Five plainclothes Newark, N.J., cops were seeking illegal guns in November 2022 when they spotted a man outside his East Orange home with a bag they deemed suspicious. They sprang into action, kicking in his door, chasing him into his mother’s bedroom, and warning him to “stop moving, I’m going to f— you up!” as they handcuffed him, according to records obtained by the New Jersey Monitor. The officers broke many rules as they had no legal justification to stop the man, search his home, or confiscate his legally owned gun, found an internal affairs investigation. Under a pair of U.S. Supreme Court rulings known as Brady and Giglio, prosecutors must share exculpatory evidence and any information that could affect the credibility of a witness with defense attorneys. This helps ensure a fair trial by allowing jurors to assess a witness's credibility as they evaluate trial testimony. Prosecutors haven’t disclosed the disciplinary histories of officers involved in the incident, even though defense attorneys say the five have made subsequent arrests both in their roles as Newark cops and in a violent crime initiative run by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Such secrecy isn’t unusual, defense attorneys say. They say prosecutors at every level in New Jersey flout Brady and Giglio disclosure requirements, risking wrongful convictions, costly claims of malicious prosecution, and appeals that can lead to overturned convictions. The National Registry of Exonerations found that withheld exculpatory evidence and officer misconduct contributed to most of the 153 exonerations it tracked last year. Prosecutors in New Jersey are responsible for their own self-regulated compliance when it comes to tracking and sharing material, as there is no uniform approach nor statewide tracking in place, despite guidelines set by the Attorney General's Office in 2019. As a result, it’s impossible to know whether prosecutors are following their constitutional obligation, and that must change, say State Public Defender Jennifer Sellitti and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. Policymakers must expand defense attorneys’ access to police disciplinary records, adopt policies to measure compliance, and impose sanctions on prosecutors who ignore disclosure obligations, critics say.