assignment judge middlesex county nj

Meet the new Middlesex prosecutor, a former judge and the first woman to hold the job

• Updated: Aug. 09, 2020, 6:41 p.m. |
• Published: Aug. 09, 2020, 10:00 a.m.

Yolanda Ciccone is the first woman to hold the position of Middlesex County prosecutor. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

• Alex Napoliello | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The spiral-bound directory remains nearly unblemished, marked only with slight bends in the corners that come with 30 years of liberal handling.

It’s moved with Yolanda Ciccone from vicinage to vicinage, from chamber to chamber, since she became a judge in 1991.

The pages are filled with ancient headshots of judges, offering a snapshot in time of a who’s who on the bench. Ciccone’s photo sits on page 1, along with an introductory blurb. Flip to page 9, and you’ll see black-and-white images of all the assignment judges in New Jersey — essentially a compilation of white men with gray hair.

It serves as a reminder, the new Middlesex County prosecutor says, of how times have changed, of the progress she’s made and how the glass ceiling has shattered.

“Today, the assignment judges are all different ages, all different racial backgrounds, as well as a number of women,” Ciccone explains in a conference room on the third floor of the Civic Square building in New Brunswick, home to the prosecutor’s office. “Society has evolved so much in the last 30 years.”

On June 30, Ciccone became the first woman to hold the position of Middlesex County prosecutor.

“It’s a validation of all the women that proceeded me and that we can take on a leadership role,” she says.

Ciccone, 66, sat down with NJ Advance Media for a wide-ranging interview, addressing everything from fighting crime in the county to the obstacles caused by the coronavirus to what countries she enjoys visiting (hint: her mom was from Genoa).

As law enforcement continues to face scrutiny since the death of George Floyd in May , Ciccone says she is committed to working alongside state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to implement a revised use-of-force policy in the county. She has no plans to take control of the Edison Police Department — a reoccurring black eye for police mistrust in Middlesex — and spoke pointedly about the actions of Roy Den Hollander, the attorney who authorities say fatally shot a federal judge’s son in North Brunswick.

Ciccone wasn’t even on the job for a month when Den Hollander, a self-described anti-feminist lawyer disguised as a FedEx delivery driver, shot the son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas and her husband, Mark Anderl, in their Middlesex County home. Anderl survived the shooting, but 20-year-old Daniel Anderl did not.

Authorities have not commented on a motive, but Den Hollander — who was found hours later in New York, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound — had a case before Salas regarding the Selective Service System. He also criticized her in online screeds for being a woman and a Latina judge.

“His misogyny was shocking in today’s world,” Ciccone says. “But it reinforced my belief that violence can come from anywhere. His matter was a matter involving the Selective Service. It wasn’t personal to him, and yet it garnered that kind of rage in him.”

Though the shooting happened in Middlesex, the investigation was quickly taken over by the FBI. The heinous crime hit home for Ciccone, a judge for three decades.

“There’s a thought that judges have the most to fear from people in criminal trials, but there’s a lot of vitriol that comes out of very simple types of cases — civil cases or cases involving foreclosure or evictions and even family court matters,” she says.

“Knowing that Judge Salas had a very varied calendar, I couldn’t even speculate where this violence came from.”

Yolanda Ciccone listens to arguments during a hearing held in the Somerset County courthouse in April 2014 when she was a Superior Court judge. SL

‘The perfect person for the job'

Ciccone sits at the end of a long, wooden conference table.

Behind her, a photo hangs on the wall capturing detectives celebrating a major drug bust, posing with seized packages of cocaine and guns. On the opposite side of the room, the headline, “Justice for Timmy,” blares across the front page of a framed copy of The Star-Ledger. It was printed the day after Michelle Lodzinski was found guilty in 2016 of killing her 5-year-old son, Timothy Wiltsey, in 1991.

Ciccone is imposing and speaks with a composure that comes from decades on the bench.

A Metuchen resident, Ciccone lives with her husband, Michael Guarino, who is an attorney practicing in New York City. Her late parents were from Italy, so Ciccone — who has long, brown hair and an olive complexion — says she “feels very much at home” when she travels there. She has also enjoyed trips to France and U.S. national parks.

Ciccone graduated from Rutgers University’s Douglass College and Seton Hall University School of Law. Prior to becoming a judge, she served as an assistant prosecutor in the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office for 10 years, including three years as section chief of the juvenile unit.

