By Matthew Enuco
NJ.com
HUNTERDON COUNTY, N.J. — An indictment against more than a dozen people who worked at the now shuttered Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for women were dismissed Thursday by a judge in Hunterdon County.
The employees, including corrections officers and facility officials, were accused of the coordinated beating of inmates during “forced extractions” in a high-security wing of the prison in 2021.
The incident was among those that led to a criminal inquiry and Gov. Phil Murphy moving to close the troubled prison.
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The indictment was dismissed with prejudice, meaning the same charges cannot be refiled against the defendants.
State Superior Court Judge Christopher J. Garrenger listed deficiencies in the superseding indictment, defendants’ arguments and delays in getting to a trial as some of the reasons for dismissing the charges.
“The whole thing is appalling. This is a man’s life that they put on hold for five years,” Robin Lord, attorney for Ryan Valentin, who was a major at the correctional facility and one of the employees charged in the incident, told NJ Advance Media.
Lord said Valentin wasn’t even working the day of the incident but came in to supervise the aftermath.
Valentin was a 24-year veteran of the Department of Corrections and was a highly regarded employee, according to Lord.
She added that Valentin has been out of work and unable to support his family for the past five years as he’s fought the charges leveled against him.
“We intend to file a notice of tort claim to reclaim millions in costs, expenses, attorneys fees and lost income,” Lord said.
New Jersey First Assistant Attorney General Lyndsay V. Ruotolo told NJ Advance Media that the case stems from “deeply troubling allegations” and that the office disagrees with Thursday’s decision and plans to “immediately” appeal it.
“If the Appellate Division, which already reversed the trial court once in this matter, agrees with us again, and our office is permitted to bring these charges to a trial jury, we are confident in our proofs,” Ruotolo said in a statement. “As alleged, this behavior constitutes a profound breach of duty and a grave betrayal of the public trust.
“The court’s ruling does not exonerate the defendants or erase the allegations. Rather, it rests on legal conclusions and distorted characterizations of the record about the pace of proceedings and the way in which the law was presented to the members of the grand jury. Those conclusions are mistaken and our office will continue to seek justice for the victims in this case.”
Assemblywoman Aura Dunn, R-25th Dist., pointed blame at the attorney general’s office for the dismissal.
“This is an unconscionable failure of leadership. Women who were beaten, brutalized, and humiliated behind bars have now been denied justice — not because the evidence was lacking, but because Matt Platkin’s office botched the prosecution,” Dunn said in a statement.
Dunn said she was calling for immediate hearings to force Platkin to answer questions about how the prosecution was handled and how he planned to address the ruling.
“The public deserves answers, and the victims deserve more than silence,” she said.
The charges stemmed from a Jan. 12, 2021, incident in which teams wearing riot gear marched into the prison’s “restorative housing unit” and began forcibly removing prisoners.
On that day, inmates in the high-security unit sprayed unknown liquids on corrections officers which prevented them from providing food and medication to the inmates, Lord told NJ Advance Media.
Officers at the prison then staged a middle-of-the-night raid on the unit, assaulting multiple prisoners, according to state prosecutors.
Multiple inmates involved in the forced extraction told NJ Advance Media at the time that prison administrators and medical staff were also present during the violent encounter.
The incident led to a probe by the state Office of Public Integrity and Accountability, which brought the charges against the officers and staff.
The charges against the officers and officials included official misconduct, aggravated assault and tampering with public records.
Videos released publicly show officers punching, kicking and pepper spraying prisoners.
State prosecutors argued the worst of the violence happened outside the frame of security cameras and camcorders, alleging supervisors deliberately helped cover up brutal beatings of prisoners.
The indictment followed years of complaints from inmates at Edna Mahan about sexual and physical abuse that led to charges against dozens of correctional police officers.
Allegations of misconduct and criminal behavior by staff at Edna Mahan cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in settlements, including a $21 million settlement over claims of sexual and physical abuse, to millions paid to outside law firms and consultants, according to public records reviewed by NJ Advance Media.
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