On April 13, 1857, less than a month after Union County was created from what had been part of Essex County, John J. Chetwood was named the first Union County Prosecutor. During the more than 155 years that have followed, the Union County Prosecutor’s Office has experienced many changes, but its purpose remains the same – to protect and serve the public.
Click on the names of any of the 32 Union County Prosecutors to learn more about each person and the history of the Office.
- John J. Chetwood (1857-1861)
- Robert S. Green (1861-1862)
- Edward Y. Rogers (1862-1866)
- William J. Magie (1866-1871)
- J. Augustus Fay, Jr. (1871-1881)
- William R. Wilson (1881-1891)
- Frederick C. Marsh (1891-1898)
- Nicholas C. J. English (1898-1908)
- C. Addison Swift (1908-1913)
- Alfred A. Stein (1913-1918)
- Walter L. Hetfield, Jr. (1918-1923)
- Abe J. David (1923-1942)
- John E. Barger (1942-1943)
- Francis A. Gordon (1943-1944)
- Donald H. McLean (1944-1946)
- Edward Cohn (1946-1953)
- H. Russell Morss, Jr. (1953-1958)
- H. Douglas Stine (1958-1964)
- Leo Kaplowitz (1964-1970)
- Karl Asch (1970-1975)
- Edward W. McGrath (1976-1977)
- John H. Stamler (1977-1990)
- Andrew K. Ruotolo, Jr. (1991-1995)
- Thomas Manahan (1997-2002)
- Theodore J. Romankow (2002-2013)
- Grace H. Park (2013-2017)
- Thomas K. Isenhour (2017)
- Ann M. Luvera (2018)
- Michael A. Monahan (2018-2019)
- Jennifer Davenport (2019)
- Lyndsay V. Ruotolo (2019-2021)
- William A. Daniel (2021-Present)
A businessman with extensive land holdings and an active supporter of the advancement of education in Central Jersey prior to becoming involved in public service, John J. Chetwood was named the first Union County Prosecutor shortly after the county’s establishment in March 1857. The former member of the Essex County Council and a former Essex County Surrogate, an Elizabeth resident, died in 1861.
Robert Stockton Green was appointed to serve as the second Union County Prosecutor on December 12, 1861. Formerly a Princeton City Council representative, Green had moved to Elizabeth in 1856 and became instrumental in promoting the legislation that formed Union County a year later.
Green served until he was elected Union County Surrogate the year after he was named Prosecutor. He later would go on to represent New Jersey as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and also serve as the 27th Governor of New Jersey from 1887 to 1890.
Edward Young Rogers was named the third Union County Prosecutor on February 6, 1862, and the longtime Rahway resident and attorney quickly developed a reputation for impassioned advocacy for upholding the law.
Rogers, also a deeply religious man who co-founded St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Rahway (today known as The Church of the Good Shepherd) served with distinction for four years.
William Jay Magie was appointed to serve as the fourth Union County Prosecutor on April 3, 1866. At the time, and for many decades thereafter, the position of Prosecutor was a part-time role, and Magie that same year formed the law firm Magie & Frost in nearby Somerville. He served with distinction for a single five-year term.
Magie later would go on to be named to the New Jersey Supreme Court bench in 1880 and in 1890 was named New Jersey Chancellor, making him head of the state’s court system.
Julius Augustus Fay, Jr. was commissioned to be the fifth Union County Prosecutor on April 4, 1871. The Civil War veteran previously had served as a private attorney in Elizabeth and, following a foray into politics, served as Inspector General of the state militia.
Fay served as Prosecutor with distinction for two terms and died in September 1891.
William R. Wilson was appointed to serve as the sixth Union County Prosecutor in 1881. His tenure was notable for his campaign against racetrack gambling in the area, with several local bookmakers and others convicted on charges of being the keepers of disorderly houses. The trials gave impetus to the movement that ultimately resulted in the repeal of laws permitting gambling on horseracing in New Jersey.
Wilson also won a landmark appeal of a judgment against the City of Elizabeth approving creditors’ confiscation of city-owned property such as firehouses and public schools due to the city’s default on municipal bonds. He served two five-year terms as Prosecutor and died in 1939 following 64 years of membership with the Union County Bar Association.
Frederick C. Marsh was appointed to serve as the seventh Union County Prosecutor on April 25, 1891. The Elizabeth native previously had served as Union County Attorney for three years.
Marsh also served in the New Jersey Assembly and the State Senate, serving concurrently as state senator and Union County Prosecutor from 1891 to 1893. In 1896 he became the third consecutive Union County Prosecutor to be reappointed for a second term.
