Unethical Attorney General

A state attorney general who co-chaired a governor’s ethics advisory committee to supposedly clean up public corruption has resigned from both posts for her own admitted violations of various ethics laws.

New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber resigned under fire this week after a special investigator released a report detailing how she violated state ethics laws by going to the scene of her boyfriend’s traffic stop earlier this year and encouraging police to give him preferential treatment.

The boyfriend’s van was improperly registered and his driver’s license had been suspended so when police stopped him, Farber showed up at the scene in her state car and police allowed the boyfriend to drive home, despite the serious violations.

Traffic incidents have cost Farber in the past. Her driving privileges have been suspended three times and in 2003, her nomination for an appointment on New Jersey’s Supreme Court was withdrawn by former Governor James McGreevey when it became public that an arrest warrant had been issued for failing to appear in court on a traffic violation.

Evidently, New Jersey’s new governor, Jon Corzine, didn’t consider that when he appointed her to oversee the state’s 9,600-member Department of Law and Public Safety as well as his special committee to restore ethical standards to state government. The special prosecutor appointed to investigate Farber’s latest violation estimates that the investigation cost New Jersey taxpayers about $70,000. Perhaps Corzine should make her pay the money back to the taxpayers who funded the investigation.