlier this month after being rejected for the job last year.
After the meeting, and only after the newspaper began asking questions, the Jackson administration disclosed to The Trentonian that McCarthy was getting the boot. He was put back on the bench after the newspaper reported Jackson’s intentions to get rid of him.
McCarthy’s last day was pushed back to Oct. 2, Walker said, drawing sharp words from city councilman George Muschal, who has been an outspoken critic of the administration and Jackson’s judicial appointees.
“The administration constantly lies,” Muschal said. “The mayor can’t be trusted. He says one thing and does another. I lost all respect for the mayor.”
Walker refused to say why the administration flipflopped on the end date of McCarthy’s employment.
“I’m not at liberty to discuss why because it’s a personnel matter,” Walker said in a text message. He didn’t answer multiple phone calls from The Trentonian.
“As I said, Judge McCarthy is a holdover whose last day, at present, is October 2,” Walker said in another text.
Walker would not confirm whether McCarthy, who has not returned multiple phone calls about the situation, threatened to sue the city for trying to supplant him.
The Trentonian asked the mayor’s spokesman for McCarthy’s employment contract to try to untangle the messy matter but was not provided a copy of it Tuesday.
The newspaper filed a public records request for all municipal judges’ contracts and is awaiting the city’s response.
Some in the legal community have privately said the city is doing McCarthy dirty.
Muschal said the longtime judge deserved better.
“He’s a soft-spoken gentleman,” he said.
Muschal suggested McCarthy opted to take his lumps rather than “make waves” publicly because he fears he could lose out on legal work in other municipalities.
The situation involving Jackson’s municipal judge picks has stirred up a tsunami of controversy.
The Latino Civic Forum, a grassroots organization that advocates for one of the city’s largest minority blocs, chimed in with another salvo, saying politics prevented a qualified woman from being appointed to the municipal bench.
Organization president Guillermo Gomez accused city council members of playing “political games” in rejecting Jackson appointee Emilia Perez. He promised his group is “going to be looking at very seriously who’s voting against this.”
Backers of Perez spoke in support of her at the last meeting when Eure was approved following a reconsideration vote, which Muschal contended was done illegally against Robert’s Rules of Order.
The organization endorsed Perez before last year’s City Council meeting, saying she was more than qualified for the position. Perez, who has worked in Newark’s corporate counsel, was ultimately shot down.
It’ll be a “huge issue for Latinos in the upcoming election,” Gomez said.
Gomez partially faulted the South Ward councilman for Perez becoming collateral damage in controversy that swirled around Eure and William Sitzler, another Jackson appointee who was rejected after The Trentonian exposed his ties to a lawyer who donated to Jackson’s campaign and had contracts to do legal work for the city.
Eure was also blasted over her decision to vote against entering into executive session in 2006 to discuss allegations of grade-fixing at one of the city’s schools.
Council members voted against Perez primarily because she’s not from the Trenton area, Gomez said, adding that’s not a good reason for rejecting her nomination.
He said Muschal doesn’t understand the “needs of the Latino community,” which comprises roughly one-third of Trenton’s population, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Muschal defended himself against the allegation that he’s out of touch with Hispanic residents in his ward.
“I work constantly with Latino people,” he said. “[Gomez] doesn’t actually know what he’s talking about.”
Perez could not be reached for comment about whether she still wants a municipal judge gig in Trenton after all the toxic political handwringing that’s taken place.