Nicholas C. J. English was appointed to serve as the eighth Union County Prosecutor in 1898, after previously serving as counsel for the City of Elizabeth and the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company.
The native of Somerset County, where he maintained an 80-acre farm that had been in his family for five generations, served consecutive five-year terms as Prosecutor. In 1900 he also was elected as the first president of the then-newly formed Gateway Family YMCA chapter (today the YMCA of Eastern Union County).
Charles Addison Swift became the ninth Union County Prosecutor in 1908, having previously served as counsel for the City of Elizabeth, a member of the Elizabeth Board of Education, and a judge in Elizabeth District Court.
Swift served a single term in the Office where his career in public service began, having started as an Assistant Prosecutor under William Wilson in 1882.
Alfred A. Stein became the 10th Union County Prosecutor on February 13, 1913, having previously served as a member of the Elizabeth City Council and also as the city’s mayor from 1910 to 1912.
In 1917, while still in his first and only term, Stein convened about 20 local businessmen and professionals to a meeting at which the Rotary Club of Elizabeth was established. Following his service as Prosecutor Stein went on to serve as a judge in the state Court of Common Pleas, Chancery Court, and Superior Court.
Walter L. Hetfield, Jr., a native of Plainfield, was sworn in as the 11th Union County Prosecutor on March 11, 1918, marking his return to public service after five years in private practice – from 1908 to 1913, he had served as an Assistant Prosecutor under C. Addison Swift.
Hetfield’s lone five-year term as Prosecutor was marked by the successful prosecution of a Roselle Park political figure who had embezzled $30,000 from the borough, two men responsible for the brutal murder of a Perth Amboy couple in Rahway, and a three-man robbery crew known at the time as the “Trolley Car Bandits.” Hetfield was additionally known as serving as secretary on the first board of directors convened to manage the Plainfield Public Library.
Abe J. David, the 12th and longest-serving Prosecutor in Union County history, was appointed in 1923 and reappointed three times, in 1928, 1933, and 1938. As Prosecutor the Elizabeth native and former District Court judge supported the founding of a permanent grand jurors association, a police academy, and a state institution for sex offenders.
David’s tenure, which spanned three different decades, was marked by the successful prosecution of a Cranford man who killed his wife, the man who fatally shot a Bureau of Prohibition agent during a raid at the Rising Sun Brewery in Elizabeth, and a robbery crew responsible for the holdup of a United States Postal Service mail truck in which a postal worker was shot and killed in downtown Elizabeth. When the man convicted of the latter killing was later found to have been unjustly imprisoned due to a case of mistaken identity, David also was instrumental in securing his release.
John E. Barger was appointed acting Union County Prosecutor in November 1942, shortly after the death of former Prosecutor Abe J. David. Barger, the former magistrate in Clark, previously had served as a four-term mayor of Rahway and as a District Court judge.
Barger’s confirmation as Prosecutor was stalled for more than six months due to a dispute between Democratic Governor Charles Edison and State Sen. Herbert J. Pascoe, a Republican. In July 1943, however, Barger was called into military service, entering the U.S. Army as a captain and later participating in the Battle of Normandy and several subsequent engagements in France, Belgium, and Germany. He returned to his native New Jersey a war hero, having been awarded the Order of Leopold by the King of Belgium for saving 90 civilian lives during the Battle of the Bulge, and subsequently served with distinction as a judge during the 1950s and 1960s.
Francis A. Gordon was appointed acting Union County Prosecutor in July 1943, shortly after the previous acting Prosecutor, John E. Barger, left office to serve in the U.S. Army in the European Theatre of World War II. As was the case with his predecessor, Gordon was never confirmed as Prosecutor due to resistance from State Sen. Herbert J. Pascoe.
Gordon served as acting Prosecutor for approximately six months before being relieved of his responsibilities by New Jersey Attorney General Walter D. Van Riper. He then entered private practice, heading the law firm of Gordon, Mackenzie and Welt in Elizabeth, and upon his death in 1990 the Union County Bar Association passed a resolution hailing him as “perhaps the greatest jury lawyer produced in Union County and among the best in the state.”
Donald H. McLean was appointed as the 13th confirmed Union County Prosecutor in April 1944 and served dual roles until the end of that year, when he finished his sixth term as a member of the New Jersey delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives. The former private attorney, who prepared necessary legal documents when Hillside separated from Union Township to become an independent municipality in 1913, also previously had served as an Assistant Prosecutor under Walter L. Hetfield, Jr. from 1918 through 1923.
