Trenton NJ, Senate Republican Leader Steven Oroho and Senator Michael Doherty said the Senate Judiciary Committee must perform a thorough vetting of Attorney General nominee Matt Platkin, including his handling of Katie Brennan’s alleged sexual assault and his role in guiding the Murphy Administration’s extensive use of emergency powers during the pandemic.
National Organization for Women of New Jersey Political Action Committee Sheila Oliver* (D) for Lieutenant Governor and Phil Murphy* (D) for Governor …LOL
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, over months we have heard testimony of women who have allegedly been abused by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The stories are all very disturbing to hear and the way Governor Cuomo has attacked these women are even more troubling. The only difference is members of the Democrat party in New York fought to hold this man culpable for his mischievous deeds and nefarious actions.
Trenton NJ, This past Friday it was announced that Katie Brennan settled her lawsuit against Gov. Phil Murphy’s campaign and the State of New Jersey for $1 million.
According to the $1 million settlement, the State will pay $800,000 and the Murphy for Governor campaign’s insurance company will pay $200,000.
Trenton NJ, The State of New Jersey and Katie Brennan today announced a settlement in the case of Katherine Brennan v. Albert J. Alvarez, et al. The State of New Jersey will implement key survivor-centric policy reforms, including allowing State employees who are alleged victims of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation to have an advisor or support person accompany the alleged victim when he or she is interviewed by an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action (EEO/AA) investigator. In addition, the amount of $600,000 will be paid, in full, to a charity designated by Ms. Brennan to improve the health and welfare of survivors of sexual assault. In settling the matter, the parties have made no admission of wrongdoing or liability with respect to the various claims among them.
Senator Kristin Corrado issued the following statement following reports that New Jersey taxpayers will be on the hook for $1.35 million of settlement payments resulting from allegations of wrongdoing by the Murphy Administration.
TRENTON NJ, Sexual assault survivor Katie Brennan laid out a list of policy reform recommendations to improve the criminal justice process for victims of harassment, sexual assault and sexual misconduct in New Jersey in a letter to Sen. Loretta Weinberg and members of the Workgroup on Harassment, Assault and Misogyny in New Jersey Politics sent last week. Brennan, who has advocated for sweeping policy change since coming forward in October 2018 about her own sexual assault by senior Phil Murphy campaign and administration staffer Al Alvarez, also said she would like to present to the Workgroup about her proposals at its next hearing in March.
Trenton NJ, Following is a statement from Katie Brennan in response to the Select Oversight Committee report issued today:
“The findings of this report confirm what I have known all along–that sexual violence survivors in this state still cannot expect to receive justice. I waved a red flag at every turn of this process, and at every turn, I went unheard. And while my story should cause outrage, what should be even more disturbing is the knowledge that I am only one of countless survivors in our state who have gone voiceless and whose assaulters remain unaccountable. To our lawmakers, you now have a mandate–take meaningful action to create real accountability for perpetrators of sexual violence and for those who would protect them. To the Administration, you have a mandate as well, to hold accountable those who failed to take action or actively protected Al Alvarez. To truly claim the moral authority to implement a strong, pro-women, progressive policy agenda, the individuals in your senior leadership who have been complicit must be held to account.”
Trenton NJ, Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, the co-chair of the New Jersey Legislative Select Oversight Commitee, issued the following statement today in response to the Verniero Report:
“Unfortunately, this report falls short of the comprehensive investigation promised by the governor. It fails to meet any reasonable standard for an investigation into the serious allegations of sexual assault, the screening practices for hiring public employees, the failure to take responsibility by key officials, the continued failure to find out what went wrong and the reasons why no real actions were taken to address the plight of the alleged assault survivor.
Trenton NJ, in an astonishing turn of events an independent investigation by former State Supreme Court Justice Peter Verniero failed to find out who was responsible for hiring former Schools Development Authority chief of staff Al Alvarez.
Alvarez is at the center of rape allegations by former Murphy staffer State Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency chief of staff Katie Brennan alleged that Alvarez sexually assaulted her in April 2017, when Alvarez was in charge of Muslim and Latino outreach for Murphy’s campaign, for which Brennan would later volunteer.
Trenton NJ, A state government employee Katie Brennan who says her allegations that she was sexually assaulted by a campaign staffer to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy were ignored or downplayed has filed a notice of intent to sue New Jersey for damages.
An attorney for Katie Brennan filed the notice of tort claim last week.The notice alleges the state, including Murphy and Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, acted negligently and with reckless indifference when it hired Albert Alvarez.Brennan says Alvarez sexually assaulted her in 2017 during Murphy’s gubernatorial campaign and that she told several officials in Murphy’s administration.
Trenton NJ, Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi’s interview with David Cruz and NJTV today on how the system failed Katie Brennan.
“The most important take-away thus far is how many times the system failed her,” said Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi. “So here you have a situation where it wasn’t an allegation of, ‘Hey, someone was mean to me on the campaign trail.’ It was, ‘I was sexually assaulted by this person who’s now in charge of personnel decisions and nobody ever took a step to investigate.’”
Schepisi says what she heard was a lack of clarity on whether protocols for follow up were even in place. And that made it possible for someone who had a “curious lack of curiosity” to simply pass the buck.
“It just became a convenient ‘not it,’ ‘hot potato’ type of thing to say, well, you don’t fall specifically into a particular set of rules right now, so we’re not going to do anything on this,” she added.