Essex County Prosecutor's Office - High Profile Cases

High Profile Cases

The Essex County Prosecutor's Office has been involved in a variety of high-profile cases that gained national attention over the past twenty five years. In 1985, Kelly Michaels, a child care worker at the Wee Care Nursery School in Maplewood, NJ was arrested on allegations of sexually abusing children. The Essex County Prosecutor's Office helped to investigate the case and brought forth an indictment against Ms. Michaels, setting the stage for a trial. In 1988, the trial jury found Ms. Michaels guilty. However, the Appellate Division of the N.J. Superior Court overturned this verdict citing to a variety of improper prosecutorial practices, and required a new trial. After the N.J. Supreme Court affirmed this decision in 1994, ECPO dropped the indictment against Ms. Michaels.

In 1989, a sexual assault case was brought by ECPO against four high school athletes from Glen Ridge, NJ, who were convicted in 1993 for victimizing a 17 year-old mentally retarded woman. Three were convicted of aggravated sexual assault, and the fourth was convicted on one count of conspiracy. This case was the subject of a popular book, a TV movie, and an episode on the TV show “Law & Order.”

In April, 1999, during Prosecutor Hurt's tenure, the ECPO participated in the investigation of the shooting death of Orange, NJ Police Officer Joyce Carnegie. Both ECPO and the local police were criticized for the arrest of two suspects, the first alleged to have been held wrongly because of the failure to interview a key alibi witness, and to have been physically mistreated while in custody. A second suspect, Earl Faison, died while in the custody of local police. Five Orange Police Officers were later indicted by a federal grand jury and convicted for violating Faison's civil rights. Another suspect, Condell Woodson, pled guilty to Carnegie's murder and was sentenced to life in prison in June, 1999.

In January, 2000, a fire occurred in the Boland Hall dormitory of Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ that caused the deaths of three students and the injuries of 58 students. Two University students were charged with murder and a variety of other counts after being indicted by the Essex County Grand Jury in 2003. In 2007, after years of detailed investigation, Joseph LePore and Sean Ryan were sentenced to five years in prison under a plea agreement. Some local commentators criticized Prosecutor Dow regarding her Office's handling of the case, citing delays and the fact that murder charges had been dropped. However, there were no direct witnesses, and all evidence in this case was forensic, circumstantial or hearsay in nature.

In January, 2003, the mumified remains of 7-year old Faheem Williams were found by an ECPO detective in the basement of an apartment rented by Sherry Murphy, cousin of the dead child's mother. Two related children were found there alive but in a malnourished state. In September, 2005, Ms. Murphy plead guilty to charges of aggravated assault, criminal restraint and endangering the welfare of a child. Ms. Murphy's son Wesley also plead to a reckless endangerment charge for the "wrestling" incident during which Faheem Williams died, some four months before being found.