Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni will be taking a hiatus from his duties in the Garden State to serve overseas as an attorney for the U.S. Navy.

Christopher J. Gramiccioni
Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni (Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office)
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Gramiccioni, a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve, will be leaving in May for a six month stint in Afghanistan to serve as the in-house advocate for Naval Special Warfare, a Navy SEAL team.

Though military operations have decreased in Afghanistan, the acting prosecutor said his presence was still called upon.

"They're about to hold an election for a new president and that president's position on extending the existing security force from the U.S. -- we might be extending or we might not," Gramiccioni said. "It certainly remains to be seen, and it'll be up to the president, not me."

In Gramiccioni's absence, First Assistant Prosecutor Mark Lemieux will oversee day-to-day operations.

"He's been on the job for 18 or so years," Gramiccioni said. "He's been a career prosecutor and he's actually just finished up trying the (Arthur) Morgan case successfully."

Gramiccioni's stint working with the SEALs is actually not the original assignment he was given. Before it was postponed, the acting prosecutor was scheduled to serve much farther from the front lines.

"I was going to be involved in detainee operations at a detention facility," Gramiccioni said. "This is completely different; you're much more on the tip of the spear with this kind of operation."

Gramiccioni, a self-described Army brat, said often it's the families who are the bravest of all during deployments.

"People will often try to give credit to me and thank me for my service, and I'm really appreciative of that, but I always say, 'You know who you should be thanking? The spouses left behind,'" Gramiccioni said.

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