NJ Today

Another Cryan Arrested Drunk

The politically-connected Cryan family lost another round in its long battle with substance abuse last week, when the brother of Assemblyman Joseph Cryan and owner of Cryan's Ale House in North Branch was arrested for drunken driving.
A son of former Essex County Sheriff John Cryan Sr. was charged with charged with drunken driving almost four years to the day after his guilt in a prior DWI case was confirmed by an Appellate Division tribunal.
Police stopped John Cryan Jr., 47, for a traffic violation on westbound Interstate 78.
According to authorities, the Pittstown resident failed to maintain his lane and showed signs of intoxication when police pulled him over.

Police reported that the suspect was released to the custody of a family member, who was not identified, but his vehicle was towed and impounded. It is not believed that the family member was the lawmaker, because the brothers are alleged to each have domestic violence restraining orders against each other.
Cryan was previously charged by the Bedminster Police Department with DWI on August 14, 2001 after he crashed his car into a tree at about 2:00 a.m.
Cryan argued that case all the way to the Appellate Division, which confirmed his guilt established in two lower court trials in a decision issued Oct. 27, 2003.

A cousin of the suspect and lawmaker, Morristown Councilman John Cryan, pleaded guilty to assaulting a bartender in January, 2006 and was sentenced to 20 hours community service, mandatory AA meetings, and a $725 fine.
Assemblyman Cryan's son, also named John Cryan, was jailed for a month this year after having failed drug tests that were part of a probation sentence imposed after he brutally beat a motorist with a baseball bat as two friends punched and kicked the victim.

The assemblyman, is an undersheriff in Union County, vehemently denies any addiction to alcohol or chemical substances, although a court ordered psychological report does refer to "his alcohol abuse."
"(Karen Golding) acknowledges that she endured, excused and minimized Mr. Cryan's inappropriate behavior by choosing to believe his alcohol abuse was responsible for his actions," wrote Margaret R. Curvin, LCSW, a court-appointed psychotherapist in a Dec. 8, 2006 letter to the probation department.
Curvin was named to evaluate Karen Golding, a former girlfriend of the lawmaker, who was arrested on stalking charges after she has tipped a newspaper reporter about financial discrepancies in a non-profit fund controlled by Joseph Cryan.

Sheriff Ralph Froehlich hired Joseph Cryan as second in command seven months after the politician lost his job as bartender in his father's Metuchen pub in 2002.
While serving as Essex County Sheriff in 1979, John Cryan, an Irish immigrant who owned several drinking establishments, was charged with various counts of official corruption but was freed on a technicality.
The elder Cryan, who died in 2005, was also a former Essex County Democratic Party chairman and a member of the state Assembly.
In addition to his multiple salaried government jobs, Assemblyman Joseph Cryan is the Democratic State Committee chairman and political boss in Union Township.