Somerset County Prosecutor Michael Robertson quietly resigns. What's next?
SOMERVILLE – Somerset County Prosecutor Michael H. Robertson, the county's top appointed law enforcement official since 2016, has resigned to become a partner in a prominent Essex County law firm.
Robertson's last day as prosecutor was Friday, according to a prosecutor’s office spokesperson.
Robertson, whose five-year term as prosecutor expires this year, has joined O'Toole Scrivo as a partner, the Cedar Grove law firm announced. Somerset County First Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Chiricella is expected to serve as acting prosecutor until Gov. Phil Murphy nominates a permanent successor, who must be confirmed by the state Senate.
Robertson, a Bernards resident, was nominated in 2016 by then Gov. Chris Christie, who did not nominate Geoffrey Soriano, now executive director of the Somerset County Park Commission, to a second term as prosecutor.
With Murphy's reelection, the retirement of veteran Republican state Sen. Kip Bateman and the election of Democratic state Sen. Andrew Zwicker, it's expected that a Democrat will be nominated to fill the vacancy.
Robertson was formally sworn into the five-year term in February 2017 after the state Senate confirmed him.
Before coming to the prosecutor's office, Robertson was an assistant U.S. Attorney where he worked with Christie before he was elected governor. Robertson previously had served as an assistant prosecutor in Essex County.
O'Toole Scrivo is headed by Kevin J. O’Toole, a former Republican assemblyman and state senator now serving as chairman of the Port Authority's board, and Thomas P. Scrivo, former chief counsel to Christie and former chairman of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.
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Soriano had come under fire because of the prosecutor's office conclusion that former state Transportation Commissioner John Sheridan fatally stabbed his wife Joyce at their Montgomery home in 2014 and then took his own life.
But Sheridan's family has questioned that conclusion, and last week Mark Sheridan, one of the couple's four sons, sent a letter to county and state authorities asking for the case to be reopened.
Because the knife used to kill his mother was never found, Sheridan asked authorities in the letter to investigate a possible connection with a kitchen knife seized in another murder case with mysterious circumstances, the 2014 murder-for-hire plot that led to the death of Michael Galdieri in Jersey City.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Somerset County Prosecutor Michael Robertson quietly resigns
