Statement by William O. Wagstaff III, Attorney for Family of Maurice Gordon Jr.

Dear Senator Linda R. Greenstein and Distinguished Members of the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee:

As you convene for this all-important hearing, it’s been 52 days since 28-year-old Maurice Gordon, an unarmed Black man, was shot and killed by a White New Jersey State Trooper after he was stopped along the Garden State Parkway. It’s been 52 days since Mr. Gordon’s family has waited for answers about how a mere traffic stop ripped him away from their lives. It’s been 52 days, and justice still has not been met.

Mr. Gordon Jr. was the son of Maurice Gordon Sr. and  Raquel Barrett and loved by his entire family. Before his life was tragically cut short, he studied chemistry at Dutchess Community College in New York and worked as an Uber driver.

The Attorney General’s Office has repeatedly shown that it’s incapable of investigating Maurice’s killing impartially, and without this, it’s inconceivable to expect accountability. The  Attorney General’s 2019 Independent Prosecutor Directive has a glaringly apparent blind spot; it removes the prosecution of all police-involved killings from the ambit of local prosecutors pronouncing transparency as the goal, but still allows the state’s police to be investigated and prosecuted by the state’s attorney. It can’t be underscored enough that this process is a sheer conflict of interest, resulting in this policy that purports to ensure impartiality to be mere artifice when applied to New Jersey State Troopers.

Given this dynamic, it’s not surprising that this process has been botched from the beginning, including how Mr. Gordon’s family learned about the release of the dashcam footage chronicling his final moments. That it was released to the public on YouTube of all places shows the Attorney General’s Office’s callousness.

The Attorney General’s Office has made unreasonable requests of the family, while denying basic requests from my office.

We implore the New Jersey Attorney General to appoint an independent prosecutor to present the case to the grand jury. This is the only way Maurice Gordon’s family can rest comfortably knowing every reasonable avenue towards justice was explored.