Monmouth County Court Revealed

Approximately three years ago, Monmouth County, New Jersey might have been the center of the universe for judicial corruption; the court corruption appears to be resurrecting. 

Paul Escandon

                                       (Judge Paul Escandon from Ballotpedia)

In 2016, Paul Escandon received a lifetime appointment, despite complaints from approximately two hundred women.

In patterns, Escandon would force women into homes they couldn’t afford, bar them from moving, until they were foreclosed or otherwise removed.

He would also routinely switch custody during or after the process.

At the hearing in April 2016, the New Jersey State Senate heard from several of the women, including Patricia Madison.

Madison’s ex, Nicolas Pisciotti, was a reputed mobster who was in witness protection at the time Escandon gave him physical custody of their three young children after Madison moved out of county- and out of Escandon’s jurisdiction- and Escandon gave him physical custody for purportedly violating his court order not to move.

Here is part of a local story,

At one point during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Monday, Madison yelled out from the audience, "You ruined my children's lives. It's deliberate. (Escandon) defrauded the court. He's a (expletive) criminal."

Pisciotti is a reputed mobster who confessed to a killing, testified against other mobsters, went to prison and refused witness protection when he came out.

Over the course of two years, Escandon:

• Barred Madison from moving from Marlboro, where she claimed she could no longer afford to pay for the family's home. 
• Awarded custody of Madison's three children to Pisciotti when Madison disobeyed Escandon's order and moved to North Jersey to attend Fairleigh Dickinson University and find work in New York City.
• Reduced Pisciotti's $3,000 monthly alimony payments after months of non-payment, citing a desire to "keep the money flowing."

Escandon still was voted for a lifetime appointment by the New Jersey State Senate, despite this and other testimony.

Most recently he gave a break to a suspect accused of possession of child pornography; that man, John Ozbilgen, then killed himself after being suspected of the murder of an ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Parze.

On November 19, 2019, Judge Paul Escandon released Ozbilgen from jail even though Ozbilgen had not only been charged with possession of child pornography but was a “person of interest” in the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend, Parze.

Judge Escandon released Ozbilgen on bail.

Here is part of a local story, “Ozbilgen was brought into court Tuesday in green prison clothes and listened as the Monmouth County prosecutors laid out their reasons why Judge Paul Escandon should keep him behind bars while he awaits trial. Prosecutor said 10 images of babies and young girls showed those children being abused and tortured by adult men, and that those images were discovered on the unemployed stockbroker's phone by detectives investigating Parze's disappearance.

"’We further learned that there was a pending domestic violence case from September 23, 2019, involving Ms. Parze, in which the defendant was alleged to have struck Stephanie Parze in the head and threatened her before she took off running down the street,’ Assistant Prosecutor Caitlyn Sidley said. ‘Detectives learned that this defendant was texting and Facebook messaging Stephanie Parze the night before her disappearance.’

“The case is such that bail is generally granted, and as Ozbilgen is not facing charges in connection to Parze's disappearance, the judge said he would only consider the current circumstances.”

Ozbilgen had been a suspect in his e-girlfriend’s disappearance since she went missing after leaving a family event on October 30, 2019.

On November 21, two days after Judge Escandon released him from jail, Ozbilgen appears to have taken his own life. Here is more from the local NBC affiliate.

“John Ozbilgen apparently killed himself in his Freehold Township home overnight, the sources said, days after Monmouth County prosecutors classified him as a person of interest in the disappearance of Stephanie Parze.

“Parze vanished after dropping her parents off at their house following a family night out on Halloween Eve. She hasn't been seen since, though searches have led authorities across multiple states and counties. 

“Ozbilgen died just days after he was ordered released from jail in connection with an unrelated child pornography case. It was the day of that hearing, when the judge ordered him released, that prosecutors for the first time called him a person of interest in the case of Parze, who had dated him for months.”  

James Troiano

Outside of Monmouth, the county has most recently been known for the behavior of  Judge James Troiano who made a bizarre defense of a rape suspect, arguing he should not be charged as an adult because he came from a good family.

Here is part of a local article, “A Monmouth County Superior Court judge is under scrutiny after describing a 16-year-old accused of aggravated sexual assault, as a teenager who ‘comes from a good family who put him in an excellent school.’”

“Family division Judge James Troiano denied the prosecutor’s office waiver to try a 16-year-old in adult court. The teen is accused of recording himself sexually assaulting an intoxicated 16-year-old girl then sharing the video with his friends.”

Troiano and Escandon are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, according to my investigation.

Mara Zazzali Hogan and Joseph Flynn

Two judges were charged and then had this charge summarily dismissed by their fellow judge.

According to a New Jersey State Police investigative file, here is how the actions of two of the judges are described, “Within the jurisdiction of this court, Mara Zazzali Hogan and Joseph P Flynn of Monmouth County New Jersey have colluded and attempted to provide knowingly false or misleading information to law enforcement (who are direct subordinates) in an attempt to discredit, dissuade, harass, and possible to imprison Michael Chaplin.”

This complaint was filed in October 2019; in November 2019, the prosecutor dropped the charges.

Chaplin is a divorce litigant in Monmouth County. In fact, his divorce is ongoing and nearly eight years, with no apparent end in sight.

In September 2018, Chaplin made a You Tube video  
pinning the blame for his never-ending divorce in particular on both Judge Flynn and Judge Zazzali Hogan.

