Bad judge

Good morning!

I wrote on Friday about a little-noticed appellate court ruling from earlier this month that included some nauseous details about a Camden County Family Court judge.

The case in question was a restraining order request from a woman who said she was raped by another college student who choked her during the act. The judge, Thomas Shusted, said he believed her claims but wouldn’t grant the order, saying that because the two had dated only briefly, there was no history of domestic violence to justify the restraining order.

The appellate ruling not only reversed the judge, but took him to task for him comments to the man in the case, remarks that read more like a father chiding his son for taking the car out without permission than a judge to a man he had just declared was probably a violent rapist.

“We’ve seen this time and time again,” attorney Nancy Erika Smith told me. “This isn’t just one judge in New Jersey. Around the country, we hear judges being sympathetic to rapists even in front of their victims. It’s a problem. It’s a cultural problem and we need to end it.”

Read more from me.

Trenton: A Democratic-led bill up for final approval by the state Assembly today targets one of the party’s newer boogeymen, pharmacy benefit managers. They serve as intermediaries between insurance companies and drug makers, and they’ve increasingly become a target of politicians like Gov. Mikie Sherrill who have pledged to make everything more affordable. The bill up for OK today calls for benchmarking drug prices and adding a standard pharmacy fee of $10.92 for each prescription, costs that are now negotiated by insurance companies contract and pharmacy benefit managers.

Courts: New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner gave his annual address Friday at the New Jersey State Bar Association’s annual conference in Atlantic City, and for the first time in years he did not use the speech to warn about judicial vacancies. There were 52 empty benches last year at this time, and now the number is 19, Rabner noted. Soaring vacancies in the past had led Rabner to postpone some types of trials in certain jurisdictions altogether. “Thank you to everyone involved for responding to a real need and filling the ranks of the Superior Court. By doing so, you have enabled the Judiciary to better serve litigants and the public,” he said Friday.

Health: Kelcie Moseley-Morris from Stateline reports on shifting attitudes on menopause and how they are driving lawmakers nationwide to push for new protections. Here in New Jersey, Assemblywoman Heather Simmons (D) was behind a bill that became law in January covering hormonal, non-hormonal, and preventive treatments for perimenopause and menopause on state-regulated insurance plans. “I’m just so grateful that my generation and the generations that follow me are saying no, we deserve better than that, we can do better than that,” Simmons said. “We’re not afraid to talk about it anymore.”

Crime: Attorney General Jen Davenport on Friday announced 13 arrests related to a human trafficking and drug-dealing ring operating out of two South Jersey motels. The 15 rescued victims were forced to perform sex acts for money and hand over all the proceeds to the men in charge, she alleges. “The physical and emotional abuse of human trafficking leaves scars that stay with victims for the rest of their lives,” Davenport said “It is our mission to relentlessly pursue those who exploit others. Anyone who engages in this kind of criminal activity should know one thing: you will be held accountable.”

Tom Kean: Former Gov. Tom Kean Sr., whose congressman son has been absent from Congress for more than two months as he deals with a health issue, told CNN Friday what Kean Jr.’s spokespeople have been saying for months: He’ll be back at some point and his doctors say he’ll be fine. “It took a real illness to knock him out,” Kean Sr. said. “This won’t linger. It’s not some kind of disease that’s going to incapacitate him in the future. The consensus is that he will be 100% OK.” Meanwhile, reporter Timmy Facciola took a boat to Fishers Island, which sits just south of Mystic, Connecticut, and which the New York Post once called “an exclusive and idyllic little island that is suspended in time.” The Keans apparently summer there but Facciola was not able to find anyone who said they’ve seen Kean Jr.

The Boss: Looks like Bruce Springsteen and Chris Christie have patched things up.