New allegations of prosecutorial misconduct have surfaced against Deputy Attorney General John Nicodemo, thanks to former Camden County Prosecutor Vincent Sarubbi. In a recent court filing, Sarubbi has requested a judge to dismiss the indictment of his client, Peter Caporilli, the founder of a charter school, citing Nicodemo’s alleged misconduct, the NJ Globe reports.
Sarubbi, who served under three governors, accused Nicodemo of “overtly misrepresenting” a statute in order to secure an indictment against Caporilli. “A prosecutor’s job is not to advocate at all costs to obtain a particular result on behalf of its client but, rather, to see that justice is done,” Sarubbi stated in the filing. He further accused the Office of the Attorney General, through Nicodemo and others, of intentionally misleading a grand jury with the purpose of obtaining an indictment based on misrepresentations.
These allegations echo those made last week by William J. Hughes, Jr., a former Assistant U.S. Attorney representing Caporilli’s co-defendant, Michael Falkowski. According to Sarubbi, Nicodemo failed to present the full statute to the grand jury, misleading them by confirming that the entire statute had been read. “Jurors are not experts on the law… Here, on multiple occasions, the State abjectly failed in this duty,” Sarubbi added.
Nicodemo has faced multiple accusations of wrongdoing. Superior Court Judge Joseph Paone previously found that Nicodemo intentionally withheld crucial evidence in the prosecution of Rabbi Osher Eisemann, leading to an order for a new trial. Additionally, Nicodemo was involved in an incident where he failed to seal a list of potential targets in a corruption sting operation, and in another case, he was accused of communicating about a case directly to a Superior Court judge without notifying the opposing attorney.
In light of these allegations, the attorney general’s office has announced a review of the claims against Nicodemo. A spokesperson for the department stated, “Any allegation of misconduct on the part of an employee of the Department of Law and Public Safety is thoroughly reviewed.”
Currently, Nicodemo has been reassigned from his role as a line prosecutor to an administrative position as a diversity officer for the Division of Criminal Justice. Despite the multiple allegations, records released by the attorney general’s office show that Nicodemo has received twelve salary raises in the last six years, with his salary increasing by 94.7% from $74,508 in 2017 to $145,053.