The following is an at-large open letter to the West Windsor community and Chief Joe Pica.
I believe it was around July 8, 2013, when I asked First Deputy Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor Doris Galuchie for the return of my poster-size pictures taken on May 15, 2012. In January, 2013, we learned Sergeant Matt Kemp had taken internal photographs of the Grover House as proof the West Windsor Police did not damage the Grover House during police exercises.
I saw where you referred my request to a West Windsor police officer internally to check on returning my pictures; the Kemp photos conveniently disappeared from public view. To no one’s surprise, nothing happened.
West Windsor detective Mark Lee did an admirable job in December, 2012, convincing us (members of the volunteer Grover Homestead Restoration Committee) that he was conducting a no-stone-left-unturned investigation that would lead us to the perps and options to fund restitution. We requested, but never received, the cost of that 3.5-month police investigation.
I went to the State Attorney General’s Office. We reached out to the U.S./Federal Attorney in Newark and Trenton. We contacted Governor Christie. I went to Adam Wengryn’s (salvage operator’s) business enterprise months after the police and township refused to act. Wengryn was unable to receive property given by those who did not own the property, but Wengryn hired an attorney, which frightened West Windsor’s lawyer, Mike Herbert. Neither proper accounting nor IRS protocols were followed by the township.
We knew that for the price of approximately $2,000, we could pay to have the Mark Lee/West Windsor-taxpayer-funded Grover Report released. It seems that everyone has his/her price.
To think the outcome would be different if Frank Cox were police chief is indisputable because this sort of massive political scandal and cover-up would never have occurred on his watch. I could be wrong. Many current West Windsor residents and its current politicians don’t care about American history and the sacrifices that were made to make their lives truly safe and free.
To think the Grover Farmstead would be a retirement home for Tommy Grover to sit on his side porch enjoying his retirement with his grandchildren scurrying about is irrefutable.
I want you all to remember one thing: Tommy Grover was Killed In Action in 1969 — a few months before I joined the Marine Corps — because farm kids always supply the boots on the ground. Local police departments can become the army of the politicians. WW-P schools actively discourage the presence of military recruiters in this suburban cocoon.
Tommy Grover gave his life in service to his county as the ultimate sacrifice so sinister, despicable, and cowardly politicians like Hsueh, Linda Geevers, Marlena Schmid, Kamal Khanna, and George Borek could themselves do nothing escapes my ability to grasp the depravity. My E-mail correspondence proves the West Windsor Council is integrity-challenged.
So you want to destroy the 170-year-old boyhood home of a true American hero for $45,000 yet had no plan of your own?
How are our lying West Windsor politicians and administration able to spend money to raze the Grover House without spending taxpayer dollars, the very same demands placed on the Grover Homestead Restoration Committee?
Pete Weale
Vice Chair, Grover Committee
