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Robert "Bob" Brown Biography

NJ Assembly Candidate Robert "Bob" Brown is a disability retired Old Bridge police officer. In 2007, the State passed legislation that now identifies Bob Brown as a "wounded" police officer. Those considered "wounded" are those police officers that were shot in the line of duty by an armed assailant. This legislation also provides those "wounded" police officers with special counseling services for these public servant "crime victims" that was previously not available. Bob Brown has also been invited into the newly formed "Wounded Officers Support Group" that provides an opportunity for those officers, both retired and still active, to share their personal experiences and network with their peers who have undergone similar traumatic events.

Bob Brown was a municipal police officer for 13 years in central New Jersey. In 1981, he was assigned to investigate a call about a man on a apartment balcony exposing himself to children near the complex playground.

The suspect refused to answer his front door and later come out onto a second floor balcony to taunt the police officers standing outside on the ground below. A police sergeant at the scene told the suspect that he was under arrest and Bob Brown climbed the second floor balcony to secure the arrest. However when Brown got onto the second floor balcony, he got caught in a clothes line and the suspect briefly retreated inside his apartment and came out firing with a rifle. Brown was struck twice by bullets to his right hand and right shoulder.

Brown, a lefty, reached for his revolver and struggled with the assailant before returning gunfire, killing the man that was still shooting at him. Brown then secured the assailant's rifle and walked down the inside staircase and opend the door. He came out bleeding from the right hand and shoulder to the stunned police officers standing outside the apartment on the ground level.

At the time of his shooting, Brown was the local PBA President and a college student. Before he retired, he finished not only his college degree but also completed his law degree at Seton Hall University, passing the State Bar exam on the first attempt.

Over the next 19 years, he has handled both civll and criminal cases in his law practice. His most notable criminal case was defending a volunteer youth baseball coach that was the first person prosecuted and indicted in New Jersey for an assault at a sporting event. His most notable civil case was getting the State of New Jersey to recognize the pensions that police and firemen receive due to injuries received in the line of duty were tax free from both Federal and New Jersey Income Tax. He was also the catalyst for change in the mandatory assignment of indigent criminal cases to private attorneys on a pro-bono (free) basis. In 1995, he said "No" and faced both criminal and ethical charges. Other attorneys began to also challenge this illegal practice of a "shakedown" by the New Jersey Supreme Court. Legislation was later passed and court rules were changed as a result of Brown's stand.

Over the years, Bob Brown has been asked by both political parties to run for office. Even the local school board members have urged him to run for a seat on the school board. This year, Bob Brown decided to run not for the glory of holding a state office but realizing that change can only come about by getting involved and getting elected.

New Jersey's problems are unique to other states in the country. In a small state sandwiched in between both Philadelphia and New York City with a population of 8 million it has one of the highest property tax and car insurance rates in the country. It has also been the subject of corrupt government officals. Bob Brown would like the voters of his legislative district to elect him to bring about change in the mindset of current New Jersey politics.

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