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BACON AND EXCELLENCE

Readers name the top five
diners at the Jersey Shore

Christie ally
moving on,
but not too
far away?
Adviser could maintain
close ties in new job
BOB JORDAN @BOBJORDANAPP
TRENTON The woman behind the award of a $25
million state contract for Sandy recovery TV commercials starring Gov. Chris Christie is leaving her government job.
But Michele Brown is maintaining close ties to the
Republican governor, raising questions on whether
shell have an outsized influence with her longtime boss
in her new job with business marketing group Choose
New Jersey.
Brown has been Christies top economic adviser the
last three years as head of the state Economic Development Authority, a job Christie recommended her for.
As Choose New Jerseys president and chief executive officer, Brown will have a salary of $450,000, double what she made with the state, and will advocate for
public utilities, corporations and contractors the
same entities that received lucrative state contracts
and tax breaks while Brown was at the EDA.
Choose New Jersey is a non-profit organization with
a $3 million budget generated by membership fees
from companies prevented by pay-to-play laws from
donating to the governor. Many of the companies employ their own lobbyists.
New Jersey has revolving door laws in place designed to restrict the influence former state officials

PRESS INVESTIGATION

AMIT BORNSTEIN WAS TAKEN TO THE

MONMOUTH COUNTY JAIL FOR NOT APPEARING
IN COURT. SEVEN HOURS LATER, HE WAS

BEATEN,
BLOODIED
AND DEAD

Four years after

death, civil case
heads to court

See ALLY, Page A4

SUSANNE CERVENKA
@SCERVENKA

Mater Dei finds

hope, inspiration
JERRY CARINO @NJHOOPSHAVEN

In the frenzied days since news broke that Mater Dei

Prep will close in June, two words have heartened supporters rallying to save the beloved high school Wildwood Catholic.
The Cape May County high school received a death
notice out of the blue five years ago. After initial public
outcry, supporters were given a two-month extension
to raise enough money to keep the doors open. They did.
Today, Wildwood Catholics enrollment is up 25 percent
and its budget seems to be on stable footing.
Were like the mouse that roared down here, said
Carole Pantalone, treasurer of Save Wildwood Catholic,
a 501(c)(3) organization that raised nearly $500,000 in
2010. We pulled it together and made it work.
Their blueprint will be instructive for Mater Deis
Save the Seraphs movement, which has two months
to raise $1million so the 50-year-old Middletown institution can carry on.

Monmouth County Jail guards surrounded Amit Bornstein, stripped him

and appeared to struggle with him, as seen in a surveillance video.

Visit APP.com and click on this story to view the jail

videos. Warning: some content is graphic in nature.

See SCHOOL, Page A5

The officers pounded on the door of

the brick house, then rang the bell several times. No answer. Their noontime
presence was an unusual sight in front of
the $850,000 home nestled deep inside
the affluent Marlboro neighborhood.
Finally, a towering 22-year-old opened
the door. Standing at 6-foot-3-inches and
weighing more than 200 pounds, Amit
Bornstein wanted to know why they
were at his house. He was under arrest,
the two Monmouth County Sheriff Officers told him. He had failed to appear in
court to answer three charges pot possession, stealing from cars and a traffic
ticket.
Amit became agitated as his 13-yearold brother, Elad, watched from inside.
Who will take care of the boy? Their
mother died years earlier. Their father
was in Africa on business. No one else
was home. A neighbor finally agreed to
take in Elad for the time being.
The cuffs clicked around Amits
wrists and he was driven away.
It would be the last time he saw Elad.
Six hours later, heavily bruised, cut
See BEATEN, Page A8

STATES RACING TO REGULATE E-CIGARETTES, AVOID SALES TO MINORS PAGE 1B

BOYS BASKETBALL

10 SHORE TEAMS
FOR THE AGES
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VOLUME 136
NUMBER 33
SINCE 1879

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