Ocean County prosecutors challenge PTI in Brick schools misconduct case

Ocean County prosecutors will try to block pretrial intervention (PTI) for former Brick Township Academic Officer Lorraine Morgan, indicted for official misconduct along with her husband, the district's former interim Superintendent and his daughter.

Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato's office is challenging Superior Court Judge Patricia Rowe's decision in an Appellate Division filing.

Morgan, of Edison, was granted. PTI over objections by prosecutors, on March 17. According to Coronato's office, the judge was asked to reconsider it, and affirmed her decision May 3.

PTI allows defendants, in certain cases, to avoid prosecution. A conviction at trial would require her to submit to a five-year mandatory sentence with at least two years of parole ineligibility, authorities said.

Morgan was indicted in 2015 for official misconduct and theft by deception in connection with the alleged arrangement to use district funds for in-home counseling for the grandson of former Superintendent Walter Uszenski.

Also indicted on the same charges, and others, were Uszenski, his daughter Jacqueline Halsey, and Morgan's husband Andrew, the district's former Interim Director of Special Services.

Prosecutors argue that Morgan's charge is based on "a violation of public trust in that she is alleged to have abused her public position to confer an illegal benefit upon the superintendent's grandson."