Monica Montoya doesn't have much reason to trust law enforcement agencies -- yet that is precisely what she has been asked to do. Again.

Montoya is the 25-year-old Elizabeth resident who, after helping an accident victim and the police in Roselle Park, was knocked to the ground and arrested because she was anxious about her own young daughter's welfare.

The woman, who bore the bruises from her June 20 encounter with the police for months, was charged with obstruction and resisting arrest and now faces jail. Some reward for her good deeds.

The prosecution of the case against her was taken away from Roselle Park and transferred to the Union County Prosecutor's Office. That's good.

But the investigation into the behavior of the borough police -- particularly arresting officer Harold Breuninger -- also has been transferred to the county.

Think of this: The same office that wants to find evidence against Montoya also wants Montoya to cooperate in providing evidence against Breuninger and, possibly, his colleagues.

Sounds like a conflict to me.

And a set-up.

"How can I, as her defense attorney, allow my client to talk to the prosecutor's office when that same office is bringing a case against her involving the same incident?" asks Montoya's lawyer, Martin Perez of New Brunswick.

The answer to his question is obvious to a first-year law student:

Perez can't. He shouldn't. Even innocent defendants -- and Montoya certainly is that -- can be tripped up by prosecutors eager to make an embarrassing incident like this one go away. Ask anyone who's faced cross-examination. A glib lawyer can make Mother Teresa look like Ma Barker.

This bizarre arrangement has the blessing of the state Attorney General's Office, to whom Perez appealed to take over the investigation into Breuninger's behavior.

Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the office, says Gregory Paw, director of the Criminal Justice Division, decided no conflict existed.

"There will be safeguards," says Aseltine, but adds he can't reveal them.

Similarly, Anne Frawley, an executive assistant Union County prosecutor, says separate investigations into Montoya and Breuninger will be conducted by two different prosecutors who won't talk to each other.

Right.

Worse, Frawley would not guarantee that whatever Montoya says about Breuninger's behavior will not eventually be used against her.

"We can't make that recommendation at this time," she says. She adds that the issue of the conflict will be addressed in the future.

Oh, really?

See what this does to Montoya? If she wants redress against Breuninger and the other police -- in short, if she wants justice -- she has to risk putting herself in legal jeopardy.

Trusting the cops again. In Roselle Park. In Elizabeth, at the Union County Prosecutor's Office. In Trenton, at the Attorney General's Office.

Why should she?

Let's review what happened June 20. She leaves work at the Dunkin' Donuts to catch a bus to Elizabeth to pick up her daughter, 6, who has started summer school that day in a school far from their home. Montoya comes upon a woman lying in the street, hit by the side-view mirror of a bus turning left from Chestnut Street into East Westfield Avenue.

Montoya takes tissues from her pocketbook and wipes away the blood from the woman's head. Breuninger asks Montoya to translate for the victim, who cannot speak English. A cop gives Montoya a phone to call the victim's relatives.

Lots of other cops arrive, as does a small crowd. Montoya gets increasingly nervous and upset be cause she's afraid for her child, waiting alone at the school miles away in Elizabeth. She asks the cops for a cell phone to call someone to pick up her daughter; they ignore her. Then Montoya walks toward the crowd to borrow one.

This angers Breuninger. That's when she's knocked to the ground and arrested.

If you want to see the police tape of the incident, check out my blog at http://blog.nj.com/ njv_bob_braun/2007/07/ arrested_samaritan_has_police.html.

The charges against her are an obvious cover for bad police behavior, a bargaining chip to use against Montoya. The failure of Roselle Park to act immediately to discipline Breuninger and others is inexcusable.

And the patent injustice of all of this -- both an assault on the rights of one woman and a general failure of the public trust -- is compounded by the ludicrous suggestion that Montoya give up her rights to "help" the county investigate Breuninger.

What's happening is obvious and patently unfair: Nothing will happen to the police because this young mother, on her lawyer's correct advice, can't jeopardize her own freedom by cooperating with the prosecutor.

The victim is once again blamed for the crime.

What a set-up.

Here's what should happen: Dismiss the case against her. Now. She's not a criminal and everyone knows it -- everyone, that is, except the Roselle Park police, the Union County prosecutor and the attorney general.

Then go after Breuninger and his colleagues and superiors who stood by and watched what happened to Montoya without doing anything to protect and serve an innocent and helpful citizen.

Only then should Montoya cooperate.