Camelia M. Valdes brought loved ones and colleagues to Trenton last week for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that she'd hoped would seal her confirmaton as New Jersey's first Latina county prosecutor..jpg)
But like many in her position, she found it's doesn't come easy.
No matter. When she returned Monday, committee members talked about what an outstanding Passaic County prosecutor Valdes will be.
The Senate was expected to approve her appointment today, in addition to adopting the state's 2009 budget and handling assorted other last-minute items as part of its final legislative session before summer break.
Valdes was all but guaranteed to replace outgoing Passaic County Prosecutor James Avigliano, a holdover whose term ended in September 2007.
But there was the matter of an exit strategy that John Girgenti, a Hawthorne Democrat, had promised Avigliano. It involves an appointment to the state Parole Board.
A former president of the New Jersey Hispanic Bar, Valdes has won convictions in several high-profile cases as a federal prosecutor, including one of a female bar owner accused in a human smuggling ring who helped authorities convict a local mayor on corruption charges. She also won a conviction in a $5 million Medicare fraud case.
Raised in Newark, the Bronx-born Valdes graduated from Seton Hall University and then received her law degree from Rutgers Law School in 1996.
She was appointed by Governor Corzine, who will be defending his own office against former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie when voters go to the polls in November.
New Jersey currently has two female prosecutors in its 21 counties and one Hispanic -- a glaring deficiency in a state whose largest minority population is Latino.
In addition to Valdes, Passaic County will be getting three skilled and qualified Superior Court judges: Bruno Mongiardo and Joseph Portelli -- who, like Valdes, are from Wayne -- and at-large appointee Greta Gooden Brown of West Plainsboro.
Mongiardo has been Passaic County's acting prosecutor since Avigliano stepped down in March after the Valdes nomination.
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