TRENTON
– Acting Attorney General Paula T. Dow
today announced the appointment of Robert
D. Laurino as Acting Essex County Prosecutor.
Laurino, who has been Chief Assistant Prosecutor
since 2004, has worked for the Essex County
Prosecutor’s Office for 30 years.
Laurino
was sworn in this morning. He replaces Dow,
who served as Essex County Prosecutor from
2003. Dow was sworn in yesterday as Acting
Attorney General.
“Bob
Laurino is a career prosecutor who has handled
more than 100 jury trials for the Essex County
Prosecutor’s Office and who has served
in supervisory roles for 25 of his 30 years
with the office,” said Acting Attorney
General Dow. “Having worked with Bob
for the past seven years, I know the great
skills and commitment he brings to this position.
His proven leadership and experience make
him a natural choice to lead the prosecutor’s
office at this time.”
“I
am honored that General Dow has appointed
me to lead the Essex County Prosecutor’s
Office as acting prosecutor,” Laurino
said. “I pledge to do all I can to ensure
that the talented staff and resources of this
office are used to the best advantage to fulfill
our mission of fighting crime and protecting
the people of Essex County and the State of
New Jersey.”
Laurino
began his career in the Essex County Prosecutor’s
Office as a general trial attorney in 1980.
In 1985, he was appointed director of the
adult sex crimes unit, and assumed the additional
responsibilities of directing the child abuse
unit in 1998. In 1999, he was appointed Deputy
Chief Assistant Prosecutor, and in 2004, Chief
Assistant Prosecutor.
As
Chief Assistant Prosecutor, he has been responsible
for the office’s Special Victims Division,
overseeing a staff of over 70 people in the
Special Victims, Megan’s Law, Juvenile,
Cold Case, Professional Standards, and Public
Corruption Units. He has completed over 100
jury trials, and handled thousands of cases
involving sexual violence. Laurino was the
subject of the book Our Guys by Bernard Lefkowitz,
and the 1999 ABC TV television movie “Our
Guys: Outrage in Glen Ridge,” which
was based upon his successful trial of several
high school athletes in Glen Ridge who were
convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman
with mental retardation.
Laurino
has been an advocate for victims of sexual
violence for over 25 years. He helped to establish
Wynona’s House, the state’s largest
child advocacy center in Newark, and to create
Essex County’s sexual assault response
team. He was a member of the New Jersey Sexual
Assault Protocol Council, which developed
the state’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner/Sexual
Assault Response Team (SANE/SART) protocol,
and was one of only eight prosecutors chosen
nationally to be part of the U.S. Department
of Justice’s focus group for the development
of a national SANE protocol.
A
cum laude graduate of Villanova University,
Laurino received a master’s degree from
Rutgers University. He graduated from Seton
Hall University School of Law, where he was
an editor of the law review.
Since
1998, Laurino has been a board member of The
Arc of Essex County, which provides services
for individuals with mental retardation, and
he presently serves as president of the organization.
He also is a board member of The Arc of Essex
County Foundation, and The Arc of New Jersey.
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