Inquirer editorial: Sheridan case can't stay closed
The wall of silence surrounding the investigation of the deaths of New Jersey political insider John Sheridan and his wife invited suspicion even in its early days. More than a year and a half later, the first glimpse behind that wall suggests that those suspicions were justified and that nothing short of an independent investigation can resolve them.
The wall of silence surrounding the investigation of the deaths of New Jersey political insider John Sheridan and his wife invited suspicion even in its early days. More than a year and a half later, the first glimpse behind that wall suggests that those suspicions were justified and that nothing short of an independent investigation can resolve them.
Somerset County Prosecutor's Office Detective Jeffrey Scozzafava alleges in a lawsuit filed last week that the agency mishandled, ignored, and destroyed evidence and then retaliated when he complained. The office ended the six-month investigation last year by announcing that John Sheridan had killed his wife and then himself, a conclusion that has been challenged by the couple's sons, three former governors, and two former attorneys general, among others.
John Sheridan, a former New Jersey cabinet member and the chief executive of Camden-based Cooper Health System, and his wife, retired schoolteacher Joyce Sheridan, were found unresponsive amid a deliberately set fire in their central New Jersey home in September 2014. Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano largely refused to communicate with the public or the press about the crime, and his office violated the state's public-records law for months by concealing such basic information as the fact that at least one murder had been committed and that both of the Sheridans had been stabbed. When the office finally released its conclusions, it failed to offer a motive or produce the weapon that delivered a possibly mortal wound to John Sheridan. County and state officials continued fighting to suppress the case file even after it was closed.
Last week's lawsuit offers a dark explanation for these puzzling methods and results - namely, that authorities were at best incompetent and at worst engaged in a malicious and possibly criminal cover-up.
Scozzafava, a former state trooper with extensive experience in law enforcement and forensics, alleges that the Prosecutor's Office forensics unit was supervised by officers with no training in the field and that evidence in the Sheridan killings, including blood and charred bedding, was exposed to contamination and, in one instance, thrown away. The detective also charges that the office failed to examine the entrances to the Sheridans' home for fingerprints and then covered up the oversight by claiming that they had used a fictitious "flashlight technique" or, as the press release announcing the murder-suicide ruling put it, "lighting techniques." When Scozzafava blew the whistle on this and other malfeasance, the lawsuit says, his supervisors transferred him out of the forensics unit, took away his vehicle, and canceled an investigative course he was teaching.
The detective's allegations strengthen the case for a new investigation of the Sheridans' deaths and an independent review of the Prosecutor's Office. Unfortunately, the state Attorney General's Office, which oversees county prosecutors, has been practically complicit in the investigation's mishandling. Gov. Christie, who has kept the attorney general in a weakened acting capacity for nearly three years, has responded to the unfolding scandal only belatedly and begrudgingly. Although he replaced Soriano amid escalating criticism in March, the Inquirer reported this week that the Attorney General's Office continues to employ the former prosecutor.
Soriano's successor, acting Somerset County Prosecutor Michael Robertson, should see to it that the Sheridan case is reopened and that Scozzafava's claims are thoroughly investigated. And if the Attorney General's Office is not willing or able to conduct an independent review, the state comptroller, the legislature, or federal authorities should.