7/26/2019 Asbury Park Press front page Friday, June 3 2016

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Rock n Rollin Red BankLandmark RiverFest festival returns this weekend with live

music, food vendors and craft beer along the banks of theNavesink.

Turn backtime atAllaireState park will host CivilWar encampment andold-fashioned baseball.

Antiquesin OceanGroveCollectibles and keepsakesfor sale at Giant Spring FleaMarket.

Catch aballgameLakewood BlueClaws hostHickory Crawdads tonightand Saturday.

ASBURY PARK PRESS APP.COM $1.50

VOLUME137

NUMBER 133

SINCE 1879

FRIDAY 06.03.16

beacheditionYOUR WEEKEND GUIDE DOWN THE SHORE

All this and more inside! 2A

ADVICE Jersey Alive!

CLASSIFIED 4D

COMICS Jersey Alive!

LOCAL 3A

LOTTERIES 2A

OBITUARIES 21A

OPINION 24A

SPORTS 1C

WEATHER 12C

YOUR MONEY 20A

Autopsy report reveals toxiclevel of painkiller Fentanyl

in Princes bloodstream. 1B

Shore Regional senior swimmer Helen Grossman won the 100butterfly at the Monmouth County meet and broke her ownShore Conference meet record from 2014.

Join Grossman and Giants quarterback Eli Manning on June13 at the Jersey Shore Sports Awards. Student-athletes beinghonored and others wishing to attend must RSVP by June 8.Info: on.app.com/sportsawardstickets.

TOMS RIVER - Aides to Gov. Chris Christie, fear-ing political blowback, attempted to shut down a crim-inal investigation into Ocean County Freeholder Di-

rector Jack Kellys daughter ahead of the 2013 elec-tion, according to a lawsuit filed by a detective in theProsecutors Office.

Detective Steven Mecka, who investigated theftclaims against Dawn Marie Kelly, daughter of thefreeholder, said Little Egg Harbor Township Commit-teeman Ray Gormley told him he was visited by twoaides to the governor who urged Gormley to use hisinfluence to shut down the investigation because itwould look bad if matters were ever exposed to thepublic especially before an election, according to thesuit.

Mecka, 41, makes the allegations in a civil lawsuitin state Superior Court in which he outlines what hepurports to be widespread official corruption instate, county and local government in Ocean County including in the Prosecutors Office over the past

decade. Most of the claims are set forth broadly andlack specific details. A notable exception: allegationssurrounding the powerful freeholder and his daugh-ter.

Mecka said he has suffered adverse employmentactions as a result of his inquiries into official wrong-doing and resistance to making improper inquiries.He claims he was passed over for promotion to ser-geant and subjected to arbitrary disciplinary action.

The 21-page lawsuit is a serpentine collection of al-

Lawsuit claims Ocean County is corrupt

ERIK LARSEN @ERIK_LARSEN

See COUNTY, Page 23A

Michael Dowens kept his post-traumaticstress disorder a secret for 10 years after themilitary medically discharged the Navy veteranfor asthma he developed overseas.

Dowens, now a Holmdel police officer,thought he was suffering in silence.

But he couldnt stop the shame he felt, or the

guilt that he was safe at home when so many ofhis fellow servicemen and women were still indanger.

When Dowens failed to conquer the problemon his own and saw the damage PTSD inflictedon his family, he chose to get help.

Now, Dowens is hoping to help other afflictedveterans by walking 237 miles nonstop overthree days to Washington, D.C., to raise aware-ness and money to combat PTSD.

(PTSD) is something that needs to be ad-dressed, the 37-year-old patrolman saidWednesday. Its something that so many menand women suffer from, and theres not thatmuch help for them to get.

So shortly after sunrise Thursday, Dowensand two other fellow veterans took their firststep in their crusade against PTSD. Around 50people made up of friends, family and policefrom Monmouth and Ocean counties gatheredwhile Dowens and two other veterans, NationalGuard member Brian Zarnowski of Mayvilleand a veteran who wished not to be identified,

Veteran walks for

PTSD awarenessLocal police officer, two other vets will trek from Holmdelveterans memorial to Washington, D.C., in three days

PHOTOS BY THOMAS P. COSTELLO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Navy veteran Mike Dowens sets out Thursday on a walk from the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial inHolmdel to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., to raise awareness about PTSD.

Dowens gets a high-five from his son Greyson, 2, heldby his wife, Christine, before setting out.

I just want to bridge the gap between the

veterans of the Vietnam War and the veterans

of Afghanistan and Iraq because were all on

the same team. I have their back just as much

as they have mine, and thats the reason why

I picked this memorial to start off with.

MICHAEL DOWENS, HOLMDEL OFFICER AND NAVY VETERAN

ALEXANDRIA CAROLAN ASBURY PARK PRESS

See VETERANS, Page 8A