Democratic State Senate candidate Richard Dennison says that the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office overreacted when they sent detectives to question an 18-year-old campaign volunteer, Andrew Keegan, as part of an investigation of GOP State Sen. Diane Allen's stolen lawn signs. Dennison, an attorney and undertaker, also criticized the prosecutor, Robert Bernardi, for a press release he issued on the investigation yesterday.
"Is it typical practice for your office, which surely must be terribly busy with very serious crimes such as rape and murder, to send two detectives to the school of a high school student and have them barge into the main office of that school and ask administrators to speak with that student—in the middle of the school day—when that student is accused of approximately five dollars of property damage?" Dennison wrote. "If that is normal practice for your office, I would consider that to be doing a greater disservice to the Office of the Prosecutor and to the public than any hastily written email from a candidate for public office ever could."
"Please note that I have too much respect for the law enforcement community and the system of justice as a whole to “politicize” any issue falling within these areas," said Dennison. "I will also note that I do not appreciate your comments along these lines either and find them to be much too beyond the pale as inappropriate comments when coming from your office. I state this because your press release, rather obviously, just certainly accomplished the politicization of the entire matter."
Full text of Dennison's letter to Bernardi:
Office of the Prosecutor
County of Burlington
Robert D. Bernardi, Prosecutor
2nd Floor
49 Rancocas Rd.
Mount Holly, NJ 08060
RE: 2007-56
Dear Mr. Bernardi:
I write in response to your press release of today in which you address your investigation into whether my campaign volunteer, Dan Keegan, had damaged or stolen campaign signs.
To start off, I would like to make it clear to you that I adamantly believe that your office handled this investigation in an extremely regrettable manner.
From what I understand, the “citizen’s complaint” to which you refer apparently involves the accusation that two of my state senate opponent’s campaign signs were destroyed on the evening of Monday, October 29. I would venture to presume that the total cost of these two signs was no more than five dollars. So, my question for you is, is it typical practice for your office, which surely must be terribly busy with very serious crimes such as rape and murder, to send two detectives to the school of a high school student and have them barge into the main office of that school and ask administrators to speak with that student—in the middle of the school day—when that student is accused of approximately five dollars of property damage? If that is normal practice for your office, I would consider that to be doing a greater disservice to the Office of the Prosecutor and to the public than any hastily written email from a candidate for public office ever could.
As I have stated publicly, the actions of your office have caused this high school student and his mother great pain, intimidation and embarrassment and this hard-working, honest individual who started out so inspired by the political process is now completely disillusioned by it.
Furthermore, knowing the fact that the volunteer in question is a high school student and that I am the candidate and an attorney, I believe it would have been prudent if your office would have allowed me the opportunity to join my volunteer during this questioning.
Moving forward, upon receiving a phone call yesterday from my understandably shaken volunteer while he was en route to your office, following your detectives, I headed to your office in Mount Holly. Once there, I waited at least fifteen minutes while the staff there tried to figure out where my volunteer was being questioned. Finally, James J. Gerrow, Jr. of your office met with me. He, at first, was not aware of what was going on with this matter. He was, however, very genial and helpful and called over to some other satellite office you have, which I was previously unaware of, apparently located on Marne Highway. After concluding this call, Mr. Gerrow conveyed to me the gist of what detectives asked the teenager and his responses. As I am quite certain Mr. Gerrow can verify, he never stated that the evidence against the teenager was “overwhelming.”
After leaving your office and returning home, I spoke at length with my campaign volunteer and elicited precisely what he was asked, what he responded, and what was the full truth of the matter at hand. Based on this and the fact that the detectives told him “you’re not in trouble; everything is fine; you can leave,” I was under what I consider to be the very understandable impression that the charges were determined by your office to be baseless. This was my conclusion and mine alone. If my email to politicsnj.com, which was written hastily after a long day of campaigning, conveyed otherwise, I do apologize for such. But, to imply as though I deliberately misled the public is an entirely different kettle of fish. I do not appreciate your insinuations along those lines.
Please note that I have too much respect for the law enforcement community and the system of justice as a whole to “politicize” any issue falling within these areas. I will also note that I do not appreciate your comments along these lines either and find them to be much too beyond the pale as inappropriate comments when coming from your office. I state this because your press release, rather obviously, just certainly accomplished the politicization of the entire matter.
With my press release, I endeavored to do one thing and one thing only—defend a decent, honest and what I believe to be an innocent young man who I have been fortunate enough to have as a campaign volunteer. I had hoped through its publication that my opponent would back off from what I believe to be her utilization of her friends and staffers from harming my well-meaning volunteers further. Gaining votes or politicizing this matter through the press release was never even on my mind.
In your press release you mentioned what you cannot allow. What I cannot allow is for my campaign volunteers to be harmed by outright lies and false charges simply because they believe in the cause of my campaign for positive change. When attacked by what I consider to be yet another dirty trick by my opponent, I will fight for my volunteers, just as I will fight for my constituents should I be elected to the office I am seeking.
In closing, I should add that as you continue your investigation against this teenager, I hope that you will spend at least one-tenth the amount of time you have on investigating the alleged destruction of five dollars worth of my opponent’s property by at least having one of your detectives pick up a phone and call my opponent’s office and try to determine precisely who stole close to $5,000 worth of my signs, which were located all throughout the 17 municipalities of the Seventh District. I have supplied Mr. Gerrow with the relevant evidence I have regarding this charge.
Should you have any questions, please contact me at (609) 556-4079.
Thank you.
Very truly yours,
/s/
Rich Dennison
