Nicholas L. Bissell, Jr.

Nicholas Louis "Nick" Bissell, Jr. (January 14, 1947 – November 27, 1996) was the county prosecutor of Somerset County, New Jersey who fled to Laughlin, Nevada and took his own life after being charged with embezzlement, tax fraud and abuse of power.

Biography

Born in 1947 to Nicholas L. Bissell, Sr. (1919-2002) and his wife, Louise, Nick Bissell grew up in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey and later moved to Somerville, New Jersey. He entered private practice, then worked as a part-time judge. he then became an assistant prosecutor for Somerset County, New Jersey he was appointed county prosecutor in 1982 by Tom Kean, the Governor of New Jersey. He held that position for 13 years. His specialty was civil forfeiture. At one point, the value of the assets he seized were the highest in the state, even though Somerset County is the eighth-smallest county in New Jersey. One of his best-known cases which he handled was the prosecution of Matthew Heikkila, a 21-year-old from affluent Basking Ridge, who, on January 29, 1991, murdered his adoptive parents by shooting them at point blank range with a shotgun containing shells which he had taken the time to label "Mom" and "Dad." Despite Bissell's best efforts to convince jurors that the young man deserved to die for the crimes, the jury sentenced Heikkila to two consecutive life sentences.

On May 10, 1990, James Giuffre was arrested on charges of selling $700 worth of cocaine. Bissell said he would drop the charges if Giuffre forfeited two plots of land to the prosecutor's office, valued at $174,000. They were sold at auction below their appraised value to a friend of Bissell's chief of detectives. Giuffre then contacted the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI. Forensic accountants with the IRS discovered that Bissell skimmed cash from a gas station he was part owners of. The FBI discovered that Bissell had destroyed a suspect's written request for a lawyer and threatened to frame his gasoline wholesaler for cocaine possession. In September 1995, Bissell was indicted on 30 federal charges of mail fraud, tax evasion and abuse of power. He was fired by Governor Christine Todd Whitman. In May 1996, he was convicted on all charges and faced a minimum sentence of six to eight years in federal prison. He was released under the condition that he wear an electronic bracelet until he was sentenced. He cut it off on November 18, 1996 and fled to Nevada, leaving a note with his intention to commit suicide. He was tracked by his cell phone.

He fatally shot himself after a 10-minute standoff in his hotel room, while members of the United States Marshals Service tried to lure him out of his room.