“She’s very talented, very experienced,” says James Nolan, a Woodbridge-based attorney who worked with Ciccone in the prosecutor’s office in the late 1980s. “She was the perfect person for the job. She checked all the boxes — a lot of experience as a prosecutor and a lot of experience as an executive. I don’t think Middlesex County could have done any better.”

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin echoed that sentiment.

“During her time on the bench, Judge Ciccone established a well-deserved reputation as an outstanding jurist,” says Coughlin, D-Middlesex. “I am confident Prosecutor Ciccone’s extraordinary skills and dedication to fairness will serve the residents of Middlesex County well as she assumes her new role.”

Ciccone was appointed to the bench by Gov. James Florio in 1991 and was reappointed with tenure in 1998 by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. Since her initial appointment, she has served in the civil, criminal and family divisions of Superior Court in Middlesex County.

She was the presiding judge of the Middlesex Civil Division before becoming the assignment judge in the court vicinage that includes Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren counties. Ciccone retired from the bench in May.

It’s somewhat unusual for a judge to become a prosecutor.

But it is not unprecedented. Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez was a judge in Hudson and Passaic counties before she was nominated as prosecutor in 2015 by Gov. Chris Christie.

Ironically, Suarez was a law clerk for Ciccone in 1997-98 when Ciccone was a judge in Middlesex County. The two have remained friends, Suarez told NJ Advance Media, and Ciccone has been a mentor throughout her career.

“She is smart. She’s calm. She’s levelheaded. She’s thoughtful,” Suarez says. “I’ve learned this phrase from her and I’ve adhered to it: Don’t be in a rush to make mistakes. And those are words she lives by. She doesn’t make any rash decisions. She thinks things through. ...

“She’s a very considerate, kind-hearted person. She’s very loving. When she needs to be tough, she’s tough. And I love that.”

Ciccone says her experience overseeing a staff of 300 people in three different courthouses and having to make court rulings prepared her for her new role.

“I think it helps with making decisions because you have to make decisions and judgments every day as a judge,” she says. “Moreover, I spent 15 years as an assignment judge… that administrative experience really helps me with making decisions, seeing how our staff can work cooperatively, especially in these completely unprecedented times.”

Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone speaks during an interview in New Brunswick. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

Lights. Camera. Action.

Superior Court in Middlesex County is no stranger to the media circus.

There was Melanie McGuire, dubbed the “ Suitcase Killer ” by the tabloids after she murdered her husband, dismembered his body and disposed of his remains in a suitcase tossed from a bridge in 2004.

There was Dharun Ravi, the Rutgers student who pleaded guilty to attempted invasion of privacy for spying on roommate Tyler Clementi, who jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after the episode in 2010.

And then there was Lodzinski, who was convicted of killing her son 25 years after his skeletal remains were discovered in a marshy area near the Raritan Center in Edison. The cold case was reopened under the direction of Prosecutor Andrew Carey, Ciccone’s predecessor.

The case is still in the appeals process and will be heard by the state Supreme Court. Because it’s pending, Ciccone would not comment on the case, but she did credit Lt. Scott Crocco for his work on it.

Notorious Middlesex County killers have not fared well in court against the prosecutor’s office. But Ciccone’s predecessors have been not-so-successful in prosecuting law enforcement officers in the county.

Carteret officer Joseph Reiman, accused of assault in the beating of a local teenager in the borough, was acquitted of all charges in 2019. More recently, a judge dismissed indictments against four Edison police officers who were accused of getting paid for no-show jobs.

Ciccone says she can’t comment on the Reiman case because it predates her, but she hinted that the Edison officers may not be in the clear just yet.

“The complaints are dismissed, but that doesn’t prevent us from going to grand jury when grand jury resumes,” she says. “So it’s not done, per se.”

No matter what happens, Ciccone declares that media attention won’t sway her decision-making.

“Every case is the same, whether it could garner a headline or not,” she says.

Ciccone’s rulings have made headlines in the past.

As an assignment judge in 2015, Ciccone ruled that the actions of students who allegedly bullied another child for several years didn’t prove negligence on the part of their parents — and therefore, the parents couldn’t be held financially liable by two Hunterdon County school districts.

In 2008, she ordered a municipal court judge to retire, resign or be removed after he took the bench while inebriated on two occasions and caused a ruckus at the Bound Brook go-go bar Torpedo’s in November 2007.

