The history of New Jersey’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability

Created to restore trust, the office is now being dismantled.

The Office of Public Integrity and Accountability was created to restore New Jerseyans’ faith in government and the criminal justice system.

Eight years later, the office is being disbanded.

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office is eliminating OPIA as a separate office and moving its responsibilities into a restructured Division of Criminal Justice. The change takes effect Tuesday, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

The reorganization comes after years of criticism over high-profile prosecutions that ended in dismissals, reversals or findings of prosecutorial error. But OPIA also investigated more than 1,000 cases, handled more than 115 fatal police-encounter investigations, reviewed more than 225 additional nonfatal cases and obtained more than 150 successful dispositions in charged public-corruption cases, according to the Attorney General’s TRUST Commission report.

The office leaves behind a complicated record. It was created as an independent-minded watchdog, expanded into a broad police-accountability and criminal-justice office, and then became the subject of many of the same questions about transparency, accountability and public trust that it was established to address.

What OPIA was created to do

Former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal created OPIA in September 2018 during Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration. It was established within the Attorney General’s Office but placed outside the normal reporting chain of the Division of Criminal Justice, reporting directly to the attorney general.

The structure was intended to give sensitive investigations greater independence. The OPIA was created to investigate and prosecute criminal abuses of public trust and other matters that could undermine confidence in government or the justice system.

Its original responsibilities included:

• Public corruption and official misconduct.
• Sensitive cases involving state, local, or federal officials.
• Civil-rights violations by law-enforcement officers.
• Internal-affairs investigations.
• Claims of wrongful convictions.

Grewal appointed Thomas J. Eicher, a longtime federal prosecutor, as OPIA’s first director. Eicher had spent more than 30 years as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including eight years as chief of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey.

The office also created a statewide corruption tip line and an anti-corruption reward program offering up to $25,000 for information leading to a corruption conviction.

How OPIA expanded

The OPIA’s mission grew significantly after its creation.

In January 2019, the Legislature passed a law requiring the Attorney General’s Office to investigate deaths that occur during encounters with law-enforcement officers or while someone is in police custody. The law requires the attorney general to take over those investigations from county prosecutors.

In December 2019, Grewal issued the Independent Prosecutor Directive, establishing procedures for investigating police-use-of-force incidents and deaths in custody. The OPIA became responsible for investigating fatal police encounters and presenting cases to state grand juries when appropriate. It also supervised investigations of nonfatal police use of force.

In spring 2019, the Attorney General’s Office also launched a statewide Conviction Review Unit and Cold Case Network with support from the OPIA. The Conviction Review Unit reviews claims of wrongful convictions, while the Cold Case Network helps coordinate investigations of unsolved crimes.

By the time the OPIA was dismantled, its work included:

• Public-corruption and election-related crime investigations and prosecutions.
• Fatal police-encounter investigations and prosecutions.
• Reviews of potential wrongful convictions.
• Cold-case investigations.
• Sensitive police internal-affairs and disciplinary investigations.
• Reviews of nonfatal police-use-of-force incidents.

The OPIA by the numbers

The TRUST Commission provided the most detailed public accounting of OPIA’s workload.

• 2018: Year OPIA was created.
• More than 1,000: Investigations opened since its creation.
• More than 500: Public tips received each year, on average.
• More than 150: Successful dispositions in charged public-corruption cases.
• More than 55: Successful corruption-case dispositions since 2022.
• More than 115: Fatal police-encounter investigations handled since 2019.
• More than 225: Additional nonfatal investigations reviewed.
• More than 900: Internal-affairs referrals received in 2024.
• More than 600: Conviction-review applications received and being processed.
• Fewer than 100: OPIA employees, including lawyers, detectives and administrative staff.
• More than 130: Active matters in the Corruption Bureau.
• 12: Line prosecutors in the Corruption Bureau.

The commission said the OPIA’s budget remained unchanged from fiscal years 2021 through 2025 and received only a minor increase in fiscal year 2026. Its Fatal Police Encounters Unit handled the equivalent of approximately 20 homicide investigations each year.

The commission said the OPIA frequently handled complex cases involving large amounts of data and documents while facing defendants represented by well-funded defense attorneys.

