A theft charge against Deputy Gloucester County Administrator Michelle Coryell, accused of stealing documents from a Republican county commissioner, has been pushed to February 3 after a brief evidentiary hearing in municipal court today.
Coryell allegedly picked up a handful of documents on June 11, took them into an elevator, and carried them out of the office. The documents were printed by Courtney Bracken, an aide to County Commissioner Chris Konawel.
All five Democratic county commissioners have printers in their offices, but the county declined to give dedicated printers to the two Republicans, Konawel and Nick DeSilvio. Instead, they use shared printers.
Coryell’s attorney, Ryan Kelly, unsuccessfully sought a Holop Motion, a procedural tool that would compel the prosecutor to provide discovery or risk dismissal of the case.
In surveillance footage shared with the New Jersey Globe, Coryell walks into an elevator and appears to take a picture of a document with a thick black stripe toward its top. Konawel said the stripe was distinctive to documents that his office had been working on. Konawel said it was a quiet day in the office and that no other printing jobs had been placed during that time.
Another surveillance camera caught movement near the printer, though neither the printer nor the person is in clear view. Moments after the figure leaves near the printer, Bracken arrives and sorts through what’s left; Konawel said she was befuddled, since many of the documents were missing.
Before joining the county, Coryell served as chief of staff to then-Senate President Steve Sweeney. Sweeny is now the county administrator.
