Two Monmouth Drug Dealers Sentenced On Federal Charges

Tyshon Young, a/k/a “Young Money,” a/k/a “Young Boy,” 30, of Asbury Park, and Matthew Miller, a/k/a “Star,” 41, of Neptune, were sentenced to 21 and 36 months in prison, respectively today by U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton federal court for their roles in a large-scale drug trafficking organization responsible for distributing heroin and cocaine throughout Monmouth and Ocean counties, according to an announcement by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

Young and Miller previously pleaded guilty before Judge Sheridan to separate informations charging them with one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin.

Miller has been in federal custody since his March 2014 arrest and has thus already served more than half of the sentence imposed by Judge Sheridan today, according to Fishman’s spokesman William Skaggs.   Young was in custody for roughly a month before making his $100,000 bail in early May of 2014, Skaggs said in a phone interview.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

180 Turning Lives Around Receives Federal Grant

180 Turning Lives Around, the Hazlet based non-profit dedicated to ending domestic and sexual violence in our community, has been awarded a $255,284 federal Transitional Housing Assistance Program grant, according to U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.

180 will partner with Long Branch Concordance and contracted service providers to support 10 families in the 180 agency owned scattered site townhomes.

180’s Families in Transition Program provides women and their children with a safe home for up to 18 months. Support services include career counseling, financial management, life skills training and assistance in obtaining housing.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Guadagno Cleared Of Hoboken Mayor’s Charges

Lt. Gov Kim Guadagno, center, with former Monmouth County Clerk M. Claire French, right and Sui Allex, a Marlboro GOP Council candidate, at the launch of the We Care About NJ PAC on Tuesday evening.

Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno has been cleared by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in the allegations against her made by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer, according to a report at NJ.com.

After months of praising the Christie Administration after Superstorm Sandy, Zimmer used the media frenzy when the Bridgegate story broke in January of 2014 to become famous by alleging that Guadagno shook her down seven months earlier.

The mayor said that Guadagno told her, on behalf of Governor Christie, that Hoboken’s Sandy recovery aide was tied to Zimmer pushing through a development application for the Rockefeller Group.  The shakedown allegedly happened at a supermarket ribbon cutting ceremony in May of 2013.  Zimmer suddenly remembered the shakedown in January of 2014 when the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal was dominating the news.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

7 notable Paul Fishman quotes from the Bridgegate press conference

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman

NEWARK — In between variations of ‘no comment,’ U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul J. Fishman made a handful of notable comments during the Friday afternoon Bridgegate press conference. On Friday, former Port Authority director of interstate projects David Wildstein pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy. Indictments were then unsealed against another former Port Authority… Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Wildstein plea report yet another false alarm

Bill Baroni, Gov Christie and David Wildstein

It turns out that the Bloomberg Business story that David Wildstein, Governor Chris Christie’s former #2 man at Port Authority of NY/NJ,would plead guilty to an unspecified federal charge associated with the Bridgegate scandal today, is not so.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman’s Public Affairs Office sends an email to the media every morning with a heads up of proceeding that are planned for the day.   There was no proceedings including Wildstein in this morning’s email.   I emailed Matthew Reilly, the Public Information Officer. “Nothing on Wildstein?  Was the Bloomberg leak another false alarm?”   “Nothing on Wildstein,” Reilly responded.

There were going to be Bridgegate indictments announced in December, January and March, according to mainstream press reports.  They never happened.

Leaks out of the Justice Department have not been reliable since Chris Christie was U.S. Attorney.

• Tweet

Correction: U.S. Attorney has not opened new Christie investigation into Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office

Governor Chris Christie at Long Branch press conference, August , 2014 photo by Art Gallagher

Contrary to published reports, including one here at MMM, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman’s office has not opened a new criminal investigation into Governor Chris Christie’s role, if any, in quashing the prosecution of former Hunterdon County Sheriff Deborah Trout.

The initial inaccurate report was published by International Business Times, a content partner of MMM through repubHub.  MMM published the IBT story after noticing it was being cited by other news outlets.

On Friday, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show published a report that included a denial from the U.S. Attorney’s office that it is investigating Christie over the Trout issue. (h/t SaveJersey)

“Any characterization that we are investigating the Governor about this is just not true … . [W]e talk to people all the time. It doesn’t mean we’re investigating anybody.”

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Feds Launch Criminal Probe Of Christie Administration

Federal law enforcement officials have launched a criminal investigation of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and members of his administration, pursuing allegations the governor and his staff broke the law when they quashed grand jury indictments against Christie supporters, International Business Times has learned. Two criminal investigators from the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday interviewed… Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Federal prosecutors interviewed Chris Christie in bridge scandal probe, report says

TRENTON — Federal prosecutors interviewed Gov. Chris Christie last month as part of the ongoing investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closure controversy, according to a published report. The governor, who’s weighing a presidential campaign, met with prosecutors and the FBI for more than two hours, according to ABC news. The meeting took place at… Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

U.S. Attorney issues new subpoenas in Christie investigation

MMM photo by Art Gallagher

Federal prosecutors have widened their investigation into the relationship between Governor Chris Christie’s office and his 2013 reelection campaign, according to a report at The Wall Street Journal.

WSJ reports that U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman’s office has subpoenaed documents related to government meetings that Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop claims were canceled after he declined to endorse Christie’s reelection.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

South Jersey Man Gets 6 Hours In Jail For Shooting Hawks

Robert Losasso

Robert Losasso, a 70 year old Somers Point man, was sentenced to 6 hours in jail today on charges that the shot and killed or attempted to kill four species of hawk protected by federal law, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman announced.

Matthew Reilly, Deputy Public Affairs Officer for Fishman’s office laughed when we asked if Losasso could be released before lunch on good behavior.

Losasso admitted that he fatally shot or attempted to shoot red-tailed, sharp-shinned, red shouldered and Cooper’s hawks on several occasions. These species are among the tens of thousands of birds of prey that migrate every year from Canada along the Atlantic Flyway through New Jersey. Losasso also admitted that he didn’t have any permit to shoot the birds.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet