Police, Fire & Courts

Prosecutors Won’t Appeal Brick Superintendent Decision, May Try for New Indictment

by
Daniel Nee
April 17, 2017

Suspended Brick schools superintendent Walter Uszenski. (File Photos)

Prosecutors in Ocean County decided against appealing a decision by Superior Court Judge Patricia Roe, who in February dismissed an indictment against suspended Brick schools superintendent Walter Uszesnski and delivered a scathing decision that excoriated prosecutors for failing to include evidence that could have exonerated Uszenski in a grand jury presentation.

The prosecution had until Friday to appeal the decision. Uszenski’s attorney, Joseph Benedict, said they did not do so. The prosecutor’s office did not reply to a request for comment by Shorebeat. Benedict said he did not expect the prosecutor’s office to appeal the decision.

Benedict, however, said that the prosecutor’s office has said “in writing” that they will seek a new indictment. Presumably, any new attempt to indict would have to include evidence that was left out of two previous grand jury presentations – specifically, evidence that shows Uszenski’s grandson was cleared by the state to attend a private school two years before his grandfather was hired as the district’s superintendent. The prosecution claims Uszenski illegally allowed his grandson to attend day-care at the school, which is located on Princeton Avenue.

After the last indictment was dismissed, Shorebeat exclusively revealed that the charges were initially brought after a bus driver who lost her job after leaving a child attended on a bus erroneously told Brick Mayor John Ducey that Uszenski’s son was being transported to a school in Forked River. Court documents have since established that the child attended Ocean Early Childhood Center on Princeton Avenue in Brick.

Benedict said charges against two other former Brick school administrators, Lorraine and Andrew Morgan have been completely dropped by the prosecutor’s office. Andrew Morgan had been accused of failing to reveal a past drug conviction on his job application, though the state has said he was cleared to work in schools under a diversionary program the Department of Education held in the 1990s.