Green: If Gov. Christie is Sincere about Expungement, he would Work with the Assembly

Law to reform NJ’s expungement laws was spearheaded by Assembly Democrats

            (TRENTON) – Speaker Pro Tempore Jerry Green (D-Middlesex/Somerset/Union) issued the following statement on Friday chastising the governor for excluding the Assembly as he works on expungement legislation, when it was the Assembly that spearheaded the issue and initiated the law to reform the state’s expungement laws. Sponsored by the Green, the law (A-206-471-1663-2879-3060-3108) reduced the statutory waiting period for an expungement of a criminal conviction.

“It took years to finally get the governor to support this issue.

“We worked on the bill, sent it to him, adhered to the recommendations in his conditional veto for the sake of those who we were trying to help, and got the bill signed into law.

“For the governor to now ignore the Assembly as he focuses on expungement is a slap in the face.

“He had the opportunity to add to the bill back then, but he didn’t.

“Instead, he’s reached out to the Senate to help craft legislation, even though we already have something in the books. I would be happy to work with him if he wanted to strengthen the law. I would’ve been happy to do it last year, when we sent the measure to his desk for final approval.

“But to ignore the Assembly leadership, as if we have not been working on this before he thought it was a good idea, is disrespectful, and makes me question his sincerity about who he’s really trying to help.”