Former Sheriff Edward Bullock and another person repeatedly molested a young boy in custody, according to a new civil notice.
A third accuser has come forward with allegations that Warren County officials knew about a late sheriff's sexual abuse of young boys and allowed it to happen.
A civil notice dated Dec. 21 claims a young boy in custody was "targeted and repeatedly abused" by an employee of the county sheriff's department between 1987 and 1989.
Former Warren County Sheriff Edward Bullock appears in state Superior Court in Flemington on July 21, 2015, for the start of his trial on allegations he sexually assaulted a boy in the 1980s. The jury could not reach a verdict in the case, and Bullock died before he could be retried. (Sue Beyer | For lehighvalleylive.com)The dates fall within the tenure of Edward Bullock, the county's sheriff from 1982 to 1991, who died in November at the age of 86. During his final years, he fought criminal and civil claims that he would groom young boys in county custody for sexual relationships.
A redacted version of the newest tort claim notice was obtained Friday by lehighvalleylive.com through a records request submitted to the county last week. Supporting documents reference other lawsuits connected to Bullock, and allegations of how the abuse occurred mirror previous accusations.
"It's about exposing this issue," said filing attorney Brad Russo, who is also handling the other civil cases. "But it's also about the culture and the climate that fostered essentially a perfect storm of kids in county custody who are being preyed upon and served up despite everyone around them ... knowing what's going on."
County officials declined to comment on ongoing litigation.
New accusations
The latest tort claim notice at first follows the same pattern as the others, but adds new abuse claims including the involvement of another person.
Like other cases, the boy, identified only as R.M., appeared in court multiple times for hearings, where Bullock would allegedly take him from the holding cell to his office and give him back rubs.
The sheriff would also allegedly transport the boy to county youth facilities -- "literally dozens of times," the notice says -- pull over on a dirt road and perform sex acts.
New allegations include the sheriff bringing the boy back to his home in Lopatcong Township, where his elderly mother also lived. Bullock would serve the youth alcohol and make the boy sleep in bed with him, where they performed more sex acts, the notice claims.
Also, there were allegedly "more than a dozen occasions" where Bullock would take R.M. to a home on the Delaware River owned by a friend, identified only as R.C. That man would also act sexually with the boy until the sheriff returned to pick him up, the document says. The other adult also took R.M. on a trip to Connecticut, where the boy fled the hotel, the claim says.
Former Warren County Sheriff Edward Bullock hides his face June 9 after a hearing at state Superior Court in Flemington. (Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com)During the abuse, the sheriff would allegedly threaten to put the boy and his mother in jail if he told anyone. The notice says that when the youth told employees at the youth shelter, they refused to take action -- a claim repeated in the other cases.
"Aside from the pattern of the sheriff ... the other pattern is the devastation on their lives," Russo said of the victims. "People are just coming around to addressing these things. ... It's impossible to make sense of this as a kid or a teenager, or even as a young adult."
Civil, criminal cases
When he resigned from office, Bullock, then 63, was the subject of a state police sting in which he reportedly tried to curry sexual favors from a trooper posing as a sexually abused 17-year-old boy. He pleaded guilty in 1992 to official misconduct and was imprisoned for nine months.
The first allegations of a county cover-up of systemic abuse were publicly revealed in a legal notice in 2012. The second was filed last summer, about the time a criminal trial began on six counts of sexual assault.
The first lawsuit, filed in 2013, claims the victim, identified only as W.M., was a 10-year-old boy who was repeatedly abused and raped at least once by a county employee in 1987 and '88, including while being transported by the employee to a county-run youth shelter in Oxford Township. The accusations were used in the criminal case.
The second suit, filed in 2015, has much of the same claims. That victim, identified as C.C., was 14 and 15 years old and under the county's care during four alleged assaults by the sheriff, the lawsuit says. The alleged assaults include Bullock giving the boy back rubs in his office, and fondling the teen during a transport to the county youth shelter.
Those cases are active but hearings have not been set, Russo said.
The criminal case -- which involved the victim of one of the lawsuits -- was left unresolved. A Hunterdon County jury could not reach a verdict, and Bullock died before the case could be retried.
Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.