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Toledo, 51, of Wayne first drew the attention of a state judicial ethics committee after she claimed that “all of the competent adult next of kin and other persons having a prior right to administer the estate had renounced [that] right,” Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said.
“In reality, a relative of the decedent who had a prior right of administration had not renounced her right and instead had made her right known to Toledo by appearing before her in person before Toledo signed and filed the judgment,” Bruck said.
Toledo failed to disclose that she’d had a political and personal relationship with Keith Stewart, whom she named as administrator of the estate of Mark Halchak after he died in 2017, the attorney general said.
Stewart and Halchak reportedly had worked for the township but had no other relationship.
Toledo entirely “omitted the fact that she knew Mr. Stewart and his immediate family members for more than three decades," a state Office of Public Integrity and Accountability complaint on file in Trenton alleges.
She didn't note that they "grew up in the same neighborhood, that [she] was Facebook friends with Mr. Stewart and multiple members of his immediate family including his mother and sister, that Mr. Stewart assisted with [her] election campaign efforts and attended fundraising events for her."
The state Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct found that Toledo "lacked candor and misrepresented the nature and extent of her relationship" with Stewart after the dead man’s cousin, Estelle Halchak, challenged Stewart’s appointment, authorities said.
Toledo, in turn, said she’d done nothing wrong.
Then came the announcement by Bruck on Friday that his Office of Public Integrity and Accountability had charged Toledo with falsifying records after conducting its own investigation based on the panel’s referral.
Toledo worked as a judicial law clerk for a year before becoming a state deputy attorney general in 2004.
She left the Attorney General’s Office six years later to become associate general counsel for the Passaic County Board of Social Services, then a year later ran unopposed in an election to become Passaic County’s Surrogate Court judge.
She was re-elected five years later.
Toledo’s term expires at the end of this year. She’d announced earlier this year that she wouldn’t seek re-election.
Passaic County Democratic Chairman John Currie insisted that Toledo step down now.
The “initial ethics complaint and now the criminal charges make it clear that she needs to resign immediately,” he said.
“The residents and families in Passaic County deserve honest and transparent services from the surrogate’s office,” Currie said. “These charges cast serious doubt on her ability to serve.”
The Surrogate Court was created by the New Jersey State Constitution in 1844. The Surrogate’s Court is a court of limited jurisdiction. The Surrogate, a Judge of this Court by New Jersey Constitution, is
The surrogate in each county – literally “one who speaks for another” -- determines the validity of wills, give executors the authority to administer estates and makes sure they do so properly, while also serving s a depository for funds awarded to minors until they turn 18 and oversees adoptions, among other duties.
Deputy Attorneys General Eric Cohen and Caroline Oliveira are handling the case for the OPIA Corruption Bureau, said Bruck, who thanked the ACJC for the referral.
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