McLean served as Prosecutor until 1946, when Governor Walter E. Edge appointed him to the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals.
Edward Cohn was named the 14th Union County Prosecutor in 1946 following work in private law practice and a political career that included service as a secretary and legislative clerk for New Jersey State Sen. Herbert J. Pascoe. Cohn also served as First Assistant Prosecutor under Donald H. McLean during his time in office, from 1944 to 1946.
Cohn’s tenure was notable for the establishment of an informal police academy at which municipal detectives and police officers were instructed by members of the Prosecutor’s Office and Union County Sheriff’s Office on proper procedure when preparing a case for trial, taking statements and depositions, and presenting evidence to juries. Following his service as Prosecutor Cohn returned to private law practice in his native Elizabeth.
Russell Morss was appointed as the 15th Union County Prosecutor in 1953 following seven years of service as an Assistant Prosecutor. Like his predecessor, Edward Cohn, Morss also was active in local politics and previously had served as a secretary to State Sen. Herbert J. Pascoe.
As Prosecutor, Morss implemented policies prohibiting prosecutors from choosing which charges to pursue, requiring them to exercise diligence and to avoid overlooking even minor infractions. His tenure also was marked by the Office developing a new technique to aid in the prosecution of publishers of magazines then considered obscene; the technique involved obtaining indictments for conspiracy to violate obscenity laws, something that enabled authorities in New Jersey to reach across state lines to apprehend defendants. Arguably the most notable criminal case of his tenure was a manslaughter prosecution against representatives of a construction company for the deaths of three children in a water-filled excavation site in an area where the New Jersey Turnpike was under construction.
H. Douglas Stine became the 16th Union County Prosecutor in 1958, having previously earned a Bronze Star for his military service with the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.
Mr. Stine’s tenure as Prosecutor was marked by the investigation and prosecution of cases regarding narcotics trafficking and welfare, insurance, and election/campaign fraud, but he was arguably best known for his prosecution of the Parks-Maxey double-murder case in 1961. Mr. Stine was also a proponent of passing a state wiretapping bill to cut down on syndicate crime, and he served a term as the president of the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey.
A graduate of Princeton University and Rutgers Law School, Mr. Stine reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves while in office. Immediately before taking office, he served as New Jersey Deputy Attorney General.
After leaving office, Mr. Stine ran his own private practice in Plainfield for 30 years, from 1965 through 1995, at one point ascending to president of the New Jersey Bar Association.
Leo Kaplowitz became the 17th Union County Prosecutor in November 1964, having previously served as an Assistant Prosecutor under H. Douglas Stine and as counsel for Union County. Like his predecessor, Kaplowitz also was a U.S. Army veteran of World War II and a Bronze Star recipient for valor.
Kaplowitz’s tenure was notable for his introducing the concept that every municipality should have a public prosecutor to represent the state at municipal court hearings. Notable cases during Kaplowitz’s single term in office included the prosecution of those responsible for the murder of a police officer during the 1967 Plainfield Riots, investigations into organized crime involvement in union activities in the area, and extensive prosecutions of gambling and narcotics offenses.
The Prosecutor’s Office Law Library was posthumously named after Kaplowitz following his death in 1994, with then-Prosecutor Andrew K. Ruotolo crediting him for having “brought this office into modern times.”
Karl Asch was sworn into office as the 18th Union County Prosecutor in 1970, the same year Gov. William T. Cahill signed into law legislation creating sweeping changes to the ways law enforcement was structured statewide, including the changing of the County Prosecutor title from a part-time position to a full-time position.
As a result of those changes, during Asch’s tenure the Office’s staff and annual budget both tripled in size. A newly formed Municipal Corruption Unit opened investigations into the activities of several local public officials, including Union County Democratic Chairman James J. Kenneally, who was indicted on 16 counts of conspiracy to cheat the Rahway Water Department through kickbacks on vouchers. Asch also established the first county Narcotics Strike Force east of the Mississippi River, creating a model that would be duplicated in many other New Jersey counties, and opened the state’s first county-run forensics laboratory. Following the completion of a single term Asch formed a new private law firm through which he gained notoriety and experience as a trial attorney.
Edward McGrath was nominated to become the 19th Union County Prosecutor in April 1975. Upon acceptance of the nomination, McGrath, then a Superior Court judge, made it clear that he did not intend to serve a full five-year term but instead aimed to organize the fiscal affairs of the Prosecutor’s Office, to cut unnecessary costs, and to return to more traditional prosecutorial methods.
