Farber - Courier - Call for resignation increase

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Published in the Courier News, Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Calls increase for Farber's resignation

By TOM BALDWIN
Gannett State Bureau

TRENTON -- A high-powered, white-collar crime lawyer representing state Attorney General Zulima Farber said Tuesday she is paying her own fees in the probe of whether she helped her live-in boyfriend avoid traffic tickets over Memorial Day weekend.

Republicans, meanwhile, increased their pressure on Farber to resign for rushing 13 miles in her trooper-driven state car to the scene in Fairview, Bergen County, where her boyfriend had been pulled over in an unregistered van.

Police were in the process of impounding the car when Farber arrived, but they allowed her boyfriend, Hamlet Goore, to drive the van behind Farber's car to their nearby home. There are reports the police voided tickets they had written to Goore.

Farber said she did nothing to accord Goore special treatment. She said she does not believe that her mere presence there -- alongside Fairview's mayor -- made a difference.

Farber and her role in the traffic stop are the subject of an investigation under way by a retired state appellate judge from Atlantic County, Richard J. Williams. Bergen County prosecutors who were looking into the case ultimately report to Farber.

Farber's lawyer, Gerald Krovatin, said in a telephone interview that the attorney general is paying his fees, not the state.

"My representation stems from the fact I am a friend of Zulima's for 25 years," Krovatin said.

"I am a former law partner of hers. ... In light of a formal investigation being conducted by Judge Williams, myself and other friends of Zulima's prevailed upon her that it was inappropriate for her to represent and speak for herself, and she ought to be formally represented by counsel," Krovatin said.

Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Cresskill, wrote Gov. Jon S. Corzine Tuesday, asking who was paying Farber's lawyer, and Assemblyman Guy Gregg, R-Flanders, said she should resign.

"I, like the majority of New Jersey residents, am outraged by the horrific conduct of our state's top law enforcement official," Gregg said.

Link to online story.


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