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TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office has taken over control of the Internal Affairs Division of the Toms River Police Department.
Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that his office has assumed control of the internal affairs investigative functions, a move that happened July 17, he said.
"We assumed command and control of the Toms River Police Department’s Internal Affairs function to preserve the confidentiality, independence, and integrity of the internal affairs process," Billhimer said.
"We notified the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General prior to assuming command and control of the Toms River Police Department's Internal Affairs function," he said.
The takeover comes days after Toms River Mayor Daniel T. Rodrick announced an internal affairs investigation into the removal of Police Chief Guy Maire's office door nameplate in June, when Maire went out on medical leave.
A photo of the door with the nameplate removed was circulated on social media at the time, and multiple sources told Patch Maire had cleaned out his desk.
Rodrick denied that Maire had left for good and said he would return "in a few weeks." Maire returned to work shortly after the July 4th holiday weekend.
"Taking the chief's name off the wall and putting out a fake story that he was gone is disgraceful," Rodrick said.
"Just within a day or two of you writing that we were investigating, the prosecutor decided they are going to take over the internal affairs," Rodrick said in response to a request for comment. "They continue to try to protect their friends. That's the only reason they did this."
Rodrick said the police department was notified June 11 that it has been reaccredited by the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police for meeting or surpassing that body's standards for operations.
Rodrick said the takeover was just a further example of what he alleges is a pattern of interference by Billhimer in Toms River and in particular in Rodrick's oversight of the police department, claims he laid out in a lawsuit filed in late May against Billhimer.
Rodrick said Maire was told the takeover of the internal affairs function means any investigation into a police officer accused of wrongdoing will be handled through the prosecutor's office. He stressed the prosecutor's office does not have a physical presence in the police department.
"Rather than allowing us to investigate it, we're basically going to have to refer it out, so no one except for them can look into anything," Rodrick said. "It's wrong, it's dishonest."
Rodrick also repeated his allegation that the prosecutor's office was responsible for news in May 2025 about a raid at Holiday City in Silverton where more than a dozen boxes of documents were seized from the clubhouse in the midst of an investigation into alleged financial improprieties.
Rodrick said the target of the investigation was Councilwoman Lynn O'Toole, and in his lawsuit claimed Billhimer orchestrated it to make O'Toole and Councilman Bill Byrne look bad ahead of the Republican primary where Byrne was a candidate. Byrne lost the primary.
The prosecutor's office never commented on the raid and never confirmed the investigation.
No charges have been filed.
"A camera crew was already in place, and the footage was quickly released to the press. Yet on the eve of the election, O’Toole was informed that the investigation had found no wrongdoing. I've never seen anything like it—an abuse of office and dirty politics at its worst," Rodrick said in the lawsuit.
He reiterated that on Wednesday, and in addition to Billhimer, accused Terrance Turnbach, a former Toms River Township councilman, of having a hand in what was happening.
Turnbach served on the Toms River Township Council for four years after he and Rodrick were elected, along with Laurie Huryk, as a slate of Democrats in November 2017. Rodrick broke with Turnbach and Huryk not long after he was elected, switching his political affiliation to Republican.
"What they've been doing is political and it's disgraceful and it needs to stop," Rodrick said. "Hopefully the attorney general's office will set something straight."
"It's just more dirty politics in Ocean County," he said.
Turnbach did not respond to messages seeking comment. His father, Edward J. Turnbach, the former Ocean County prosecutor and former presiding judge of the criminal courts in Ocean County Superior Court, died on Friday.
The prosecutor's office last week announced it was assuming control of the Pine Beach Police Department, which had been operating with an acting police chief since Jan. 1.
It also assumed control of the Lavallette Police Department from May 2022 until March 2023 the wake of the departure of that department's chief. That takeover happened five months after the prosecutor's office had taken over the Lavallette Police Department's Internal Affairs "after an audit of the department’s records," Billhimer said at the time. Details of what prompted the audit or results afterward were never released.
The article Prosecutor Takes Over Internal Affairs Function Of Toms River Police appeared first on Toms River Patch.
