FILES AS ESSEX COUNTY PROSECUTOR, 1949 and 1959-1968

Summary: Partial documentation of Byrne's tenure first as Deputy Attorney General in charge of Essex County, and then as duly appointed Prosecutor for Essex County. The documents pertain to both general office practice and functions, as well as specific investigations and cases, such as the investigation of the New Jersey Bureau of Securities and the State of New Jersey v. LaPierre, Bisignano and Russo, as well as some of Byrne's personal activities. Included in the series are incoming and outgoing letters, memoranda, press releases, publications, court opinions, grand jury presentments, hand written notes, a legal brief and four volumes of a case transcript.

The general correspondence in this series consists largely of invitations, thank-you letters and congratulatory letters both sent and received, as well as condolence letters sent by Byrne. Several letters also pertain to activities of the prosecutor's office, such as Attorney General Arthur J. Sills' letter of December 12, 1966 regarding the legalization of lotteries in New York. Notable correspondents include Representative Hugh J. Addonizio (1 letter: 1960), Rutgers Law School Dean Willard Heckel (1 letter: 1967), Governor Richard J. Hughes (2 letters: 1966 and 1968), Governor Robert B. Meyner (2 letters: 1960 and 1966), Judge Alexander P. Waugh (4 letters: 1962-1963, 1965), and Justice Joseph Weintraub (3 letters: 1963, 1965 and 1966). Correspondence between August 22 and September 8, 1966 pertains to an accident sustained by Byrne and consists largely of Get Well cards with Byrne's attached response. One letter, addressed to Assistant Prosecutor Riccardelli, is from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (1966).

Memoranda listed in this series under Points of Law pertain to several legal subjects including conspiracy to commit a crime in another jurisdiction, civil powers of a county prosecutor relative to the those of the Attorney General, double jeopardy and contempt conviction, effect of defamatory matter contained in judicial pleadings, instructions to a grand jury regarding returning indictments, juror qualifications and jury panels, municipal control and regulation of street excavation, necessity of proper foundation testimony to introduction of results of chemical analysis of narcotics, possible crimes that may have occurred in a stipulated fact situation, powers at the disposal of the prosecutor in abating a public nuisance of air pollution, prejudicial effect of newspaper coverage and remarks of police officers on the state's case, recent contrivance or recent fabrication and the right of the state to detain material witnesses.

Items listed as reference materials include publications, journal articles and analyses of Supreme Court decisions, all of which were prepared by third parties.