Mercer administrators sent a letter officially reprimanding County Sheriff Kevin C. Larkin for interrupting a State and Local Politics class (POL 205) held on the evening of February 1.
As reported in the Voice’s Feb. 18 article “Law and disorder,” Larkin entered the class after receiving a text message from a student in the class who is also a staffer in the county
clerk’s office. The student, Brook Siedl, informed Larkin that the professor, Michael Glass, had made remarks about Larkin’s widely-publicized double-dipping into state pension funds among other comments.
Larkin responded to the text message by coming directly to the school’s West Windsor campus. He pulled Glass out of the classroom and spoke to him in the hallway. When they reentered the room a few minutes later, the professor apologized to the students as Larkin stood beside him.
Following broad public outcry Larkin has now issued his own apology both for interrupting the class and for not adhering to the college’s visitor policy.
“I’ve known Mike Glass for 30 years, and I apologize for any violation of school policy,” Larkin told the Trenton Times on Feb. 24.
But Larkin also told the newspaper that he was responding to “outright lies” told by Glass. In an article in the Trentonian on Feb. 26, Larkin said, “[Glass] talked about me having child support orders; my children live with me and always have. He talked about me having to pay alimony, which I do not. He made a statement that I lived in substandard housing; I live in a nice house in Hamilton Square.”
Glass, who responded to the allegations in a letter to the Trentonian published on Feb. 26, said, “the Sheriff has attributed comments to me that have no basis in reality. Everything I discussed was in the public domain.” He added, “one would normally think that a long-time law enforcement officer would investigate unsubstantiated comments or hearsay before taking action.”
Russell Buckley, a student in the POL 205 class, says that he does not remember Larkin’s house being mentioned at all.
All told, “the off-the-cuff comments about child support and alimony did not make up a substantial part of the conversation,” says Buckley. He added, “there has been a lot of hoopla over some minor comments.”
Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes told PolitickerNJ on Feb. 22 that Larkin “overreacted,” adding that he’d “talked with the Sheriff. [Larkin] knows it was a mistake, and I think he realizes he shouldn’t have done that.”
Details of the story were published in The College Voice as well as several local and national media outlets.
