Deputy Warden retires amid probe
TRENTON » After more than three decades in public service, Deputy Warden Phyllis Oliver has called it quits after coming under fire for alleged overtime abuse at the correction center, officials confirmed.
Her sudden retirement comes within months of prosecutors launching a criminal investigation into her and boss and alleged lover, Warden Charles Ellis, on the heels of an explosive lawsuit accusing the Mercer County Correctional Center bosses of propositioning a corrections nurse for a threesome.
Prosecutors confirmed they have since concluded that investigation without bringing criminal charges against the jail bosses.
Ellis was being investigated for sexual misconduct while the allegations into Oliver centered primarily on whether she committed overtime abuse.
The prosecutor’s office notified the county it was investigating a day after the correction officers’ union, PBA Local 167, filed a complaint against Ellis and Oliver.
Relying on records it obtained through the state’s Open Public Records Act, the union charged that Oliver, who according to pension records has put in more than 32 years and earns $138,867 in base salary as deputy warden, was gaming the overtime system to enrich herself.
First Assistant Prosecutor Doris Galuchie told The Trentonian she “found absolutely no credible evidence” to support filing criminal charges against Oliver or Ellis, both of whom wouldn’t address the allegations when contacted for comment by The Trentonian.
Galuchie was emphatic that Oliver wasn’t floated a retire-in-lieu-of-charges deal after the union obtained records that showed, as a lieutenant in 2014, she earned more than $79,000 in overtime on top of $93,856 regular pay. She made more than $200,000 when sick and vacation pay was factored in, the records show.
In 2015, her overtime pay shot up to $114,000 and she netted more than $233,000, the records show.
Oliver was promoted to deputy warden in 2016 after the Civil Service Commission ruled she couldn’t continue as a lieutenant.
“Her reward for this negative decision was a $20,000 increase in pensionable salary and an enhanced management role as deputy warden, notwithstanding her lack of qualifications for this promotion,” the union wrote, blasting Oliver for banking more than 1,000 hours of compensatory time.
Ellis and Oliver vehemently denied through a county spokesperson allegations raised against them.
The county prosecutor’s investigation wrapped up last month, and officials told The Trentonian this week that Oliver and Ellis were cleared.
Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes said the investigation showed there was “no validity” to allegations brought by a corrections lieutenant and her partner, a nurse at the corrections center, who filed a lawsuit against the jail bosses over misconduct allegations ranging from retaliation to coercion for sex.
Hughes “absolutely” did not pressure Oliver into retiring, and she decided to leave on her own after she “put in her time.”
“It was time for her to retire,” Hughes said. “I had confidence in Lt. Oliver all along and especially when the report was finished.”
The county is conducting a job search to find Oliver’s replacement, Hughes said, adding no one has been promoted internally to fill her position in the interim.
The jailhouse shake-up relates only to Oliver.
In a big show of support for the embattled jail warden, Hughes said he doesn’t plan to replace Ellis whom he called “one of the finest employees Mercer County has ever had.”
The executive shrugged off concerns about a toxic work environment for corrections officers and jail workers who wanted to see Ellis given the boot after numerous sex misconduct allegations.
“There are people who are disgruntled under me, and I have confidence in myself,” said Hughes, whose administration has been slammed after disgraced ex-county park director Kevin Bannon was indicted by the state Attorney General’s Office for allegedly using the commission’s non-profit fundraising arm as a personal slush fund. “All you can do is lead the best you can. I have full faith in Warden Ellis.”
The nurse claimed she was inside Ellis’ office at the jail one day when he touched her breasts and butt without permission or consent. The prosecutor’s office investigated Ellis for potential sexual contact but didn’t have enough evidence to pursue the case despite getting a statement from the nurse and her partner.
The county was waiting until the criminal investigation was over to file its response to the lawsuit, which it has done, said Arthur Murray, the lawyer representing the corrections officer and nurse. The county in court papers denied that the jail wardens discriminated, harassed or retaliated against the nurse and her partner, the records show.
Murray said he wasn’t surprised he didn’t receive word from Galuchie on the conclusion of the investigation and reiterated his clients weren’t the ones asking for criminal charges to be brought against the jail bosses.
“We envisioned a civil case for the entirety,” he said.
The Alterman & Associates attorney – who is a member of the same law firm that represented exonerated county corrections officer Donald Ryland after he was charged with raping two women – said his clients met with prosecutors and gave statements but the outcome of that probe doesn’t impact the civil case.