Judge says AG’s Office isn’t ‘serious’ about prosecuting corruption case

Jersey City, NJ – A Somerset County Superior Court judge overseeing the prosecution of ex-Jersey City BOE Pres. Sudhan Thomas may seek to dismiss the corruption case because the AG’s Office has failed to comply with discovery requests.

“Last time we were here in court, I was very frustrated with the state with the pace of this case, and I was suggesting a motion to dismiss, sua sponte, was imminent,” Somerset County Superior Court Judge Peter J. Tober said during a hearing on March 11, 2025.

“Now we got new council again,” Tober said in reference to Deputy AG’s Michael Grillo and Adam Gerken from the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (NJOAG). The two prosecutors are the 6th and 7th attorneys to be handling the case, according to Jeffrey Garrigan, Thomas’ defense counsel.

“I’m really thinking of setting a tight discovery schedule, and if it’s not complied with, I’m going to invite a motion to dismiss and I’m going to dismiss this case,” Tober stated regarding the indictments of Thomas, ex-Morris County Freeholder John Cesaro, and ex-Mount Arlington Councilman John Windish.

Back in December 2019, the NJOAG filed criminal charges against the three defendants – accusing them of taking cash bribes from tax attorney Matt O’Donnell as part of pay-to-play schemes.

The case is back in Tober’s court after the Appellate Division ruled on multiple discovery issues. Based on the decision published January 14, 2025, the AG’s Office was supposed to produce an internal prosecution memorandum from March 16, 2018, for in-camera review, but had yet to do so nearly two months later.

“I don’t think the state is serious about prosecuting this case,” Tober declared. The NJOAG did not respond to a request for comment from Attorney General Matthew Platkin regarding Tober’s statement.

In court, Grillo noted he had just been assigned to the case last week, but said the internal memo could be produced in a matter of days. Tober responded “it’s going to be done in a week. If it’s not done, I’m going to invite a motion to dismiss with a tight turnaround.”

Additionally, another internal prosecution memo from November 1, 2017, was requested by defense attorneys and included to that order.

Regarding other discovery issues, Garrigan told the court that documents provided by the AG’s Office in an associated case involving former Bayonne mayoral candidate Jason O’Donnell had not been provided to him.

The defense attorneys are seeking emails & text messages between investigators, information about wiretap authorizations and consensual intercepts, and documentation of the billing records and political donations generated by Matt O’Donnell (no relation to Jason).

Tober granted Grillo’s request for 30 days to review and determine whether all necessary discovery materials had been provided in accordance with the appellate decision.

UPDATE: Following the publication of this article, the NJOAG released the following statement to HudPost:

“The defendants and the public should know the State takes every case it prosecutes with the utmost seriousness. The Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA), in particular, thoroughly prosecutes all instances of alleged bribery and public corruption as are alleged in this case. OPIA recently obtained a favorable decision from the Appellate Division in this case and looks forward to proceeding in the trial court.”