Kelly Asks Christie To Withdraw Nomination To State Parole Board

Ocean County Republican Freeholder Jack Kelly is no longer in the running for a seat on the state Parole Board, Democratic Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney said this afternoon, according to app.com

Kelly, 64, of Eagleswood, most likely would have faced a merciless grilling at a the Senate Judiciary Committee about his lack of qualifications for the $100,000 patronage job. His stance on refusing to grant a dying Ocean County Detective Laurel Hester the right allow her to leave her pension benefits to her domestic partner, was also sharply criticized by many.

“When the nomination was first made, I was not aware that Mr. Kelly was the elected official in the middle of the ‘Freeheld’ case,” Sweeney said in a prepared statement on Friday afternoon. “Personally, I was opposed to this nomination and would have voted against it, as would most of my colleagues. What Mr. Kelly did in trying to bar the legal transfer of Laurel Hester’s pension benefits to her domestic partner was wrong.”

Hester's battle was the subject of the 2007 Oscar-winning documentary short film "Freeheld," and was made into a movie of the same name last year.

Garden State Equality and its founder, Steven Goldstein, fought against the five-man, all-GOP freeholder board back in 2005 and 2006 for Hester's right to leave her benefits to her partner. Kelly did not show up for the vote on the final meeting. He had previously said that marriage was a "holy union" between and man and a woman.

Kelly was nominated twice by Gov. Chris Christie.

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, and state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, had also publicly opposed Kelly's nomination because he had no law enforcement background and only a high school degree.

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