“In this case which has been going on for six and a half years,” Chaplin said in the 2018 video, “Let’s start with Mara Zazzali Hogan who luckily recused herself after launching her own special policy investigation and had detectives showing up and talking to me, all of which turned out show absolutely nothing.”

Chaplin said in the video that he had not seen his son in three and a half years at the time he made the video.

Of Judge Flynn, Chaplin stated that he had several conflicts which should have made him recuse himself. His father-in-law and Chaplin’s ex-wife’s father worked together for ten years.

They worked in a doctor’s office which was two offices, in a double trailer, but according to Chaplin, when confronted, Judge Flynn stated, “How do I know they knew each other?”

Judge Flynn also had a gala ball thrown in his honor in 2012; that ball was sponsored by Chaplin’s ex-wife’s firm.

Chaplin said Judge Flynn refused to recuse himself from his case; he continued to enforce orders barring Chaplin from any contact with his son.

Chaplin has physical custody of other of his children.

After Chaplin issued a subpoena to Flynn, Flynn was represented by the State’s Attorney General’s Office before Flynn finally relented and recused himself.

Chaplin still has no access to his son now about four and a half years later.

Flynn is no stranger to controversy. Several years ago, he fined Karen Welch $25,000 for missing a court appearance; Welch’s case made national news when she was featured on Investigation Discovery, after her ex-husband stalked her relentlessly, an action Monmouth Courts did not to discourage.

While, Chaplin’s divorce is about years long, it is not even the longest in Monmouth County.

Judges Linda Grasso Jones and Patricia Del Bueno Cleary

The dubious distinction goes to the divorce of Rachel and Bryan Alintoff, at nearly nine years.

One of the principle judges there, Judge Linda Grasso Jones, is one of two other Monmouth County judges accused of financial shenanigans in a civil lawsuit.

The other judge is Patricia Del Bueno Cleary. Here is part of a story in Bloomberg.

“In her recent filings in bankruptcy court, Ms. McEwan named two Superior Court judges as participants and beneficiaries in what she says was a scheme to defraud New Jersey homeowners: Judge Patricia Del Bueno Cleary and Judge Linda Grasso Jones. The filings evidencing her allegations can be downloaded here.

“These filings also name the financial predators, lawyers, law firms, major banks and their network of loan servicing companies, as well as local, county and state officials.”

I covered Alintoff’s case in 2014, when it was only four years ongoing.

“In Alintoff’s case, she was diagnosed by the court-appointed psychologist, Dr. Patricia Baszczuk, with ‘cyclical outbursts’ disorder,” I said in 2014, “a disorder which appears to have been coined by Baszczuk and has never been used widely. This so-called diagnosis was used to take custody Alintoff’s son away from her.”

Cyclical outbursts was a diagnosis Baszczuk created and is not recognized by the DSM, the Diagnostics Statistical Manual of Diseases and Disorders.

Baszczuk continues to be a fixture as a court appointed psychologist in Monmouth County.

Alintoff insists that as a result her son does not receive the care he needs since he is special needs and that only last week, the United States Department of Education opened a preliminary inquiry into mistreatment of her son by his elementary school.

That diagnosis by Baszczuk was the basis for Judge Grasso Jones to give Alintoff’s ex-husband physical custody.

According to a source, Baszczuk is currently under investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office.

I reached Baszczuk by email but she did not provide a response. 

Angela Dalton

I have also received this quote from a divorce litigant who would like to remain anonymous about Judge Angela Dalton.

Dalton has been a judge since 2013; she was moved to Monmouth County in 2014.

Alintoff has been in front of nearly every judge in Monmouth County over her long affair and said this of Dalton.

“During the trial, even members of the women’s protection agency in NJ called 180, made comments to my attorney as to why Judge Dalton was allowing Bryan Alintoff to be verbally abusive inside the courtroom.   At the end of trial, when Dalton did not grant a final order of protection she made negative comments about recording the assault and victim blamed me."   

“Similar to Judge Kathleen Sheedy’s making comments only a few months ago on the record yelling at me for taking photographs of my autistic son being sent to school for over 18 weeks under his father’s care with feces stuck to his tush and underwear." Alintoff stated. "The overall attitude with the Judges in Monmouth County is that if you collect evidence that proves your case and you are a protective parent; they punish you even harder.   Even when that evidence shows clear child neglect, medical neglect and child abuse, there have even been cases that I know of where the child is being raped by the abusive parent and Judges like Linda Grasso Jones, Judge Escandon and Judge Kathleen Sheedy not only look the other way, but they retaliate against the protective parent in a vicious and unlawful manner.”

Judge Kathleen Sheedy, who was also a part of Alintoff’s case, is also no stranger to controversy. During a child support hearing, when a mother said she needed more child support to afford to pay for food for her son at college, Judge Sheedy claimed the college student could get by on ramen noodles.

“Schools make you buy meal plans they want you to eat in their cafeteria,” Sheedy said during this hearing, “College students eat ramen noodles and drink vodka.”

I initially called Judge Escandon’s chambers for comment on his case, but I was directed to the Operations Department of the Monmouth County Courthouse for all questions related to any judge.

I sent a list of questions to Janet Slocum in the Operations Department, but I received no response from her or anyone else.