2004 Media Releases:

CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
VINCENT P. SARUBBI, CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR
MEDIA   INFORMATION

April 1, 2004

Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi announced today that his office will file no criminal charges against any employees of the Camden County Correctional Facility in connection with the death of an inmate on Jan. 27, 2004, at the facility in Camden, N.J.

The only person criminally charged in the case is former inmate Marvin Lister, M/35, who is accused of Murder in the death of another inmate, Joel Seidel, M/65, of Cherry Hill, N.J. Seidel shared a cell with Lister in the jail's mental health ward.

Sarubbi said his investigation of jail personnel focused primarily on whether any employees intentionally falsified records in the aftermath of Seidel's death. Investigators found insufficient evidence of criminal conduct to support the filing of charges, Sarubbi stated.

Sarubbi said his office's investigation determined the following:

• A corrections officer failed to make contemporaneous entries on a log sheet to reflect all of his inspections of the mental health ward that morning.
• After the officer's shift, a supervisor instructed him to fill out the log sheet. The officer expressed misgivings about his ability to recall all of his actions, the sequence and the time of each, but complied with his supervisor's instruction. The investigation revealed that some of the entries were inconsistent with the officer's actual activities outside the cells in the mental health ward.
• While the investigation uncovered administrative and procedural irregularities, the inconsistencies in the officer's after-the-fact log entries did not rise to the level of criminal conduct.
  

Sarubbi noted that his decision does not impact on the county's ability to pursue pending administrative charges against jail personnel.

Lister remains incarcerated at the Ann Klein Forensic Center in Trenton, awaiting a determination on his competence to face the Murder charge.

All persons charged with criminal offenses are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.