McGrath followed through on those plans, phasing out the Municipal Corruption Unit and replacing it with a restructured alternative. He also ordered all assistant prosecutors in the office to turn in their service weapons, which previously had given them full police powers, and reduced the Prosecutor’s Office complement of assistant prosecutors from 42 to 34. McGrath was appointed back to the Superior Court bench in October 1976, after which First Assistant Prosecutor Michael Evans served as Acting Prosecutor for a brief time before John H. Stamler took office the next year.
John H. Stamler was appointed by New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne and sworn in as the 20th Union County Prosecutor in 1977, having previously worked as a Union County Assistant Prosecutor from 1967 through 1975, including multi-year assignments as Director of the Office’s Organized Crime Unit and Executive Officer of the Office’s Narcotics Strike Force, the first such unit of its kind established anywhere east of the Mississippi River. He would go on to be reappointed to additional five-year terms as County Prosecutor by Governor Thomas Kean Sr. in 1982 and again 1988, making Stamler the longest-serving Union County Prosecutor since Abe J. David (1923-1942).
One of Prosecutor Stamler’s top priorities from the beginning of his tenure was emphasizing the need to maintain strong ties between the various municipal police departments and the Prosecutor’s Office, and to use those relationships to develop and manage comprehensive investigations into criminal enterprises of all kinds. Stamler also made it a priority to crack down on offenders victimizing children or the elderly, vowing that Assistant Prosecutors would not engage in extensive plea bargaining with defendants accused of such crimes.
Stamler was twice appointed to the New Jersey Governor’s Task Force on Child Abuse, first in 1974 by Governor Byrne and again in 1985 by Governor Kean. During the latter appointment, Stamler was selected to serve as Chairman of the Task Force’s Protection Subcommittee, and in that capacity he coordinated the necessary research and publication of a landmark text titled Child Abuse and Neglect: A Professional’s Guide to Identification, Reporting, Investigation, and Treatment.
Prosecutor Stamler also served on the New Jersey Drug Abuse Advisory Council on two separate occasions and worked as an adjunct professor at Kean University, teaching a class titled Role of the Prosecutor in the Criminal Justice System, and as an instructor at Union County College, teaching courses on criminal law and evidence. He later would go on to be elected a member of the College’s Board of Governors.
Stamler also held five executive positions within the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey from 1980 into 1990, including two stints as Association President, in 1983-1984 and 1989-1990. During his time in office he also testified before the New Jersey State Assembly, New Jersey State Senate, United States Senate, and numerous other panels and bodies on a range of issues, including organized crime, drug enforcement, victim/witness advocacy, and elder abuse prevention. He was named Citizen of the Year by the Memorial General Development Foundation in 1986.
He also established what were among New Jersey’s first arson investigation task forces and victim/witness units run out of county prosecutor’s offices, and he fortified his investigative and prosecutorial staffs to combat a rise in sex crimes. He also urged local businesses to join forces with the Union County Crime Stoppers, a newly established organization dedicated to rewarding tipsters offering information leading to arrests and indictments for serious crimes. One of the most notable prosecutions of Stamler’s tenure was that of a Roselle police officer who ultimately was convicted of the fatal poisoning of his wife.
A graduate of The Pingry School in Hillside, Stamler earned his bachelor’s degree at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. and received his law degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law. He was admitted to the New Jersey Bar, the New Jersey Supreme Court, and the U.S. District Court of New Jersey in 1965, and he was admitted to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1977.
Stamler died of cancer at his Scotch Plains home in March 1990 at the age of 51, two days after ground broke on a $5.1 million project to establish a permanent home for the Union County Police Academy, a cause he had championed for years. The Academy was renamed in Stamler’s honor when the facility held its grand opening in 1991.
Andrew K. Ruotolo, Jr. became the 21st Union County Prosecutor in 1991, having previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Newark and having worked as a partner in his own Mountainside-based law firm.
In his single term Ruotolo notably established the joint Essex/Union County Auto Theft Task Force, which required municipalities in both counties to commit personnel and resources to address a crime that had surged in frequency during the previous several years. He also launched the Prosecutor’s Office Domestic Violence Unit, established a youth academy to address the needs of first-time juvenile offenders, and created the Union County Child Advocacy Center, which since has become a national model for the care and support of underage victims of physical or sexual abuse.
Ruotolo died in office in September 1995 at the age of 42.