The OPIA’s record of prosecutions

Former Attorney General Matthew Platkin defended OPIA’s record by pointing to successful prosecutions involving bribery, official misconduct, election offenses, public contracting and the misuse of government resources.

In one case, the OPIA investigated a Middlesex Borough Democratic campaign treasurer accused of using campaign and charitable accounts to steal approximately $190,000. He was ordered to pay restitution and permanently barred from public office and employment in New Jersey.

In another investigation, the OPIA charged five current and former public officials and political candidates in a bribery case involving officials from Hudson and Morris counties.

The office also prosecuted cases involving police misconduct, election offenses and the misuse of government resources.

The TRUST Commission described OPIA as having made significant progress during its first seven years and said its work had shown “remarkable success.”

The cases that raised questions

The OPIA’s critics have pointed to several cases in which judges dismissed indictments, ordered new trials or found that prosecutors failed to disclose evidence favorable to defendants.

Saddle Brook police chief

In 2022, a judge dismissed the indictment against Saddle Brook Police Chief Robert Kugler, finding that he had not violated the law by allowing police escorts for funeral processions involving a funeral home he owned. The case was filed while Kugler was running for Bergen County sheriff.

The judge also found that the OPIA prosecutor had failed to present key information that could have benefited Kugler to the grand jury.

Corrections officer

A judge dismissed the indictment against corrections officer Ruben Morales after the Attorney General’s Office acknowledged errors in the interrogation.

Rabbi Osher Eisemann

The OPIA’s prosecution of Rabbi Osher Eisemann, who founded a school for children with special needs, also drew criticism. After nearly a decade of litigation and a retrial, a judge dismissed the indictment in July 2024. The defense had argued that prosecutors failed to disclose evidence favorable to Eisemann.

Edna Mahan Correctional Facility

The OPIA prosecuted corrections officers and prison staff accused of participating in violent cell “extractions” at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women.

A judge later dismissed the indictments against 14 defendants, finding constitutional deficiencies in the charging documents as well as delays of more than four years violated the defendants’ rights to a speedy trial.

George Norcross

The OPIA’s most politically prominent case was the 2024 indictment of South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross and five co-defendants. Prosecutors accused Norcross and the others of using political influence and government power to obtain tax benefits and property rights in Camden.

A Superior Court judge dismissed the indictment, ruling that the factual allegations did not constitute extortion or criminal coercion as a matter of law and that the charges were barred by the statute of limitations. The Appellate Division upheld the dismissal, concluding that the indictment failed to allege legally sufficient extortion, criminal coercion, and racketeering offenses.

Attorney General Jennifer Davenport later decided not to ask the state Supreme Court to review the case, saying prosecutorial resources would be better directed elsewhere.

The case prompted criticism from lawmakers in both parties. Senate President Nicholas Scutari called for an independent monitor for OPIA in 2025, saying the office needed greater oversight and accountability.

Questions about transparency and independence

A 2026 analysis by Rutgers researchers Elizabeth Griffiths and Heather L. Scheuerman raised broader questions about the OPIA’s structure.

The researchers noted that OPIA did not publish comprehensive data on all of its investigations and prosecutions. Without that information, it is difficult to evaluate the office’s overall conviction rate, backlog, case outcomes, or the length of its investigations, they said.

They also said the OPIA had faced criticism over lengthy investigations that sometimes exceeded the attorney general’s own guideline for misconduct probes.

The Rutgers analysis identified criticisms that the OPIA had:

• Withheld exculpatory evidence.
• Mishandled a political-corruption case.
• Failed to adequately explain the elements of alleged crimes.
• Filed indictments that courts found legally deficient.
• Failed to record interrogations as required by state law.

The researchers also said they could not identify a publicly reported case in which the OPIA charged a state or local prosecutor with misconduct. The analysis was a policy study, not a government audit or court ruling. Its conclusions were based on the researchers’ review of public reporting and available records.

OPIA leadership

The OPIA had three executive directors during its eight-year existence.

