Edward G.

Werner
Strawbridge Professional Center
212 West Route 38; Suite 200
Moorestown, New Jersey 08057
(856) 380-4062
(609) 265-9637 (Fax)
_______________________________________
: SUPERIOR COURT OF
NEW JERSEY
EDWARD G. WERNER, LAW DIVISION
: MERCER COUNTY

Plaintiff, : DOCKET NO.

v.
:
STATE OF NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT CIVIL ACTION
OF LAW AND PUBLIC SAFETY, :

Defendant. : VERIFIED COMPLAINT

_______________________________________

The Plaintiff, Edward G. Werner, by way of Verified Complaint against the

Defendant, alleges as follows:

INTRODUCTION

1. The Plaintiff is an individual citizen of the State of New Jersey. From

December 27, 2005

through July 16, 2008 he served as the head of the New Jersey State Government
Agency charged with

compensating innocent victims of crime. During his tenure in that capacity, the
agency had several

incarnations. It had been known as the Victims of Crime Compensation Board

(December, 2005-July

2007), the Victims of Crime Compensation Agency (July, 2007-July 2008), and the
Victims of crime

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Compensation Office (July 2008-present). The statutes, administrative code, case
law, and other

sources refer to the agency by time appropriate nomenclature. For purposes of

economy of verbiage

and clarity, this Complaint will refer to it in its current form, The Victims of Crime
Compensation Office

(“VCCO”).

2. The Defendant, The New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety,
(“L&PS”), is a public

agency of the State of New Jersey and is a principal department of the Executive
Branch of the State

Government of New Jersey.

3. Pursuant to Executive Order of Governor Jon S. Corzine, the VCCO was

made a part of the L&PS

on July 1, 2008.

4. Under statute NJSA 52:4B-1 et seq, the VCCO is to compensate innocent

victims of violent crime

for costs incurred as a result of the crime.

5. Under statute 2C:43-3.1 the VCCO receives funds from assessments paid by
defendants in the

various criminal and municipal courts throughout New Jersey. These assessments
constitute a plurality

of the funds received by the VCCO to reimburse crime victims.

DIVERSION OF FUNDS

6. Attached as exhibit “1” is the Annual report of the VCCO for State Fiscal
Year 2009 (“SFY09”) i.e.

July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009. According to page thirteen of said Annual

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Report, VCCO revenues

for SFY09 totaled $22,914,759.91. Of that revenue, $9,580,000 came in the form of
federal grants

under the Federal Victims of Crime Act and $8,676,759.91 from New Jersey state
sources.

6. The VCCO asserts it received only $467,576 from assessments paid by

defendants in the various

courts throughout New Jersey . (See page 13 of exhibit 1)

7. Contrary to the VCCO SFY09 Annual report, the VCCO received

approximately $500,000 per

month from assessments paid by defendants in courts throughout New Jersey.

Attached as exhibit “2”

Penalty Revenue reports, even the incomplete response reveals the VCCO received
approximately

$5,954,241 from assessments. (See attached Brief for explanatory calculation).

8. As more fully explained in the attached Brief, these funds by law may only
be spent to

compensate innocent victims of violent crime.

9. According to page 6 the VCCO Annual Report for SFY09, the VCCO paid
only $5,561,608.21 to

compensate crime victims.

10. As of March 31, 2009, the VCCO only reported receiving $2,181,648.72.
This figure includes

assessments and funds collected from prison and jail commissaries throughout New
Jersey. Obviously,

the funds collected to compensate victims is being diverted elsewhere . Attached

as exhibit “3” is the

VCCO monthly financial statement for March 31, 2009.

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 11. The amount paid to victims is historically very low. Below is a chart
comparing the volume of

work produced by the VCCO for SFY07 and SFY08 versus SFY09:

Claims Claims Percentage Total Dollar Average Per

Paid Closed with Paid/Denied Amount Paid Claim
No Award
SFY 2007 2720 620 81.4%/18.6 $16,480,79 $6059
% 5
SFY 2008 2331 728 76.2%/23.8 $13,434,46 $5763
% 7
SFY 2009 1242 1115 52.7%/47.3 $5,561,608 $4478
%
*Source: Victims of Crime Compensation Office Monthly Claims Report

Monthly Claims reports are attached hereto as exhibit “4”.