Thomas Manahan was sworn into office as the 22nd Union County Prosecutor on July 2, 1997, returning to the place where he started his career as an Assistant Prosecutor serving as deputy supervisor of the Major Crimes Unit and supervisor of the Special Enforcement Unit.
Manahan previously had left the Prosecutor’s Office to become staff counsel for the Chubb Group Insurance Company in New Providence and entered private practice as a partner in his own Mountainside-based law firm before returning to public service. As Prosecutor, he followed through on vows that combating drug crimes and continuing the quality-of-life initiatives launched by his predecessors, John H. Stamler and Andrew K. Ruotolo, would be some of his top priorities.
During Manahan’s term of service, the Prosecutor’s Office launched its High Tech Crime Unit to detect and prosecute crimes committed using electronic means, marking the creation of the first such department in a county prosecutor’s office in New Jersey. Manahan also launched the S.A.L.T. (Save A Life Today) Program, a community crime prevention initiative created to serve the needs of at-risk youths in Union County.
Additionally, Manahan directed the Prosecutor’s Office to create what became a nationally recognized countywide data collection policy to address concerns of profiling and mandated ethics training for all law-enforcement officers serving in Union County. He also championed the cause of drug crime prevention by expanding the Office’s Narcotics Strike Force and hosted numerous forums to educate members of the public about the crime of identity theft.
Today Manahan serves as a New Jersey Superior Court judge, sitting in the Appellate Division.
Romankow
Theodore J. Romankow was appointed as the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of Union County, New Jersey on July 26, 2002 and was responsible for overseeing 250 employees and a $19.5 million budget while coordinating the law enforcement efforts of approximately 2,000 police officers in 21 local police departments, the Sheriff’s Office, and the Union County Police Department. Prosecutor Romankow was nominated by Governor James E. McGreevey in 2002 and reappointed by Governor Jon Corzine to his second term as Prosecutor in January 2008.
Romankow served as President of the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey and chaired the Prosecutor’s Association Juvenile Justice Committee, served on the Drug Court Committee, the Child Life Protection Commission and the Coalition for the Prevention of Substance Abuse.
Romankow vowed to make mental health issues, drug interdiction, gang prevention and prosecution the centerpieces of his administration. The Prosecutor spearheaded more than 50 major narcotic investigations, which encompassed hundreds of court ordered wiretaps, car bugs, and global positioning systems authorized for electronic surveillance resulting in the confiscation of large amounts of illicit drugs packaged for distribution, the seizure of millions of dollars in cash and property, and the arrest and conviction of scores of mid to high level drug dealers. The New Jersey Narcotics Enforcement Officers Association awarded him the Prosecutor of the Year award in 2008. Prosecutor Romankow’s commitment to prosecuting med and high level drug networks resulted in 100% conviction rate and lengthy jail sentences of over 300 major drug distributors, which had previously been accomplished only by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies.
Romankow created the Union County Homicide Task Force. Officers from law enforcement agencies throughout the County were assigned to the Prosecutor’s Office. The solve rate for county homicides rose to more than 75 percent.
Romankow championed the Union County Mental Health Jail Diversion program, the first in New Jersey. Since it was established in 2006, the diversionary program recognized a significant number of defendants suffering from mental illness. Before its creation, there was no mechanism for referring a defedant with mental illness to treatment before a court disposition. In other words, the mentally ill accused of a crime would only receive help and support after a conviction. This frequently led to a higher rate of recidivism.
Recognizing the rise of children born statewide with autism, Prosecutor Romankow created a comprehensive training program for officers to help them recognize signs of autism and bring potentially harmful situations to a calm resolution.
Prosecutor Romankow created a Gang Task Force and Gang Intelligence Unit charged with investigating gang-related crimes and prosecuting these various felons. A gang member pictorial dictionary was created and provide to every municipality within Union County, along with state and federal law enforcement agencies.
Romankow was a frequent lecturer on the topic of Drug Interdiction, Gang Violence, and Human Trafficking. He testified before the New Jersey Assembly and Senate Judiciary Committees on the plight of women and children forced into servitude. He helped draft the New Jersey Human Trafficking Law.
Romankow was the driving force for new program designs, public grant writing, and construction of a new state-of-the-art 11,000 square-foot Child Advocacy Center, dedicated on October 3, 2012. The Center houses a full-time staff, including investigators from the Prosecutor’s Office, mental health, and nursing staff. The Center received national recognition as one of the best family assistance programs in the United States.
