THE CRIME THAT WASN’T
Trenton police say ‘break-in’ at Chief of Staff’s office blamed on Trentonian reporter was mistake, no break-in occurred
TRENTON >> No crime here: The Trentonian has been fully exonerated of any wrongdoing in last week’s reported burglary at City Hall.
The actual incident was a non-criminal event — a maintenance worker had inadvertently knocked over some desktop items, police said Friday in a press release that vindicated Trentonian journalist Isaac Avilucea.
Deputy Mayor Yoshi Manale, who serves as Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora’s chief of staff, alleged his offices had been burglarized and named Avilucea as a possible suspect, according to sources with knowledge of the investigation.
When Manale reported to work Dec. 21, his office door was open and he discovered some of his documents and business cards had been left on the floor, police said Friday in their news release.
Items on the chief of staff’s desk “appeared to have been moved” in addition to paperwork being misplaced, according to the Trenton Police Department, which conducted an “extensive investigation into the suspected entry” to get to the bottom of what happened at Manale’s office.
TPD’s Criminal Investigation Bureau determined that a city maintenance worker was cleaning the chief of staff’s office and inadvertently knocked over Manale’s business card holder, which caused documents to fall onto the floor. “Nothing was found to have been missing from the office,” TPD said in its news release. “As a result of the investigation, no crime was found to have been committed.”
“Obviously I was always firmly convinced of my own innocence because I knew I didn’t and wouldn’t commit a crime in pursuit of a story or for any reason,” Avilucea said Friday in a statement, “but I am glad that is no longer an open question with members of the public who may have read that story and questioned my integrity. Now the question becomes why Mr. Manale allegedly threw my name into the mix in the first place. Was it a diversion tactic to divert attention from the administration’s failures? Was it an intentional ploy to sully my reputation?”
Sources say police interviewed Manale last Friday and that the entire dialogue is recorded on police bodyworn cameras. People with knowledge of the investigation say the body-cam footage captures Manale naming Avilucea as a possible suspect in the reported City Hall burglary.
The Trentonian has filed an Open Public Records Act request seeking a copy of Manale’s interview with police. The newspaper on Friday reached out to the Gusciora administration for comment on this story.
Santiago Melli-Huber, the city’s new spokesperson, said City Hall had been notified of the TPD press release prior to its dissemination. He referred The Trentonian to the TPD press release, which the newspaper received about 5:20 p.m. Friday, and he declined further comment.
Outspoken South Ward Councilman George Muschal issued comments Friday on this matter: “There was no crime,” he said, “and allegations against a Trentonian reporter have been totally unfounded at this point.”
Trenton City Council held a public meeting during the evening of Dec. 20. Avilucea attended that meeting and left the building with Muschal and Council President Kathy McBride, according to the South Ward councilman. After leaving City Hall that evening, Avilucea went to The Trentonian’s offices on Perry Street and filed a story
about the council meeting.
Meanwhile, a city maintenance worker committed a non-criminal, inadvertent paper-shuffling mishap in Manale’s office sometime between the evening of Dec. 20 and the morning of Dec. 21, according to the police department.
“I think the administration has to answer serious questions about this
alleged break-in,” Avilucea said Friday, “because it almost seems cooked up from the get-go. Why did Mr. Manale jump to the conclusion that his office had been burglarized just because he seen some papers on the ground?”
Avilucea said he looks forward to the newspaper obtaining the body-cam footage of Manale’s interview with police and said he hopes the city “doesn’t engage in a frivolous legal fight to try to prevent the newspaper from obtaining the footage and thereby obtaining the truth.”
The freshly exonerated staff writer said the entire episode “seems like a twisted attempt to muddy a muckraker,” adding, “I wouldn’t break into anyone’s office. That’s crazy.”
An award-winning reporter known for being a press corps bulldog, Avilucea has been falsely accused of being a lawbreaking journalist in the past.
In 2016, authorities from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office wrongly accused Avilucea of unlawfully obtaining a child custody report concerning a 5-yearold boy who had brought drugs into a Trenton charter school on two separate occasions. Avilucea won exoneration in that case last year when Mercer County Family Court Judge Lawrence De Bello found Avilucea had lawfully obtained the confidential documents.