Ex-NJ Gov. Phil Murphy ends term with pardon of Dem fundraiser’s son 90 minutes before he was even convicted

Ex-New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy wrapped his largely forgettable eight-year stint in office with a flurry of pardons, including for the son of a Democratic power broker convicted of leaving the scene of a fatal hit-and-run.

Harris Jacobs, 28, son of influential Atlantic City attorney Joe Jacobs, was convicted Jan. 20 in connection with the deadly September 2022 crash in which he struck 76-year-old pedestrian Orlando Fraga with his 2016 Toyota 4Runner.

In surveillance footage from the scene, Jacobs twice exits his SUV and leans over Fraga’s body before getting back in his vehicle and driving away without notifying law enforcement.

Fraga later died of his injuries.

Jacobs’ attorney, Lou Barbone, claimed his client had no criminal intent when leaving the scene, and that he was trying to help Fraga, but that the situation was an “emotional trigger” for him.

“He checked his pulse, made sure a bystander was calling 911 and checked the victim again, realizing he had expired,” Barbone told NBC 10.

“That was simply too much of an emotional trigger. And while Harris left the scene thereafter, he was turning himself in to report the accident the same morning.”

Jacobs’ first trial in 2025 ended in a hung jury before a retrial earlier this month. He was convicted Tuesday of second-degree knowingly leaving the scene of a fatal motor vehicle accident.

Murphy, 68, pardoned Jacobs nearly 90 minutes before the conviction came down — but Barbone told the outlet that they’re filing a motion to get the conviction tossed altogether.

“It must not be overlooked that the defendant’s conduct resulted in the death of an elderly gentleman who leaves behind a grieving family,” a spokesperson from the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement critical of the case’s outcome.

“This case was thoroughly investigated and prosecuted by the dedicated men and women of the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office (ACPO), who brought this defendant to justice today.”

“Unfortunately, when politics pervades justice, the rule of law becomes subordinate to influence and power,” the spokesperson added.

“A conviction can be rendered meaningless not by the verdict of a jury, but by the intervention of political power and connections.”

Fraga’s son, Kenny Fraga-Seruti, blasted Murphy’s pardon to the outlet as “the worst decision ever.”

In total, Murphy handed out 455 pardons and commutations in his final year in office. The most recent batch of clemency actions on his way out the door included 148 individuals, several of them with political connections to the governor and his wife, Tammy, including Jacobs.

Other pardons included Democratic Assemblyman Al Coutinho, who pleaded guilty in 2013 for raiding his family’s charitable foundation to the tune of $32,500 and was sentenced to three years probation.

Murphy also pardoned Mordechai Berkowitz, who was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide after killing a woman in 2022. Before his legal entanglements, Berkowitz was being considered by Murphy to be New Jersey’s attorney general.

Murphy’s tenure was marked by several controversies and instances of inefficacy.

Last year during a series of ICE operations in the Garden State, he made the bizarre claim that he had an illegal immigrant living in a spare room, and dared feds to “try and get” her.

After he was subpoenaed by then-US Attorney Alina Habba, he meekly walked it back, telling reporters, “I didn’t suggest that, with all due respect.”

Critics say he also overpromised during the campaign to fix the problems plaguing NJ Transit, and that the law he signed revamping the state’s Open Public Records Act made it more difficult to obtain government documents.

Murphy also took criticism for his frequent vacationing, often to his family’s villa in Umbria, Italy, where the family visited in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

In Sept. 2023, Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way — who was New Jersey’s secretary of state at the time — was sworn in as lieutenant governor after the death of her predecessor, Sheila Oliver, who was serving as acting governor when she died because Murphy was out of the country on vacation.

In December 2021, Murphy caught significant heat for traipsing off to Costa Rica as New Jersey was setting new records for COVID-19 infections during that winter’s surge of the Delta variant.