TRENTON — State lawmakers charged with examining the handling of sexual assault allegations against a senior adviser to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy faulted front office aides rather than the “system” Murphy has come to lament, reaching a far different conclusion than the governor’s own independent investigators.
The final report of the Legislative Select Oversight Committee, released Wednesday morning, found that the governor’s top staff members made numerous mistakes in handling the rape allegation lodged against Al Alvarez, a campaign aide and transition official who was hired for a top job at the Schools Development Authority despite the charge. It also sharply criticizes the sworn testimony of state officials, noting the lawmakers heard “evasive,” “self-serving,” “incredible” and “completely contradictory” testimony from witnesses over nine days of hearings.
Contrary to the findings of former state Attorney General Peter Verniero, who blamed broad regulatory issues rather than individual staff members, the committee report concluded it was the actions of top staffers that left Katie Brennan — a state housing official who made the accusations — waiting in limbo for months.
“The errors outlined in the preceding sections are, for the most part, attributable not to the inadequacy of existing policies, but rather, failures to adhere to policies; asserted misunderstandings of policies that appear clear on their face; an apparent lack of urgency in addressing Ms. Brennan’s concerns; and a lack of common sense,” the 123-page report concluded.
“In other words, the system did not fail Ms. Brennan; the people who were entrusted with properly and responsibly handling Ms. Brennan’s complaint failed her at every step of the way.”The select committee, comprised of members of both the state Senate and General Assembly, began meeting shortly after Alvarez resigned in October after a reporter for the Wall Street Journal began making inquiries about the accusations. POLITICO first reported in October that Alvarez had faced a criminal allegation.
Brennan, a former Murphy campaign volunteer and now chief of staff at the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, alleges she was raped by Alvarez in her Jersey City apartment in April 2017. Alvarez was on Murphy's campaign staff at the time and was later named deputy personnel director on the governor's transition.
Alvarez, who has not been charged with a crime despite two criminal investigations into the allegations, has denied wrongdoing and claims the encounter with Brennan was consensual.
In a statement Wednesday, Brennan said the report’s findings “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,” she said. “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.”
Brennan complained anonymously to transition staff about Alvarez in late 2017, sharing her accusation through a friend who worked on the team. Despite knowing of the accusation, incoming Murphy chief of staff Pete Cammarano and transition Executive Director Jose Lozano did not prevent Alvarez from being hired by the SDA, where he served as chief of staff until his departure last year.
After consulting with counsel, the transition officials placed restrictions on Alvarez‘s work, but at no point confronted him about the accusations. The committee’s report said the response “was woefully inadequate.”
“Common sense tells us that the serious nature of the conduct alleged by Ms. Brennan demanded a rigorous, but fundamentally fair, investigation of the facts before any hiring took place,” the report states.
Alvarez testified in March that no one, to his knowledge, explicitly approved his hiring. He said he was interested in the job, asked Lozano to introduce him to the head of the SDA and showed up on his first day.
But the report, which was authored by several high-profile attorneys working as special counsel to the committee, concluded that “the evidence shows” Cammarano and Lozano signed off on Alvarez’s placement at the agency. While it’s unclear how they made that determination, the report noted that Cammarano said in an interview with Verniero’s firm that he “may have ultimately verbally signed off.”
After Alvarez was hired at the SDA, Brennan said she saw him again on numerous occasions, including at Murphy's inaugural ball. Brennan testified before the committee that she couldn't let that be the end of things and was “determined that I must directly alert the administration.”
On March 20, 2018, she met with Matt Platkin — a friend and the governor's chief counsel — and told him about her accusations. "Mr. Platkin was horrified, and said he would contact the attorney general's office to see if anything could be done," Brennan testified. "So I was filled with hope."
Two days later, she told Murphy's deputy counsel, Parimal Garg, another friend.
Over the next few months, Platkin and Cammarano tried to push Alvarez out, but at no point explicitly said he was fired. Alvarez appeared to delay, saying he needed time to find a new job. He didn’t leave until a newspaper reporter began poking around.
The aides also never informed Murphy of the allegations because Platkin said it would violate confidentiality rules. The report found that, not only should Murphy have been told after Brennan came forward — even trying at one point to reach the governor on his personal email account — his aides should have filled him in during the transition.
“Senior staff should have advised the Governor-elect of both the allegation against Mr. Alvarez and the need for an investigation because the hiring of Mr. Alvarez reflected on his administration,” the report states. “Instead of stopping the train and carefully looking into the allegation, the decision-makers on the transition staff continually rationalized why they should look away. This course of action did a disservice to all parties — Ms. Brennan, Mr. Alvarez, and Governor Murphy.”
The report specifically faults Platkin, saying he should have recused himself entirely given his prior relationships with Brennan and Alvarez.
“Mr. Platkin’s personal relationship with both Ms. Brennan and Mr. Alvarez and personal involvement in the matter creates an appearance that Mr. Platkin could not fairly and impartially discharge his duties with respect to Ms. Brennan’s complaint against Mr. Alvarez,” the report states.
Read the report here.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine