The Investigators at City Hall

What do we know about the padlocked IT office, the missing videographer and whispers of investigators at Hoboken City Hall?

Not more than was reported on Patch:

A criminal investigation regarding City Hall personnel is underway, according to Assistant Corporation Counsel Melissa Longo. Outside agencies are conducting the investigation, she said, but she declined to comment on which agencies were involved.

Who are these "outside agencies"?   And if we knew, what would that tell us about the crime(s) being investigated?

I may have mentioned that GA has a Legal Department-  my friend Larry the lawyer, whom I'll call 'Not-Stempler' so you won't get confused with that other one. So I asked Not-Stempler for his opinion on WHO might be poking around City Hall after what kind of  criminal activity.

Here's what my friend-  who is definitely not Larry Stempler- had to say:

Generally, criminal fraud and corruption cases are handled by non-uniformed special investigators, not uniformed police officers. 

Most local police departments focus solely on criminal activity which we commonly refer to as “street crime”, such as burglary, robbery, assault, rape and homicide and do not have a separate squad devoted to what is commonly called “white collar” crime, such as governmental corruption, financial fraud, etc., where there is no physical injury involved.  

The county prosecutor’s offices also generally do not get involved in white collar crimes.  There are exceptions, but the general focus of the local and county law enforcement agencies is on street crime. The US Attorney also investigates serious street crime, like drug smuggling, organized crime syndicates, etc., and generally relies upon the FBI for such criminal investigations.  

Investigators that do, however, become involved in investigating white collar crimes are generally associated with either the NJ Attorney General’s Office or the U.S Attorney’s Office.  Both Offices may use the services of special State Police investigators or special FBI agents, but both the NJ AG and the US attorney offices have their own staff of investigators that work to develop white collar crime cases. 

When most lawyers who refer to someone as an “investigator” with regard to a white collar crime, it is generally understood that person is working for either one of those offices.  

Thank you, Not-Stempler.  And thank G-d you're working  pro bono. To break it down, you believe the agencies involved are either the N.J. Attorney General's Office or the U.S. Attorney's Office. And if the FBI was poking around, as was reported, their services are used by both offices.  They'd be looking at criminal fraud or a corruption charges.

Something tells me it's the N.J. Attorney General Paula Dow who may have been quietly spending the past months getting her ducks in a row for a Hoboken round-up, while we all thought she was knitting Christie a pair of socks.   After all it took her 8 months to make those 11 arrests for absentee ballot fraud in Patterson, NJ.

Could it be you're finally here, Paula?

We may not know who came to Hoboken, what exactly they're looking for and  who'll be doing the perp walk but one thing's for sure: it ain't small potatoes.  And I suspect when it's over a few familiar faces will be riding that bus to Rikers.

One-way.

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