Hudson County's heir apparent opens up about arrest, exoneration in drug case
Presumptive 2024 Hudson County Executive Craig Guy saw plenty of arrests during his 26 years as a Jersey City cop. But the arrest that changed his life was his own.
Without a serious challenger in the heavily Democratic county, Guy's 1988 arrest related to a drug-distribution network has largely evaded public notice, despite an easily discoverable news account online.
On Tuesday, Guy — chief of staff to outgoing Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise — opened up publicly for the first time about the incident, his eventual exoneration and the grueling months in between.
“It was life-changing,” Guy said in a phone interview. “I go from being a happy-go-lucky young sergeant to being charged with something that turned my life upside down.”
There are no available court records relating to Guy’s arrest. A 1988 New York Times article later published online details the arrest, and three local newspaper clippings his campaign provided to POLITICO show the charges were dropped in 1990. The charges were later expunged, Guy said. Many of the key players in the case — fellow defendants and attorneys — have since died or were unreachable.
According to the Times, Guy was one of several Jersey City officers charged in 1988 with official misconduct and conspiracy to possess or distribute narcotics. The arrests were based on electronic surveillance by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which was looking into a narcotics ring allegedly led by a North Bergen man named Dominick “Junior” Auriemma. Guy said he was never actually charged with drug distribution, just official misconduct.
It was unclear whether Guy was investigating Auriemma, who eventually pleaded guilty to a drug charge and has since died, public records show.
But Guy says he briefly spoke with the suspect via telephone before his own arrest.
“The essence of the call I don’t remember — what made him or me, I don’t know what happened — pick up the phone,” Guy said. “My whole interaction with that case was probably less than 20 seconds. Let’s go on the long end: 30 seconds. So, 30 seconds could change a person’s life.”
Investigators apparently picked up the word "birthday" on a wiretap and thought it was code, Guy’s attorney, George Campden, told the Jersey Journal in a 1990 clip provided by his campaign.
“In drug talk, ‘birthday’ means payoff,” Campden told the paper. “But it was actually his birthday.”
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office told The Jersey Journal at the time that Guy had been cleared of any wrongdoing but did not elaborate.
Guy said that his arrest all those years ago was, itself, uneventful. He didn’t even spend the night in jail.
“I was working. I was asked to stop down to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office. I drove down there myself. They told me what was going on. I disagreed,” he said.
But the professional fallout and a roughly 15-month suspension from the force were a trial all their own.
“It was tough. From a personal standpoint, I wanted to be a police officer from the time I was nine, ten,” said. Guy, who was reinstated with back pay after he was cleared.
He didn’t lose any friends or have any strained relationships afterward.
“I was lucky. Because the same people, the community, the police, personal friends and family, that never left. So, it wasn’t like I had to go back to community groups and they resisted me, rejected me,” he said. “To the contrary. It made me more determined that when you get sworn in as a police officer, you protect and serve.”
Guy remained on the force until 2007, when he retired as a lieutenant and went to work for DeGise. He became the county executive’s chief of staff in 2016. He maintains he’s never taken part in the drug trade.
“Jesus, no. I don’t smoke, I don't drink. Maybe I curse every once in a while,” he said.
The Times article listed Guy as a resident of Hazlet, in Monmouth County. To this day, Guy co-owns a house there with his wife, who is registered to vote there, public records show.
But Guy has been registered to vote in Jersey City since 1986 and lists his address as a downtown Jersey City apartment building, according to records, where his roommate is DeGise’s driver, Bob Kakolewski. Guy declined to go into detail about his living situation.
"Craig Guy grew up in Jersey City and has spent the vast majority of his life living there,” his spokesperson, Phil Swibinski, said in a statement. “Like many other people he has a secondary home that he co-owns, however his apartment in Jersey City is his primary residence."
