Something Stinks in the Garden State

The Lord of Truth lets us in on some of the shenanigans by the Democrats in his home state...

A state grand jury is hearing testimony into allegations that former State Police officials and a former state senator conducted a covert operation that used confidential files in an effort to smear Republicans and help James E. McGreevey run for governor four years ago.

The grand jury investigation began in September, 10 months after the accusations were detailed in The Star-Ledger and only weeks after McGreevey announced he would resign as governor because of a sex scandal. The probe, which has been conducted in secret so far, is focusing on the alleged theft and misuse of confidential State Police records, according to two state officials with direct knowledge of the case.

A key witness in the investigation, retired State Police Lt. Vincent Bellaran, said in an interview this week he has testified three times before the grand jury in Trenton. In return for his testimony, Bellaran said, prosecutors who report to state Attorney General Peter Harvey agreed not to charge him for his role in the operation.

"They granted me immunity," Bellaran said. "I testified three times. Once they asked me a question, I started spewing. ... These people (on the grand jury) had their mouths agape."

Bellaran said he took grand jurors through the key points he had already made both in sworn statements and in interviews with The Star-Ledger. Bellaran said that between 1999 and early 2002, he and Lt. Col. Cajetan "Tommy" DeFeo took confidential information, including personnel orders and medical records stored under lock and key, from State Police files, with the aim of damaging state Republicans and helping McGreevey, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, in the 2001 race.

Bellaran said the operation was orchestrated by McGreevey's longtime mentor and ally, then-state Sen. John Lynch (D-Middlesex). Some of the information was passed to Lynch for use in legislative hearings into the State Police practice of racial profiling, Bellaran said. Other information was passed to newspapers in an attempt to generate stories aimed at humiliating people close to then-Gov. Christie Whitman.

If true, these allegations are worse than Governor McGreevey's later dalliance with Golan Cipel, or the assorted sordid fundraising activities of the Torch (or the questionable decision that let Dems replace Torricelli on the Senate ballot in 2002 after the deadline when it became clear that his ethical transgressions would kill his campaign). Digging up dirt on your opponents is one thing, but using confidential police records, including medical files, to embarass or defeat your political opponents would have the left screaming about Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon. Of course, the voters in New Jersey have yet to punish the Demcorats for their various transgressions, so I'm not expecting anything to happen now.

I'd say that this marks a low point for New Jersey politics, but maybe we should withhold judgment. Give them time, and they'll do something even worse.