A new job in a pandemic

Gov. Phil Murphy named Ciccone as prosecutor — a nomination quickly approved by the Senate — just as the peak of the coronavirus pandemic was waning in New Jersey.

You can’t ignore the impact the crisis has made when you walk into the prosecutor’s office and you’re greeted by a temperature checker and a staff wearing masks. In the courthouse, located just a block away from the Civic Square building, the normally bustling hallways are now empty, as court proceedings have moved online.

The challenge is two-fold for Ciccone. She’s patiently awaiting the return of jury trials, albeit with new social distancing mandates, while working in an office that’s at 50% staffing levels.

“It’s harder for me to get to know everybody because I don’t have everyone here in the office,” Ciccone says.

She’s worked diligently to meet with each assistant prosecutor, whether it’s in person or virtually. She just completed visiting all the satellite offices and has plans to meet all 25 police chiefs, as well as the local mayors and business administrators.

“Gatherings are not that easy,” Ciccone remarks.

Moving forward, Ciccone says, she’ll need to figure out how to accommodate her staff if schools again resort to all-remote learning, or a staggered school day.

“From our support staff all the way up to our assistant prosecutors, how do we support our staff with working virtually and being able to take care of their families?” she says.

Ciccone knows the crisis has taken a toll in other ways, including halting some of the simple pleasures in life that help burn off the stress of the job. She misses going to her Pilates studio for workouts, but the pandemic hasn’t kept her from another passion: cooking. She says her specialty dish is pasta al pesto.

As life in New Jersey slowly resumes following the near-lockdown in March and April, crime in New Jersey is prevalent, as law enforcement officials closely monitor an uptick in shootings . Middlesex County is not known for its crime, but it’s not immune to it, either.

Ciccone says crime is fueled by three aspects: drugs, guns and gangs. To create a safer community, she says, those areas can’t be approached singularly.

“The sale of illicit drugs brings guns, which brings gangs, which brings territory and turf,” Ciccone says. “So all those three things work interchangeably.”

But when it comes to drugs, specifically addiction, more than just arrests are needed to find a solution. The county has a Blue Cares program , which links people who have been saved by the overdose antidote Narcan with the services they need.

“So we’re not only about the retribution. We’re really trying to work with people to rehabilitate them,” Ciccone says. “If we can rehabilitate people, we can help the community, make the community a safer place to be.”

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Alex Napoliello may be reached at [email protected] .

Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone in her New Brunswick office on July 29, 2020. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

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Middlesex County's top judge steps down after censure over Playboy comment

Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Alberto Rivas has stepped down as the county's assignment judge after the state Supreme Court censured him for conduct in violation of judicial rules.

Rivas, however, is not leaving the bench. He will continue serving as a judge in the Civil Division.

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner has appointed Superior Court Judge Michael Toto, criminal presiding judge in Middlesex County, to serve as assignment judge, effective immediately.

Toto, 62, has served as a Superior Court judge in Middlesex County for 14 years. He was named presiding judge of the criminal division in 2017 and also served in the civil and family divisions. Prior to that, Toto served as a municipal judge for 17 years. He was the presiding judge of the Jamesburg Municipal Court and also served in the East Brunswick and Manalapan courts.

Toto is a graduate of Rutgers University Law School.

The state Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct had recommended Rivas be censured over his behavior in court, including comments he made involving a woman’s racy pictures.

The panel found Rivas “demonstrated a lack of self-control” during a January 2019 dispute involving the girlfriend of a married man and his wife. The girlfriend was seeking to have the man’s wife return explicit photos, which the girlfriend feared would be shared on social media.

The committee called the judge's dialogue with the woman "undignified and discourteous."

Rivas has apologized for the remarks.

"I regret the comments I made during the proceeding," Rivas said in a previous statement. "I felt the court was being manipulated, but I let my feelings about the case influence my language, tone and demeanor, all of which were inappropriate."

The charges stemmed from when a woman sought the return of several suggestive photographs she took of herself for her former boyfriend, which were allegedly forwarded to the boyfriend's wife.

The woman told the judge she was afraid the wife would forward the pictures to the woman's workplace.

In an exchange with woman, Rivas said that her testimony was not believable.

"I was born at night," the judge said, according to a transcript. "It was not last night."

Rivas said the case initially appeared to be a revenge porn or blackmail matter, but it became apparent that the woman "was attempting to perpetuate a fraud on the court."

