WEST ORANGE, NJ — Mayor Robert Parisi has nominated West Orange public defender Joseph Wenzel for the position of municipal prosecutor, replacing Bryn Whittle, who recently resigned.
In a Jan. 21 statement to the West Orange Chronicle, Parisi said he has asked the West Orange Township Council to approve Wenzel for the role at its Feb. 9 meeting. Though the township has not yet found a new public defender, he said the court schedule should not be affected by the changes, and that the transition between the new and exiting prosecutors is expected to be “efficient and seamless.”
As for his candidate, Parisi indicated that Wenzel is more than up to the task of prosecuting West Orange-based cases.
“I am pleased to nominate longtime public defender Joseph Wenzel as the proposed new municipal prosecutor,” Parisi said. “He understands the critical role of the court in providing justice to all individuals.”
Wenzel certainly has the experience for the position, having worked in municipal courts throughout New Jersey for the past 15 years. In addition to being West Orange’s public defender since 2010, he has also served as a public defender in Hackensack as well as a prosecutor in Roseland and Raritan.
Wenzel told the Chronicle he is now looking forward to using that experience to his advantage as a prosecutor for the community he calls home. The past five years he has spent working in West Orange’s court should be especially helpful, he said, since he already knows the town’s system and the people involved. He particularly lauded the West Orange Police Department, saying that he has been quite impressed with the fair way it handles defendants.
Above all, Wenzel said he is excited to benefit the township.
“I’ve always been into public service,” Wenzel said in a Jan. 22 phone interview. “This is a way to give back to my community.”
It might seem unusual for a public defender to suddenly become a prosecutor, and Wenzel acknowledged that the jobs do require a different mindset. But as someone who has served on both sides of the judicial system, he added that the roles essentially have the same goal — to serve the community. One entails ensuring the community’s laws are enforced while the other involves providing community members with their right to a legal defense; either way, he said, residents can rest assured that their rights are being protected.
And if the council approves him for the position, Wenzel vowed to give it his all as prosecutor just as he says he has done as public defender.
“I pledge to do my best and act fairly toward all,” Wenzel said. “As attorneys, whether we’re prosecutors or public defenders, we all have an obligation to observe the public and the law itself with dignity and professionalism and fairness.”
To preserve this fairness, Wenzel will not legally be allowed to prosecute anyone he has previously defended in court. If a case involves such a conflict of interest, he said it will either be transferred to another municipal court or handled by a substitute prosecutor in West Orange. Hopefully he will not get too many repeat customers though, he said.
As for Whittle, who served as the township’s prosecutor for roughly one year before resigning earlier this month, Parisi said West Orange appreciates her time carrying out the law on behalf of the community.
“We regrettably accepted Ms. Whittle’s resignation,” Parisi said. “We thank Ms. Whittle for her service to our court for the time she was there and are grateful for the contributions she made to our municipal court.”
Whittle did not respond to requests for comment before press time Jan. 26. According to her LinkedIn page, she is currently running her own law practice, which she launched in December 2014. Before that, she worked as the senior staff attorney for the Community Health Law Project from June 1999 to February 2015. She can also now add prosecutorial experience to her resume; Councilman Joe Krakoviak had raised her lack of experience in that area as an issue prior to the council approving her for the West Orange prosecutor’s job in December 2014.
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