OC Prosecutor's Office releases info on reporter's arrest

Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato ordered the release Wednesday of 48 pages of records connected to a fatal motor vehicle crash in January in which one of his detectives was killed.

The reports cover the Jan. 8 accident which took the life of Detective John Scott Stevens, a 15-year veteran of the Prosecutor's Office, and the highly-publicized arrest at the time of a journalist on the scene.

The records were sent to Gavin Rozzi, editor of The Lacey Reporter and Harry B. Scheeler, Jr., a self-described open government activist, who operates the website www.opracrusades.com. Both had sued the Prosecutor's Office in an effort to obtain the records. The cache of information also includes the resume and training certifications of the arresting officer, which the parties had also requested.

"While this office maintains the position that we could assert viable legal bases under the applicable law to deny access to these documents, Prosecutor Coronato has determined that disclosure of these materials is appropriate based on the unique circumstances here," wrote Michel A. Paulhus, executive assistant prosecutor, in a letter to the parties on Wednesday.

Paulhus explained those unique circumstances included the fact that the victim was a detective in the Prosecutor's Office and there was a need to dispel any suggestion that the office was trying to conceal the facts of the crash scene investigation.

The intimation of a cover-up had been fueled by the arrest of freelance photographer Andrew P. Flinchbaugh at the scene of the crash and an initial decision by the Prosecutor's Office not to release its reports on the crash or the arrest of Flinchbaugh. Flinchbaugh, then 23, was working for The Lacey Reporter. He was charged with obstructing administration of law after he refused to turn over his video camera to a detective from the Prosecutor's Office who had approached Flinchbaugh and insisted that he do so. The charge was later dropped.

In a statement Wednesday on The Lacey Reporter website, Rozzi wrote: "We already know that it was wrong to arrest a citizen lawfully present and filming in the open at the scene of January 8th, 2015’s tragic car accident in Bamber – the speed at which the charges were dropped against Andrew was proof enough of that. Today’s outcome is a victory for transparency – and the citizens of Ocean County. We are a nation of laws. Those who swear an oath to uphold those laws must remember that they, too are equally subject to them, just like any other citizen."

According to the investigation report, Stevens was behind the wheel of an Ocean County-owned 2004 Honda Civic when it left the roadway on Dover Road near the Bamber Lake section of Lacey and struck a tree about 10:50 a.m. on Jan. 8. Although conditions were dry, the temperature was about 19 degrees and the road surface had been previously salted. The vehicle ended up on its passenger side with extensive damage. Stevens was airlifted to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, where he died from his injuries almost two weeks later on Jan. 21.

Ultimately, the cause of the crash was never determined. Investigators ruled out ice, weather, road conditions, cellphone use and any possible mechanical problems with the Honda Civic, according to the report.

As authorities responded to the crash, they noticed a man, later identified as Flinchbaugh, standing on private property near the scene with a video camera attached to a pole.

Detective David B. Margentino Jr. of the Prosecutor's Office wrote in his report of Flinchbaugh's arrest that the photographer walked onto the tire marks left by the Civic, damaging his evidence. When Margentino asked him for his identification, the detective said Flinchbaugh initially refused and had to be asked a second time. The photographer was not wearing press credentials and Margentino wrote that the man seemed to be overly nervous.

"Flinchbaugh's story had inconsistent explanations as to why he was at the scene and how he entered into the scene," Margentino wrote. "Because Flinchbaugh was not making sense and because Flinchbaugh appeared to be fluctuating between being polite, overly nervous and evasive it began to raise my suspicion."

That suspicion was intensified because Stevens had been doing undercover work at the time of the crash, the detective wrote.

The situation escalated, according to the report. Suspicious that perhaps something sinister had led to the crash, Margentino, in consultation with an assistant prosecutor, decided that they needed to see what was on Flinchbaugh's camera. The photographer refused and was ultimately taken into custody.

Earlier this week, Coronato reassigned the assistant prosecutor in his office who was responsible for enforcing the state Open Public Records Act and who had made the initial decision to keep confidential the records of the Jan. 8 events. Coronato relieved Assistant Prosecutor Otto Nicholas Monaco as his office's OPRA custodian after Monaco had posted comments on his personal Facebook page that were critical of the OPRA law and disparaging President Barack Obama. In New Jersey, county prosecutors and their staffs are forbidden from engaging in political activities.

See a related video below.

Erik Larsen: 732-682-9359 or elarsen@gannettnj.com