Cash Goes Missing From NJ Prosecutor’s Office, Investigation Underway

A New Jersey county prosecutor says cash being held as evidence in multiple different cases is missing, and her office is launching an internal investigation.

“Various denominations of cash recovered from several separate cases have gone missing. All of the missing cash was recovered from scenes and was being temporarily held for safekeeping. The money was kept in temporary storage in locked safes at the Prosecutor’s Office with limited access by investigative staff,” the office of Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said in a statement.

Suarez’s office did not say how much money was missing, only that the various denominations of cash had been recovered in several separate cases. All the money was being temporarily held for safekeeping and was kept in storage in locked safes at the prosecutor’s office in Jersey City, with limited access by investigative staff.

“This is a sheer betrayal and disgrace of the sacred oaths taken by those who wear a badge and were involved in these appalling acts,” Suarez herself said in the statement.

She added that it was not clear how many of the office’s investigative staff may have been involved.