• Thomas J. Eicher — September 2018 to April 2024
  • Founding director.
  • Former federal prosecutor.
  • Oversaw the office’s creation and its expansion into fatal police-encounter investigations, conviction review, and police-accountability work.
  • Retired after more than five years.
• Drew Skinner — May 2024 to September 2025
  • Previously served as senior counsel to Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
  • Worked earlier for nearly nine years as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.
  • Served as co-chief of the Southern District’s Violent and Organized Crime Unit.
  • Left OPIA for another career opportunity.
• Eric L. Gibson — Sept. 19, 2025, until the office was dismantled
  • Previously co-directed OPIA’s Corruption Bureau.
  • Spent nearly two decades as a federal prosecutor.
  • Handled public-corruption, election-crime, racketeering, fraud, money-laundering, and civil-rights cases.
  • Also oversaw OPIA’s Fatal Police Encounters Unit, Conviction Review and Cold Case Unit, and Special Investigations Bureau.
  • Had led OPIA for less than a year when the reorganization was announced.

The TRUST Commission

Attorney General Matthew Platkin established the TRUST Commission in January 2025. TRUST stands for Transparency and Reliability Uniting to Secure Trust.

The commission was created to recommend ways to reduce corruption, increase transparency, and improve public confidence in the Department of Law and Public Safety.

The 11 members were:

• Matthew J. Platkin, New Jersey attorney general and commission chair.
• Susan Altman, state director for U.S. Sen. Andy Kim.
• Charles F. Boyer, pastor of Greater Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in Trenton and co-founder of Salvation and Social Justice.
• Ronald K. Chen, Rutgers law professor and former dean and co-dean of Rutgers Law School.
• John J. Farmer Jr., Rutgers professor, former New Jersey attorney general and former dean of Rutgers Law School.
• Paul J. Fishman, partner at Arnold & Porter and former U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.
• Virginia A. Long, retired New Jersey Supreme Court justice.
• Edward M. Neafsey, former first assistant attorney general, retired Superior Court judge and Rutgers Law School adjunct professor.
• Hetty Rosenstein, former New Jersey state director for the Communications Workers of America.
• Edwin H. Stier, former assistant U.S. attorney and former director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice.
• Debbie Walsh, director of Rutgers’ Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics.

The commissioners met with Platkin and his leadership team, heard from the Office of the State Comptroller and held public listening sessions in Burlington and Essex counties. About 50 members of the public participated.

What the TRUST Commission recommended

The commission recommended:

• Creating an inspector general’s office within the Department of Law and Public Safety.
• Giving the inspector general authority to conduct civil investigations, issue subpoenas, and compel documents and testimony.
• Allowing the inspector general to investigate noncriminal fraud, abuse, conflicts of interest, unethical conduct, and prosecutorial misconduct.
• Creating a compliance unit within the department.
• Improving the process for submitting complaints and referrals.
• Making the corruption tip portal easier to find and use.
• Publishing statistics showing how many tips led to charges or convictions.
• Increasing the OPIA’s funding and staffing.
• Considering whether the OPIA and the Division of Criminal Justice should be reunited.
• Adding a community-engagement specialist to work with families, police agencies, and county prosecutors after fatal police encounters.
• Creating a New Jersey law similar to the federal law that makes it a crime to knowingly lie to a government official.

The commission did not recommend eliminating the OPIA’s independence without safeguards. It said that any reunification with the Division of Criminal Justice should preserve separate chains of command, confidentiality protections, and adequate resources for sensitive investigations.

What’s next

The OPIA will no longer exist as a separate office. According to the Attorney General’s Office, the reorganization is intended to allow the state to share information, expertise and resources more efficiently across criminal-prosecution units.

Under the new structure:

• The Division of Criminal Justice will have six deputy directors overseeing multiple units.
• Rebecca Schuman, who directed the OPIA’s corruption arm, will oversee the corruption unit.
• Andrew Wellbrock, who has worked in the Attorney General’s Office since 2021, will oversee fatal police-encounter investigations.

The reorganization is consistent with one option raised by the TRUST Commission, which said the OPIA’s work often overlapped with the Division of Criminal Justice and that the benefits of reunification should be considered.

But the commission also warned that any new structure would need to protect the independence and confidentiality of sensitive investigations.