Romankow was instrumental in bringing in Union County’s forensic laboratory into modern age by creating the Forensic Biology and Controlled Substances Sections, which offered forensic science service delivery for criminal investigations including DNA analysis. The DNA lab is nationally accredited ensuring continued commitment to high quality forensic science service delivery.
Prosecutor Romankow graduated from Seton Hall University and the Rutgers School of Law (Newark, New Jersey) and was admitted to the State of New Jersey Bar and the Bar of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. He was admitted to the United States Supreme Court in 2006.
Prior to his appointment as Prosecutor, Romanow was a partner in a private law firm where he was well known for his extensive civil criminal litigation expertise. He served as Chairman of the Union County Ethics Committee and was a member of the Judicial Appointments Committee.
He and his wife, Daria, are the parents of three children; Donna, Jonathan, and David, as well as seven grandchildren.
Grace H. Park was sworn in as Acting Prosecutor of Union County on June 17, 2013. As the chief law enforcement officer in Union County, Ms. Park oversaw an office of 250 employees and an approximately $22 million annual budget, coordinating the law enforcement efforts of approximately 1,600 police officers in 21 local police departments, the Union County Sheriff’s Office, and the Union County Police Department. She was the first Asian-American county prosecutor in New Jersey history, and also the first female and the first minority to serve as prosecutor in Union County’s 160-year history.
During her first year in office, Ms. Park introduced a number of special initiatives intended to improve the outcomes of specific investigations. Among these were a set of protocols put into place in order to increase the Prosecutor’s Office’s involvement in non-fatal shooting investigations and a sweeping set of changes that streamlined and enhanced the operations of the Office’s Domestic Violence Unit.
In addition, under Park’s leadership the Prosecutor’s Office forged new cooperative relationships with the YWCA Union County and the Office of the Union County Executive Schools Superintendent and its affiliated public school districts. In both cases these agreements resulted in the joint hosting of two new annual events: the Union County C.A.R.E.S. (Community, Awareness, Response, Education, Safety) Domestic Violence Symposium and the Union County Prosecutor’s Office Forum for School Administrators.
Additionally, as part of an overarching emphasis on community outreach and interaction, Ms. Park and several other members of the Prosecutor’s Office routinely began taking part in public forums intended to raise awareness of, and promote advocacy for, the prevention of heroin and prescription opioid abuse across Union County.
In 2015, the Prosecutor’s Office also launched New Jersey’s most comprehensive county-funded, multi-department rollout of body-worn video cameras to date, which ultimately has resulted in officers with 16 of Union County’s 21 municipalities being outfitted with the devices as part of their uniforms. And in 2016 and 2017, at the direction of Prosecutor Park, Union County became the most populous county in New Jersey to mandate that all of its officers undergo Fair and Impartial Policing anti-bias training.
Prior to her appointment as Acting Prosecutor, Ms. Park had spent seven years as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey, prosecuting cases involving terrorism, narcotics, violent crime, healthcare and government fraud, and economic crimes. Her prior prosecutions include complex investigations of public and private companies as well as of individual defendants. More recently, Ms. Park managed civil litigations for the pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer Inc. as Senior Corporate Counsel. In addition, Ms. Park was a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLC in New York City. She also clerked for the Senior United States District Judge William H. Walls, sitting in Newark, New Jersey.
Ms. Park is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard Law School. She is admitted to the bars of the State of New Jersey, State of New York, the Federal District Court of New Jersey, Southern District of New York, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Thomas K. Isenhour was sworn in as Acting Prosecutor of Union County on September 13, 2017.
A career prosecutor, having joined the Union County Prosecutor’s Office in 1984, Mr. Isenhour previously served as First Assistant Prosecutor under former acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park. Prior to this, Mr. Isenhour supervised many of the Office’s most high-profile investigative teams, including the Child Abuse Unit, Special Prosecutions Unit, and the Guns, Gangs, Drugs, and Violent Crimes Task Force.
As First Assistant, Mr. Isenhour was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Prosecutor’s Office, including managing its finances and supervising its staff. He also advised the County Prosecutor on high-profile cases, initiatives, and personnel matters.
Mr. Isenhour’s responsibilities as First Assistant further included drafting Office policies, protocols, and directives; recruiting and hiring staff; overseeing internal affairs and personnel matters; supervising the John H. Stamler Police Academy in Scotch Plains and the Prosecutor’s Office’s Forensics Laboratory in Westfield; and helping implement key initiatives such as the implementation of bail reform, the launch of the Prosecutor’s Office’s Body-Worn Camera Initiative, and the founding of the Union County Family Justice Center.
