Christie will not be charged in GWB case, prosecutor says

Gov. Chris Christie will not be charged over the George Washington Bridge lane closures, Bergen County prosecutors announced Thursday, citing a lack of evidence.

The decision by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office marks the end of the line for a citizen’s complaint filed by Bill Brennan, a retired firefighter and Wayne resident who has argued for months that Christie should be prosecuted based on testimony from the federal trial last year over the lane-closing scandal.

In two separate hearings on Brennan’s complaint, the presiding judge for municipal courts in Bergen County, Roy F. McGeady, found probable cause that Christie engaged in official misconduct during the lane closures. Probable cause is a relatively low bar in the legal system that allows law enforcement agencies to search, charge or arrest people suspected of wrongdoing, but it is not enough to prove guilt.

John L. Higgins, Bergen County’s first assistant prosecutor, wrote in a letter to a Superior Court judge on Thursday that prosecutors had not found evidence proving Christie’s guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt,” a higher bar in the legal system. The complaint against Christie has been dismissed, he added.

Read more: http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/new-jersey/2017/03/02/christie-not-charged-gwb-case-prosecutor-says/98656368/