12. The financial statement reveals that the funds that were to have been
spent only for the

compensation of innocent victims of violent crime were diverted to other purposes

in violation of

both the statutes governing the VCCO and of the criminal law (see attached brief).

13. In order to accomplish this diversion, the VCCO adopted policies to deny or
delay the payment

of claims. Below is a comparison of the payments to victims for SFY08 and SFY09.

State Fiscal Year 2008 State Fiscal Year 2009

Difference

Crime Pay- Amount Crime Pay- Amount Pay- Amount

ment Paid ments Paid ment Paid
s s

Physical 2198 $5,825,22 Physical 978 $2,374,6 -1220 -

Assault 4 Assault 17 $3,450,607
Domest 1074 $2,430,15 Domest 389 $697,26 -685 -
ic 6 ic 2 $1,732,894
Violenc Violenc
e e
Homicid 642 $2,314,70 Homicid 344 $1,085,0 -298 -
e 6 e 20 $1,229,686

4
Sexual 703 $896,138 Sexual 263 $366,54 -440 -$529,597
Assault Assault 1

Child 65 $118,604 Child 28 $52,389 -37 -$66,215

Abuse: Abuse:
Physical Physical
Assault Assault
Child 639 $827,123 Child 297 $197,80 -342 -$629,322
Abuse: Abuse: 1
Sexual Sexual
Assault Assault
Vehicul 67 $301,399 Vehicul 17 $46,370 -50 -$255,029
ar: ar:
DWI, DWI,
DUI DUI
Vehicul 94 $285,459 Vehicul 30 $90,987 -64 -$194,472
ar: ar:
Non Non
DWI, DWI,
DUI DUI
*Source: Victims of Crime Compensation Office Monthly Crime Paid by Type Report

Attached as exhibit “5” are VCCO Monthly Paid by Crime reports.

14. The decision to alter VCCO policies to unreasonably delay and deny the
payment of crime

victims’ claims is not only devastating for the victims, it is detrimental to the
agency. The VCCO federal

grant is calculated by the federal government as the product of funds paid from
New Jersey State

sources other than tax revenue multiplied by 60%. Consequently, the future federal
grants will be

reduced as a direct consequence of the VCCO’s failure to properly process victims’

claims.

Attached as exhibit “6” is a September 9, 2008 correspondence to Assistant

Attorney General Shavar

Jeffries explaining the importance of processing claims expeditiously in order to

maintain the recurring

revenue stream from the federal government.

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 15. The Plaintiff has no response from Mr. Jeffries or anyone else from the
Department of Law and

Public Safety or the VCCO.

WHERFORE, Plaintiff respectfully asks the entry of final judgment as follows:

A. Enter an Order declaring declaring the Department of Law and Public

Safety, through the VCCO,

has wrongfully diverted funds from innocent victims of violent crime in violation of
NJSA 2C:43-3.1;

B. Requiring the Department of Law and Public Safety to account for the
funds received from

assessments by defendants in courts throughout New Jersey for State Fiscal Year
2009;

C. Maintain jurisdiction over this matter until the Department of Law and
Public Safety comes into

compliance with the VCCO statutes referenced herein;

D. Order the Department of Law and Public Safety to implement standard

guidelines for the

processing of claims mindful of the statutory and common law mandates to be

liberal in its policies

to achieve the underlying objective of compensating innocent victims of violent

crime; and

E. Grant such other and additional and further relief to the Plaintiff as the
Court deems just and

equitable.

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 CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO RULE 4:5-1

Pursuant to the provision of Rule 4:5-1, the undersigned pro se attorney and
Plaintiff certifies the matter is not the subject of any other pending action in any
other court or arbitration proceeding.
In the interest of full disclosure, the Plaintiff is also the Plaintiff in Case No. MER-L-
600-09 (Werner v. State of New Jersey, Milgram, and Jeffries).

___________________________
___
Edward G. Werner
Strawbridge Professional
Center
212 West Route 38, Suite
200
Moorestown, New Jersey
08057
(856) 380-4062
(609) 265-9637 (F)
Plaintiff Attorney Pro Se

Dated December 22, 2009

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 VERIFICATION

Edward G. Werner hereby verifies the following:

I am the pro se Plaintiff in this matter. I have reviewed the foregoing Verified
Complaint in its

entirety and the statements made therein are true and correct to the best of my
personal knowledge.

DATED:
___________________________
Edward G. Werner
Plaintiff pro se