Appeals Court Overturns PTI Order For Ex-Brick Schools Official

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A former Brick Township school administrator has been denied participation in a pretrial intervention program after a state appeals court overturned an Ocean County judge's decision approving her application.

Lorraine S. Morgan, the former academic officer in the Brick schools, had been ordered into the program by Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels over the objections of Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato and the PTI program's director. Coronato announced the ruling Monday.

Morgan had been ordered into the program in March 2016.

The prosecutor's office appealed Daniels' order and Appellate Judges Joseph L. Yannotti and Michael J. Haas overturned the decision, saying the decision to accept or reject a defendant’s pretrial intervention application is essentially a prosecutorial function, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor's office.

"The panel wrote, 'it is the fundamental responsibility of the Prosecutor to decide whom to prosecute,' " Della Fave said. "The appeals court underscored what it considered a 'major error' in Judge Daniels’ decision; that 'the decision was predicated on the Judge’s own assessment of the PTI factors' and that 'he ignored the nature of the offense, the facts of the case, and the impact placing defendant in PTI would have on the prosecution of her codefendants.' "

"Judicial disagreement with a prosecutor’s reasons for rejection, as had occurred here, does not equate to prosecutorial abuse of discretion so as to merit a judicial override of the prosecutor’s decision," Della Fave said, quoting the decision.

Lorraine Morgan was charged with official misconduct in connection with misconduct charges brought against former Brick Superintendent Walter Uszenski and Andrew J. Morgan, the former interim director of special services for Brick public schools in connection with what prosecutors allege was a scheme that obtained full-time preschool day care and related services for Uszenski’s grandchild at the public’s expense. Uszenski's daughter, Jacqueline Halsey and the boy's mother, also was charged. Andrew Morgan is Lorraine Morgan's husband.

Lorraine Morgan was charged because she approved payment for in-home services that were not authorized, according to the prosecutor's office.

The case has been working its way through the courts since Uszenski and Andrew Morgan were arrested in May 2015. All four were indicted in September 2015, and the indictments were thrown out by Superior Court Judge Patricia B. Roe in February 2017.

The prosecutor's office obtained new indictments in June 2017. Della Fave on Monday said the case is progressing.

Uszenski, who was on unpaid suspension from late September 2015 through the end of his contract, which expired June 30, and his daughter filed a $20 million lawsuit against the school district, the prosecutor's office and several others after the first indictment was thrown out. That lawsuit is pending as well.

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Lorraine Morgan photo by Karen Wall, Patch staff