Several cases of note Mr. Isenhour has managed during his more than 30 years of service to the Prosecutor’s Office include the investigation and prosecution of a dozen Union County corrections officers for assaulting numerous detainees; attaining convictions of the four leading members of the notorious Fitzgerald narcotics organization, one of the largest of its kind in the state, which was responsible for distributing approximately 4,500 folds of heroin and 1,500 vials of cocaine per day from its primary retail location in Elizabeth; and the investigation and prosecution for manslaughter of the owner of the El Balcon nightclub in Elizabeth after four young victims, ages 13 to 21, were trampled to death in a stampede following a brawl there.
Mr. Isenhour is a graduate of George Washington University’s National Law Center, and he earned his Juris Doctor and bachelor’s degree in history and psychology from the University of Denver.
Ann M. Luvera was sworn in as Acting Prosecutor of Union County on December 31, 2017. As the chief law enforcement officer in Union County, Ms. Luvera oversaw an office of 250 employees and an approximately $23.5 million budget, coordinating the law enforcement efforts of approximately 1,600 police officers in 21 local police departments, the Union County Sheriff’s Office, and the Union County Police Department.
A career prosecutor, having joined the Union County Prosecutor’s Office in 1990, Ms. Luvera previously served as First Assistant Prosecutor under former acting Prosecutor Thomas K. Isenhour, who retired at the end of 2017 following more than three decades of service with the Office. Prior to that, Ms. Luvera served as Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor under former acting Prosecutor Grace H. Park, who served in that capacity from June 2013 to September 2017.
In those roles, Ms. Luvera was responsible for supervising many of the Office’s largest and most active units, including the Homicide Task Force, Special Victims Unit, Special Prosecutions Unit, and Domestic Violence Unit. In addition, she oversaw civil litigation involving the Prosecutor’s Office and its current and former employees.
For the decade prior to her appointment as Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor, Ms. Luvera’s work in the Office included nearly continual trial work, through which she has represented victims of various crimes and their families in a wide variety of prosecutions. She also managed some of the Office’s most high-profile cases, including most recently that of federal terror suspect Ahmad K. Rahami, who has been charged with five counts of attempted murder in connection with a police-involved shooting in Linden.
Ms. Luvera also has served as the Office’s Trial Supervisor, and in this capacity she was responsible for overseeing the Office’s Trial Teams, Pre-Disposition Conference Unit, Mental Health Unit, Drug Court Unit, Grand Jury Unit, Juvenile Unit, Appellate Unit, and Domestic Violence Unit. These responsibilities included the supervision of more than 35 attorneys handling hundreds of cases annually.
From 2005 until 2010, when she was appointed Trial Supervisor, Ms. Luvera served as Supervisor of the Office’s Homicide Task Force, through which she oversaw the investigation and prosecution of hundreds of homicide cases, including motor vehicle fatalities.
From 1999-2005, Ms. Luvera served in the Union County Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Prosecutions Unit, first as an Assistant Prosecutor and later as Supervisor. In this capacity she worked and oversaw the investigation and prosecution of various crimes, including large-scale thefts, official misconduct, computer crimes, arsons, and welfare and insurance fraud.
Prior to 1999, Ms. Luvera served as an Assistant Prosecutor with the Office’s Trial Teams, Juvenile Unit, Domestic Violence Unit, and Appellate Unit. During that time she prosecuted more than 50 jury trials and 30 bench trials.
Ms. Luvera was admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 1987 and became a Certified Criminal Trial Attorney in 1996. She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1983 and a Juris Doctor degree from the Boston University School of Law in 1987. She also has received appointments to the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Board on Attorney Certification and Board on Continuing Legal Education.
Michael A. Monahan was sworn in as Acting Prosecutor of Union County on January 31, 2018. As the chief law enforcement officer in Union County, Mr. Monahan oversaw an office of 250 employees and an approximately $23.5 million budget, coordinating the law enforcement efforts of approximately 1,600 police officers in 21 local police departments, the Union County Sheriff’s Office, and the Union County Police Department.
Mr. Monahan previously worked for the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Justice, having served as Chief of the Division’s Financial and Computer Crimes Bureau from November 2013 until his appointment. In that role, he managed the daily operations of the Bureau and supervised a staff of more than 70, handling an annual caseload of approximately 700.
Prior to this, Mr. Monahan was Deputy Chief of the Division’s Corruption Bureau, where he also had previously served as a Deputy Attorney General. From 2002 into 2007, Mr. Monahan served as Assistant Section Chief with the New Jersey Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, whereby he also supervised the Office’s Auto Fraud Section.
