Welcome to win a shredder!
Where everybody has a chance to shred documents without being told to do it.
Be sure to visit www.defensemanifesto.com to read Warren's lame response to the federal monitor's report.
UMDNJ Federal Monitor's Report (page 4): "We also received a hotline tip on May 17, 2006 that an employee of SOM who worked for Wallace was shredding documents that might be relevant to our investigation. The monitor immediately dispatched [h]is investigative team to control the situation; and he contacted Dr. Vladeck to make him aware of the issue. The employee was immediately stopped from shredding documents; all materials were secured; and all shredding machines were confiscated."
Warren Wallace speaks! Well sort of, the Gloucester County Times has answered our call to publicly release Warren Wallace's Defense Manifesto.
See what Warren Wallace says at DefenseManifesto.com
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Warren Wallace and Stephen Sweeney
Please note the article below has a misprint in it. Mr. Warren S. Wallace really had a salary of $166,000 at UMDNJ before the feds raided his office. Apparently, the Democrats took offense to the newspaper article and whined about other items, our stance on those items can be found by clicking here.
Gloucester County GOP targets a Bryant ally
The GOP is setting its sights on Bryant ally Warren S. Wallace, who is running for a third term on the Board of Freeholders, even though he could be called to testify in the high-profile trial.
Wallace was among at least seven top officials at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey who have been fired or forced to resign over the last two years after a federal investigation revealed widespread financial irregularities and misconduct.
Wallace was fired from his $600,000 position as an associate dean of academic and student affairs at the university's School of Osteopathic Medicine on June 4, 2006, the day before a federal monitor labeled his activities "unethical at minimum." He was never criminally charged.
Bryant, his longtime political associate, was indicted for soliciting a no-show job at UMDNJ in return for steering millions in state funds to the school, among other things.
Wallace's boss at UMDNJ, former dean R. Michael Gallagher, was charged with creating the fake job and doctoring financial records.
Gallagher is on trial with Bryant and the court proceeding could last through Election Day. Both resigned before Wallace was ousted.
During jury selection last week, Wallace was named "a person of interest" who may be called to testify for the prosecution or the defense.
Contacted at his home in Sewell, Wallace said: "Nobody has asked me to be a witness." He said he was surprised to see his name listed in a news account.
Wallace, 59, declined further comment and referred questions to his attorney.
"He is under such a cloud of suspicion and still he has the arrogance to run for office," said Larry Wallace, a GOP candidate for freeholder. The two are not related.
Larry Wallace said his opponent should have resigned.
Gov. Corzine called for Warren Wallace to resign as chair of the Delaware River and Bay Authority after the investigator released his findings. Wallace refused and was not reappointed in 2006.
The Republican attack on Wallace has advanced to the Internet. Googling his name quickly turns up a GOP-created Web site and link that features images of a shredding machine and a mountain of documents-turned-confetti. The link, www.winashredder.com, pokes fun at Wallace for being the target of an FBI raid after a tipster said evidence in his school office was being shredded. The Web site offers tongue-in-cheek advice on how to conceal mistakes, Wallace-style.
"He still has never answered questions about the allegations or the shredding," Larry Wallace said.
Soon after the raid, federal investigators subpoenaed school documents and issued a 15-page report outlining their findings on Wallace.
The report said Wallace spent most of his time as dean on political activities; that he helped a friend get a no-bid cafeteria and catering job at the college worth more than $300,000; and that he manipulated the petty-cash system to pay his personal travel expenses.
Wallace also pressured staff to interview and accept one of his daughters to the medical school even though she had not taken the required entrance examination or provided essays, according to the federal monitor. A committee approved her, but she later withdrew her application.
After a two-year silence on the report, Wallace issued a five-page written statement in June denying any wrongdoing. A few days earlier, he filed a lawsuit against the school, saying his firing was racially motivated.
Wallace, who is African American, said the school retaliated against him for complaining it was not hiring and not admitting as students enough minorities.
Yet Wallace, who worked there 16 years, previously had bragged that the school had a 25 percent minority enrollment, one of the highest ratios for health sciences schools in the country. And, he was among several African American school officials.
"That doesn't mean there's no discrimination against others," Wallace said.
"What startled me the most was the president never spoke to me; the monitor never spoke to me; the dean never spoke to me, and then the dean called me at home and asked for my resignation," Wallace said. "I was never allowed to come in and talk about it."
