TRENTON -- A Bergen County municipal judge ruled Thursday that a citizen's complaint of official misconduct by Gov. Chris Christie can proceed anew, re-issuing a criminal summons that the governor had twice sought to have dismissed.

The official misconduct charge alleges that Christie failed to act to reverse the politically motivated 2013 Fort Lee access lane closures at the George Washington Bridge after being informed of their occurrence, something the governor has steadfastly denied.

"The court is satisfied that [Christie] had knowledge of the traffic problems in Fort Lee," said municipal Judge Roy F. McGeady, referring to in the now-infamous politically motivated lane closures at the George Washington Bridge that resulted in the federal convictions of two of the governor's top aides last fall.

"The court is satisfied that he had reason to believe that this traffic was purposely created, it was contrived, it was orchestrated" for political retribution, the judge added.

Drawing on testimony from David Wildstein, a cooperating witness in the federal trial of top Christie allies Bridget Ann Kelly and Bill Baroni, the citizen complaint alleged that Christie failed to take action after being informed of politically-motivated closures at the George Washington Bridge in 2013.

A criminal summons to face a charge of official misconduct was initially issued by McGeady in October 2016, but had been appealed on the grounds that Christie was denied adequate participation from his defense counsel to defend him.

An appellate court agreed with the governor's attorneys and last month remanded the case back to McGeady, only to see the Bergen County prosecutor's office announce it would decline to pursue the misconduct charge regardless of what new evidence was presented at the second probable cause hearing.

Citizen activist Bill Brennan has repeatedly claimed that the Bergen prosecutors have a conflict of interest because they answer to bosses who serve at the pleasure of the governor.

Christie's criminal defense attorney, Craig Carpenito of Alston & Byrd declined to attend the second February 2 hearing, insisting the prosecutor's declining to pursue that case made it a "legal nullity."

Carpenito did not attend Thursday's hearing, either.

McGeady disagreed, and allowed Brennan to include testimony by Wildstein about a September 11, 2013 meeting between the governor, Wildstein and his political appointee Bill Baroni at the World Trade Center.

In that testimony, Wildstein testified that Baroni had told the governor about the lane closures creating 'tremendous' traffic jams and the distress they were causing Fort Lee's Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich.

At that meeting, "no one mentioned 'political' at all except the governor," said McGeady.

"It was the governor who tied this to some type of political event when he twice referred to Mr. Wildstein, by a pseudonym, as not being involved in 'political' actions." said McGeady. "The court found that very persuasive."

The judge has ordered the governor to appear before the court on March 10 at 1:30 p.m. to face prosecutors, who could still bring charges, but are not expected to.

Shortly after the ruling by McGeady, Brennan stood outside the courthouse to accuse the prosecutors of the very same official misconduct charges he'd lobbed at the governor.

"It's not that they don't understand it, it's that they are beholden to the governor," said Brennan. "It is likely that the Bergen prosecutor is going to engage in an act of political corruption and dismiss this case with no basis whatsoever."

Earlier this month, Brennan filed a motion seeking the appointment of a special prosecutor to handle the case with Bergen assignment judge Bonnie Mizdol, but on Thursday morning, he expressed doubt Mizdol would agree to one.

"I'm going to use this moment in time to call upon the other candidates for governor to get involved in this," said Brennan, who is also a running as a Democrat to replace Christie. He urged them "to call for an independent and special prosecutor" to take over.

Then, in a dramatic twist, Brennan called for any New Jersey citizen currently serving on a grand jury to exercise their legal right to summon him to testify before them and indict the governor.

"If anybody in the state of New Jersey is currently sitting on a grand jury, I implore you: Summon me before you," urged Brennan. "I will come before you with the transcripts and the evidence and you can get an indictment. Any grand jury, without prodding from the prosecutor, can call witnesses and demand evidence and demand this case be prosecuted...without the prosecutor's help."

Dennis Kearney, a former assistant prosecutor in Essex County who's now a partner in the criminal defense firm of Day Pitney, said such a move, while technically possible, would be unprecedented, and "very unlikely" to happen.

"The idea that a grand jury would 'go rogue'?" asked Kearney. "I've never seen it, and I go before grand juries for a living."

Brian Murray, a spokesman for the governor, released a statement on Thursday morning blasting the judge's decision as "illegal" and Brennan's claim as "concocted."

"The judge is violating the law, pure and simple," wrote Murray. "This concocted claim was investigated for three months by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, which summarily dismissed it, after concluding that the very same evidence relied upon again by this judge was utter nonsense. That is exactly what it is. The law requires this judge to have done the same. This is a complete non-event."

Brennan, for his part, said that if the Bergen prosecutor's office was too "hopelessly conflicted" to pursue the criminal summons alleging official misconduct, he would consider filing official misconduct charges against them as well.

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.