Police chief wants prosecutor off his case
Bound Brook's Henderson cites hostile relationship with Forrest

Tuesday, October 24, 2006
BY JEANETTE RUNDQUIST
Star-Ledger Staff

Suspended Bound Brook Police Chief Kenneth Henderson is seeking to have Somerset County Prosecutor
Wayne Forrest's office thrown off his case, charging For rest had an "antagonistic" relation ship with him that
began when the two clashed over the conduct of narcotics investigations.

Henderson, who was indicted on charges of official misconduct in February 2005, said Forrest became "furious"
when Henderson in 2003 created a subcommittee of police chiefs to investigate drug-related crimes -- although
Forrest was already overseeing a countywide narcotics task force.

Henderson also alleged, in the motion filed in Superior Court last week, the prosecutor's office brought official
misconduct charges against him even though their own investigative efforts showed allegations made against
him were false.

Henderson, who was arrested in October 2004, filed a motion asking the prosecutor's office be disqualified from
prosecuting the case, or the New Jersey Attorney General's Office supersede Forrest's office.

Among other things, the 45-page legal brief charged the suspended chief and Forrest had an antagonistic
relationship after the two squabbled over turf war issues such as the drug task force, and that the prosecutor
was angered when the chief opposed a proposed police department merger that Forrest was seeking.

The chief also said he became a victim of politics in Bound Brook, charging Mayor Frank Ryan sought to
"undermine" him and asked Forrest's office to conduct an audit of his department.

"We submit that the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office's role in this and prosecution presents a disqualifying
conflict and, at a minimum, a disqualifying appearance of impropriety and/or partiality," said the brief filed by
defense attorney David Fassett.

Forrest's office opposes the motion, however, calling Henderson's motion a "lurid -- yet fictional -- tale of political
intrigue in Bound Brook and elsewhere," and arguing the suspended chief "failed to present competent
evidence" to the judge.

The prosecutor's brief charged Henderson had already presented "the same false allegations of malicious
prosecution they are now presenting," and the Attorney General's Office in March 2005 notified the chief his
request to supersede Forrest is not warranted.

"The defendant is asking your honor to issue the order upon wild, unsupported hearsay presented in a legal
brief from counsel," read the brief submitted by Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Murphy.
"The brief is filled with charges, allegations and unsupported speculation. The fundamental defect in the motion
is the omission of cognizable facts to support the request for relief," the brief said. "The allegations in
defendant's brief are specifically denied by the state."

The motion is expected to be argued in state Superior Court in Somerville on Thursday.

Henderson is accused of double-dipping overtime shifts; of pocketing cash donated to buy coffee for his
officers; and of allegedly tipping off a Bound Brook restaurant owner that his establishment, the Cafe Imperial,
was about to be raided by state liquor control authorities. The 17-count indictment even charges that he pulled
a patrolman off the road to decorate his house for Christmas.

Jeanette Rundquist works in the Somerset County Bureau. She may be reached at (908) 429-9925 or jrund
quist@starledger.com.