Mr. Monahan worked in private law practice during the late 1990s, and he served as an Assistant Prosecutor with the Union County Prosecutor’s Office from 1991 into 1998. During that time he handled approximately 50 adult jury trials for crimes including attempted murder, robbery, aggravated assault, embezzlement, and others.
Mr. Monahan was admitted to the New Jersey Bar Association in 1988 and has been a Certified Criminal Trial Attorney since 1997. He received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Seton Hall University in South Orange in 1984 and earned a Juris Doctor from Seton Hall School of Law in Newark in 1988, having served as a member of the Seton Hall Law Review.
Mr. Monahan lives in Cranford with his wife, Wanda, and their four sons.
Jennifer Davenport is the First Assistant Attorney General and was acting Union County Prosecutor for several months in 2019. Before joining of the Office of the Attorney General, she worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), where she served as Division Counsel to the Newark Field Office. Prior to that, Jen spent seven years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, where she served as Chief of the General Crimes Unit
Previously, Jen worked as a litigation associate in the Newark offices of Latham & Watkins and Patton Boggs and clerked for Chief Judge John Bissell of the U.S. District Court in Trenton. She graduated from DeSales University and Seton Hall University School of Law.
Before and during law school, Jen worked as an intelligence analyst at the DEA.
Lyndsay V. Ruotolo was sworn in as acting Union County Prosecutor on July 18, 2019.
Before her appointment as acting Prosecutor, Ruotolo had joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) in September 2018, where she participated in the USAO’s Violent Crime Initiative and handled criminal investigations and prosecutions.
Prior to this, Ruotolo was an Assistant Prosecutor and Special Deputy Attorney General in the Union County Prosecutor’s Office (UCPO) for nearly five years. During her previous tenure at UCPO, Ruotolo was one of four attorneys assigned to the Guns, Gangs, Drugs, and Violent Crimes Task Force (today rebranded as the Narcotics Strike Force). She also spearheaded Union County’s first Operation Helping Hand, a coordinated effort by law enforcement and service providers to provide addiction intervention for those struggling with substance abuse.
As an Assistant U. S. Attorney, Ruotolo had been assigned to the Violent Crimes Enforcement Unit, conducting long-term investigations and coordinating the efforts of law enforcement officers from various federal and local agencies to identify and proactively prosecute those responsible for the commission of violent crimes in and around the City of Newark. In addition, she managed a caseload of prosecutions, as well as other active investigations into crimes such as carjacking, drug distribution, robbery, and weapons offenses.
Prior to becoming a prosecutor, Ruotolo, a certified trial attorney, was an associate at the law firm of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP, from September 2010 through January 2014. Ruotolo received her bachelor’s degree from New York University, with honors, and received her law degree with honors from New York Law School. She also previously clerked for the Honorable Ellen L. Koblitz, Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.
William A. Daniel is the Union County Prosecutor, having been sworn into office on July 14, 2021. As Prosecutor he not only serves as the County’s chief law enforcement officer, but also as the leader of the Prosecutor’s Office. With a staff of over 250 assistant prosecutors, investigators, forensic scientists, forensic nurses, police training experts, victim witness advocates, and civilian team-members, the Prosecutor’s Office is Union County’s largest law office and one of the County’s largest police agencies.
Before his appointment Prosecutor Daniel served as a New Jersey Superior Court Judge for 18 years, during which time he was honored to sit in the Family, Civil, and Criminal Parts of the Law Division.
Prior to joining the Superior Court Prosecutor Daniel served as Presiding Judge of the Municipal Court in the City of Linden from 1994 to 2003, and in the Borough of Roselle from 1997 to 2003. Prior to that, he served as the Municipal Prosecutor for Linden from 1986 to 1993.
The Prosecutor’s current appointment marks his return to the Union County Prosecutor’s Office, having served in the office as an Assistant Prosecutor from 1983 to 1986 and as a Criminal Investigator from 1978 to 1982. Before joining the office Prosecutor Daniel worked as a Customs Patrol Officer with the U.S. Customs Service in New York, during which time he graduated with honors from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia.
Prosecutor Daniel is a graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Seton Hall University School of Law. He clerked for the Honorable Harvey Halberstadter, Civil Assignment Judge in Union County Superior Court during 1982-1983. The Prosecutor has been a member of the New Jersey and Union County Bar Associations since 1983, including a term as President for the latter group in 1999.
William Daniel is a lifelong resident of the City of Linden where he lives with his wife, Patricia.