UMDNJ officials said the lawsuit is not valid. And the federal monitor said he had attempted to interview Wallace twice, but Wallace referred calls to his lawyer and an interview could not be arranged.
In his written statement, given to the news media, Wallace said the time he spent as dean dealing with freeholder business was not political, but public, and that he never abused travel expenses. He denied any role in approving the cafeteria contract or using his influence to get a relative an admissions interview.
"The historical practice has been to grant interviews to all applicants who are the children of [the school's] faculty/administrators," he wrote.
"I unequivocally state that I did nothing illegal or improper."
He declined to answer any questions, saying his lawyer forbade him.
Rocco Cipparone, his attorney, said his client was never charged with a crime, but it is unknown whether the investigation is over. "If I had a letter from the U.S. Attorney saying he's not a target or a subject, then he could comment. But you never get a letter like that," he said.
Cipparone said Wallace is innocent and the allegations should not hinder his candidacy. "He has adequately refuted them," Cipparone said.
Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, said it's not too unusual for a candidate to run for office after being investigated.
"Sometimes voters are much more forgiving than the press or the people following a story," he said.
But if there's a trial, and a candidate is called to testify, all bets are off, Zelizer said.
"There's a certain amount of down time after an investigation ends, and people forget," he said. "But when a trial is going on, it's not a good thing and often there's a lot of pressure to step down."
Wallace says he has no plans to drop out of the race, even if called to the witness stand. Opening statements in the trial are set for today.
"I'm going to campaign until it's over," said Wallace, now a family counselor. "I'm in this to stay and I'm in this to win. I have gotten a lot of encouragement, and support, and also I have a lot of faith."
The best way to answer that question is to let the newspapers (like the Courier Post below) do the talking:
Editorial | Freeholder in Trouble
Wallace should quit
Jun 12, 2006 | 491 words
Gloucester County voters have to wonder whether they can trust a freeholder who's been fired from his job and accused of activities "unethical at a minimum."
Freeholder Warren Wallace lost his job June 1 as a senior associate dean at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey after the university discovered he had interfered with the admissions process to try to get his daughter into medical school.
Wallace also is accused of manipulating travel expense reports and petty cash, and directing a lucrative no-bid cafeteria and catering contract to a neighbor in exchange for free meals.
It's not the kind of behavior voters seek in an elected official. Gov. Corzine has called for Wallace's resignation from political office. That would be best for New Jersey.
In scouring Wallace's UMDNJ computer, federal monitor Herbert J. Stern, a former federal judge probing a series of scandals at UMDNJ, discovered that Wallace had spent the majority of his work hours on his political jobs, not college tasks.
While, in theory, this use of his time may have benefitted Gloucester County or patrons of the Delaware River and Bay Authority, which Wallace serves as chairman, voters can no longer have confidence in his integrity.
The investigation turned to Wallace last month when a tipster alerted the FBI that an employee in his office was shredding documents possibly related to an investigation of State Sen. Wayne Bryant (D., Camden).
Wallace is just the latest in a long list of UMDNJ officials who have quit or been fired during a yearlong probe of undue political influence and financial abuses at UMDNJ.
In April, R. Michael Gallagher, dean of the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, was forced to resign over allegations he doctored his books to boost his annual bonus, as well as padded his expense account.
University trustee Donald Bradley, also a Newark city councilman, is accused of exerting influence to sublet a university apartment costing $144,000 annually for $1 a year to a campaign contributor.
UMDNJ also has suffered allegations of Medicaid and Medicare billing fraud and student cheating.
The federal monitor, as well as the school's new president, its board chairman, several trustees and board members - appointed by former Gov. Richard Codey and Corzine - are trying to straighten out UMDNJ, which in May graduated 1,400 students.
Bryant, who chairs the Senate budget committee, worked part-time for UMDNJ from February 2003 until last winter in a support job created especially for him. Stern is investigating whether as budget chairman, Bryant steered millions of taxpayer dollars to the osteopathic school, including a last-minute $2.7 million grant in 2005 to the Stratford campus, where Wallace worked.
The investigations are far from over. These charges will hamper Wallace from fulfilling his duties as a freeholder and at the bay authority, where he once was considered the reformer. He should step down.