County Is Lying About Opioid Epidemic, Former Prosecutor Claims

The Cape May County Board of Chosen Freeholders is underselling the nature of the opioid epidemic in the county, former Prosecutor Robert L. Taylor alleges in a whistleblower lawsuit filed in Superior Court last week.

Late last year, Taylor discovered county officials have been using “stale, outdated and incorrect data” when speaking to the public about the epidemic fueled by heroin, artificial heroin, fentanyl and opioids in Cape May County, according to the lawsuit filed on Nov. 19, 2017.

Taylor also accuses the county of withholding retirement benefits from him, and of not properly screening its employees, in the lawsuit.

Taylor, who retired earlier this year after reaching the maximum age for the position of prosecutor, claims his office had the accurate information readily available, but the information was never requested by any member of the freeholder board.

After he expressed his concern that the county was using outdated and inaccurate information, Taylor said he was told the disregard the accurate data. He was told to portray a “false sense of control” over the epidemic, according to the lawsuit.

When he said he was going to release the actual data, he claims the freeholder board told him there would be “negative consequences” on his efforts to seek funding for the prosecutor’s office’s efforts to combat the issue.
Taylor and his attorney, Arthur J. Murray of Marlton-based Alterman and Associates LLC, didn’t provide numbers illustrating the disparity between what they called the false data and the data provided by the county in telephone interviews with Patch on Wednesday.

Cape May County Counsel James Arsenault Jr. called the suit“baseless” and “frivolous,” and said that the county will vigorously defend itself.

Prosecutor Robert W. Johnson, who was appointed to the position in September, wasn’t immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

Taylor broached the subject during a county-sponsored Opioid Abuse and Overdose Awareness Presentation in August, when he said he asked the county for six more personnel and received none. Freeholder Jeffrey Pierson said the county asked Taylor to rearrange his staff, and that Taylor “came back and said he would handle it,” according to the Cape May County Herald.

On Wednesday, Taylor told Patch he never told them he would rearrange his staff.

Taylor said he found the actions of the freeholders, specifically Gerald Thornton, “morally reprehensible.”

“He knew the statistics and he ignored them,” Taylor said.

Thornton and Cape May County Human Resources Director Jeffrey Lindsay are accused of trying to remove a “longtime, respected female Assistant Prosecutor” who was viewed by some as Taylor’s possible successor from her position in the office and as head of the Assistant Prosecutors Association, which represents the vast majority of attorneys in the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office. When they each implied Taylor should fire her, he refused, according to the suit.

Their efforts began after the union filed Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests concerning Lindsay, seeking embarrassing information about him, according to the lawsuit. Taylor also refused to cooperate with an internal affairs complaint against the same Assistant Prosecutor filed by freeholders Thornton, Pierson, Leonard Desidero, E. Marie Hayes and Will Morey.

He claims they bypassed him and sent the complaint directly to the Attorney General’s Office. When the Attorney General sent it back to Taylor’s office, a formal investigation determined the allegations were unfounded, according to the suit.

Taylor said he reported Thornton and Lindsay to the county because of their efforts, but he was ignored. He said his office then experienced artificial budget constraints, and that the county impugned his reputation and didn’t give him retirement benefits afforded to others.

Arsenault said in a prepared statement that the freeholder board always cooperated with the prosecutor's office.

"During Mr. Taylor’s tenure, the County increased Prosecutor’s Office funding from $2,771,921 to $7,109,007, and increased staffing from 56 to 88," Arsenault said. "As recently as this year, the Prosecutor’s Office wasauthorized to hire two additional investigator specifically to address the opioid epidemic. In a feeble attempt to support his baseless accusations and secure lifetime, taxpayer funded health benefits, Mr. Taylor has even gone so far as to take advantage of the opioid epidemic to mask his selfish attempt to claim taxpayer-funded retirement benefits."

He accused Taylor of filing the lawsuit in an attempt to secure benefits he is not entitled to.

Simply stated, Mr. Taylor does not have the required length of service in qualifying positions to add to his tenure as County Prosecutor," Arsenault said. "As a consequence, he is not entitled to post-retirement benefits at the taxpayers’ expense as a matter of law. This has been explained to him on numerous occasions, and in both verbal and written form, in the several months before his retirement. When presented with the plain fact that he was legally ineligible for the special benefits he sought, Mr. Taylor responded by threatening to file this baseless and frivolous lawsuit."

Taylor seeks reinstatement and restoration of deprived rights of a retired employee, as well as damages, fees and court costs. In turn, the county will seek reimbursement for all fees and costs associated with the case, according to Arsenault.

See related: Cape May County Town One Of 45 With The Most Heroin And Opiate Abuse

See related: Large Scale Investigation Results In Narcotics Charges In Cape May County

See related: Disbelief In Cape May County: 13-Year-Old Dead From Heroin, Fentanyl

Patch file photo