As the hearing progressed, Rivas said in an answer to the charges, it became clear the woman's story was "a complete fabrication" and that she had "orchestrated" the "legal charade."

Rivas questioned the woman's statement that she did not know where her boyfriend's wife worked.

"Do not sit there and tell me that you're having a relationship with a married man and that you don't where his wife works," the judge said, adding "I've been doing this for a number of years. Better people have attempted to lie to me. You're not that good."

EARLIER:  Middlesex County judge faces censure for telling woman to sell nude pics to Playboy

The judge characterized the woman's comments as "baloney" and added he should not be wasting "judicial resources on this kind of malarkey." 

The woman said she no longer wanted to have contact with her boyfriend, but declined to file for a final restraining order, which Rivas said he would be "happy to grant."

Rivas said the boyfriend, who he called a "knucklehead," "needs to be brought down a notch." 

The judge then talked to the wife and asked why she was still married to the man, who is a corrections officer.

"I would suggest divorce and take half his pension," Rivas said. The couple had been married for about 11 years and have a daughter. 

The judge then addressed the man, who was present in court but not part of the proceedings between the woman and his wife.

"I wish you were up here," Rivas said, "because I am gunning for you, because you are despicable."

After the wife agreed to turn over the photographs within 24 hours, the judge told the wife, "Your problem is with that knucklehead. But, it's clear that you folks have been involved in a triangle, and kind of like the Bermuda Triangle, it's deadly."

Rivas told the women they have let themselves "get played by this guy. Who I'm not going to call him a man because he does not deserve that title. This homo sapien."

At the end of the court proceeding, Rivas said he was giving "advice" to the woman who took the pictures of herself.

"The only person you should be sending naked pictures to are (sic) to Hugh Hefner," Rivas said. "He will pay you $100,000 for the use of them."

Hefner, who died in September 2017, was founder of Playboy magazine.

In his answer to the complaint, Rivas admitted his remarks were "inappropriate" and "let his feelings about what the (woman) had done, by placing (the wife) in such a humiliating position, influence (his) language, tone and demeanor."

Rivas said his comments "were not motivated by bias or prejudice" and "intemperate and not judicial in word or tone."

The panel’s report also noted that Rivas was privately reprimanded in 2013 and 2014 for his conduct, once for "injudicious demeanor" toward litigants and his "discourteous treatment" for his treatment of a criminal defendant.

The committee noted that after the 2013 incident, Rivas said his conduct was "an aberration" and voluntarily participated in sensitivity training

The committee also concluded that Rivas' "repeated displays of discourtesy" made the latest incident "more egregious" than the previous matters.

Email: [email protected]

Mike Deak is a reporter for MyCentralJersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

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Middlesex county, new jersey (judicial).

Ballotpedia provides comprehensive coverage of the 100 largest cities in America by population as well as mayoral, city council, and district attorney election coverage in state capitals outside of the 100 largest cities. This county is outside of that coverage scope and does not receive scheduled updates.

Middlesex County is within New Jersey Vicinage 8 .

The people of Middlesex County are served by a Superior Court and a Municipal Court . The people of New Jersey are also served by a Tax Court .

The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey has jurisdiction in Middlesex County. Appeals from the District of New Jersey go to the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit .

Superior Court

New jersey vicinage 8.

• Travis L. Francis (Assignment judge)

Civil Division

• Jamie D. Happas (Presiding judge)
• Aravind Aithal
• Arthur Bergman
• Jane B. Cantor
• J. Randall Corman
• Heidi W. Currier
• Robert Jones
• Vincent Leblon
• Jessica R. Mayer
• Gregg Rubenstein
• Barry Weisberg
• Douglas K. Wolfson

Family Division

• Deborah J. Venezia (Presiding judge)
• Andrea Carter
• James F. Hyland
• Colleen Flynn
• John A. Jorgensen
• Arnold L. Natali, Jr.
• Christopher D. Rafano
• Barbara Stolte
• Lisa Vignuolo
• Ana Viscomi

Criminal Division

• Dennis Nieves
• Joseph Paone
• Diane Pincus
• Lorraine Pullen
• Alberto Rivas
• Michael Toto

Chancery Division

• Ann G. McCormick [1]
• New Jersey counties
• Courts in New Jersey
• ↑ New Jersey Courts , "Judge Directory," accessed May 13, 2014

Federal courts:

Third Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of New Jersey • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of New Jersey

State courts:

New Jersey Supreme Court • New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division • New Jersey Superior Courts • New Jersey Municipal Courts • New Jersey Tax Court

State resources:

Courts in New Jersey • New Jersey judicial elections • Judicial selection in New Jersey

• Pages using DynamicPageList3 parser tag
• New Jersey counties (judicial)

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Law Clerk judge assigned to Burlington lines lawsuit was a Democratic staffer who worked for defendant

Nicholas Gangemi has been removed from controversial lawsuit, but courts have not publicly acknowledged the possible conflict

By David Wildstein , April 12 2024 10:00 am

A judge assigned a law clerk to work on a politically charged lawsuit that revoked the Burlington Republican organization line is a former Democratic staffer who once worked for one of the defendants in the lawsuit.

Nicholas J. Gangemi, a law clerk to Assignment Judge Jeanne Covert, had been a public information officer for Burlington County, where he worked directly with Joanne Schwartz, the county clerk whom Republicans were suing after she chose to remove their line and use an office block ballot for both primaries this year.

Assignment Judge Jeanne Covert consolidated two separate state court lawsuits dealing with organization line challenges across the state and decided to assign them to John E. Harrington, a veteran election law judge who serves on recall status. Covert specifically assigned the 28-year-old Gangemi to Harrington as his law clerk for the line cases.

As the judge who hired him, Covert knew Gangemi’s background, including nearly four years as a legislative aide in the New Jersey State Assembly; he has served as chief of staff to Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D-Trenton) and as an aide to Gusciora after he became mayor of Trenton.  The Haddonfield resident went to work in Burlington County in early 2019 after Democrats took control of the county government in the 2018 elections.

It’s not immediately clear how Gangemi got his job with Burlington County; one Democrat said he was hired on the strength of his work as an Assembly aide, but another suggested he had seen an advertisement and applied without any political influence.  Either way, Gangemi was involved in communications strategies for several Democratic officials, including Schwartz.

Covert inexplicably sent her law clerk to work on a sensitive political case, and Gangemi didn’t say he had a conflict.

Sitting next to Gangemi in a courtroom on Wednesday, Harrington repeatedly referenced working with his law clerk to research election laws that might help him reach a decision. He specifically stated something the law clerk had found or discussed at several points. Harrington made his reliance on Gangemi clear.

Perhaps by coincidence, Gangemi was quietly removed from the lines lawsuit after the New Jersey Globe began making inquiries among South Jersey Democratic insiders and attorneys about Gangemi’s political ties.

The courts did not answer specific questions about the circumstances of Gangemi’s removal from the case or why another law clerk was temporarily assigned to Harrington but said he was no longer involved at this point to avoid the appearance of a conflict.

Gangemi did not respond to a call or text message on his cell phone; his personal cell phone number had been easily obtained since it was atop a Schwartz press release issued that listed Gangemi as the contact.  The New Jersey courts had no comment.

This morning, Harrington will hear the other part of the consolidated case: a bid by U.S. Senate candidate Albert Harshaw and House candidates Shirley Maia-Cusick, Gregg Mele, and Hector Castillo, seeking to invalidate Republican lines in the rest of the state.

Covert, who was closely tied to South Jersey Democratic politics before becoming a Superior Court judge in 2005, may be partly to blame for this possible ethical blip.  She was an assistant Camden County Prosecutor, and her former husband, Kevin Covert, was the Burlington County Democratic Chairman in the 1990s.

As a politically active attorney in Burlington in those days, Harrington represented Kevin Covert on election matters.

In 1994, thirty years before he ruled that the county clerk, Schwartz, had the discretion to take away the Burlington County Republican organization line, Harrington represented the Burlington County Democrats in a prominent election law case, Lautenberg vs. Kelly, where he defended the right of candidates to bracket on a primary election ballot.

The Republican county clerk, Edward Kelly, had rejected a bid by Lautenberg, seeking his third term in the U.S. Senate, to bracket with other Democrats on the organization line.  Kelly initially refused, and Harrington and others went to court; citing the right of free speech and association, Harrington and others were able to get a judge to strike a law that prohibited bracketing in U.S. Senate races as unconstitutional.

After Kevin Covert became county chairman, he listed his political heroes; one of whom was George E. Norcross III.

“If people are calling me another George Norcross four or five years from now, I’d be happy as a clam,” Kevin Covert said.