Christie's 'Stand-In' Faces Her Own Scrutiny As Presidential Run Begins

Gov. Chris Christie has had his share of political troubles. But the person who will be filling in for him as he campaigns for president has had her own issues, too.

The Christie administration has been accused of failing to fully investigate or pursue allegations of a $245,000 pension fraud case that allegedly implicated Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

Troubles began when Guadagno was Monmouth County sheriff in 2008, the year before she first ran for lieutenant governor as Christie’s running mate, according to the New Jersey Watchdog website.

As sheriff, Guadagno allegedly made false statements that enabled her chief officer, Michael Donovan, to “improperly” collect an $85,000 a year pension in addition to his $87,500 salary, as first reported by New Jersey Watchdog in 2010.

In May 2011, the attorney general’s Division of Criminal Justice began a criminal investigation at the request of a state pension board. But nothing ever seemed to materialize from the investigation.

Or did it?

In 2010, New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association President Anthony F. Wieners Jr. filed the first formal complaint calling for an investigation, and two state judges last year ordered the release of internal Christie administration documents that allegedly bolstered the allegations against Guadagno, and raised questions about whether law enforcement or Treasury officials ever interviewed Guadagno about the case, according to New Jersey Spotlight.

New Jersey Watchdog said it eventually sued the state in 2013 for records of the investigation and its outcome. The site won a partial victory in the trial court last year when a judge ordered DCJ to reveal some of the documents it sought.

The disclosures, however, showed that DCJ only generated “six pages” of investigative records before closing the case in June 2012. The probe appeared to be virtually non-existent; there were no records of interviews or statements from Guadagno or witnesses, according to New Jersey Watchdog.

The report comes from a website that is part of a national chain called Watchdog.org, which targets government spending, waste and corruption. The New Jersey site is operated by prominent investigative journalist Mark Lagerkvist, a former special projects reporter at The Asbury Park Press who also worked at CNBC.

Patch republishes information from the site with permission.

Jacobson also ruled DCJ was allowed to keep the findings of the investigation secret, and after reviewing the documents in private, the judge determined the state’s interest in keeping the records confidential outweighed the public’s right to know.

New Jersey Watchdog appealed Jacobson’s decision to the State Appellate Division. A date for oral arguments has yet to be scheduled.