Between the sentencing of Rutgers-Newark Professor Anna Stubblefield, the Short Hills mall carjacking cases and other matters, 2016 is shaping up to be a busy year for the court system in Essex County
NEWARK -- A Rutgers-Newark professor will be sent to state prison for sexually assaulting a disabled man, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka will be fighting lawsuits from former city workers and prosecutors will be pursuing cases against an alleged terrorist in a teenager's killing and four men charged in a fatal carjacking at The Mall at Short Hills.
In other words, 2016 is shaping up to be a busy year for the court system in Essex County.
Those cases are among the civil and criminal matters expected to receive widespread attention over the coming year in both the Essex County Superior Court and the federal courthouse in Newark.
Scroll through the photo gallery above for an overview of the county's top 10 court cases and decisions to watch out for in 2016.
Here's a closer look at those cases:
10. Newark Watershed cases
On both the criminal and civil fronts, there will be cases dealing with the now-defunct Newark Watershed Conservation Development Corporation.
The corporation's trustees are pursuing a federal lawsuit against U.S. Sen. and former Newark mayor Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and other defendants, alleging they failed to provide proper oversight of the agency.
Meanwhile, the agency's former director, Linda Watkins-Brashear, is scheduled to be sentenced on April 5 after pleading guilty on Dec. 21 to soliciting nearly $1 million in bribes from businesses in return for overinflated and no-work contracts.
A former consultant who was hired by Watkins-Brashear, Donald Bernard Sr., also is facing charges in the alleged kickback scheme.
9. Ras Baraka Lawsuits
In the New Year, Baraka will be facing three separate lawsuits from former city officials challenging their terminations.
The complaints were filed last year by former city Corporation Counsel Karen Brown; Keith Isaac, the city's former emergency management coordinator, and Victor Emenuga, the former CEO of the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation.
In Brown's lawsuit, a hearing is scheduled for Jan. 22 for the mayor's motion to dismiss her complaint.
8. Bloomfield cops dash-cam case
Bloomfield police officers Sean Courter and Orlando Trinidad are scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 11 after being convicted on Nov. 5 of official misconduct and related charges stemming from the 2012 arrest of township resident Marcus Jeter.
The jury determined the cops made false statements in police reports when they claimed Jeter tried to grab Courter's gun while Courter was removing him from a vehicle on the Garden State Parkway, and that Jeter struck Trinidad.
Courter and Trinidad are each facing a minimum of five years in state prison without parole on the official misconduct charge.
Jeter also is pursuing a federal lawsuit over the incident, alleging he was the victim of "racial profiling."
7. Orange teacher's lawsuit over firing for cop killer letters
Former Orange teacher Marylin Zuniga is suing the Orange Board of Education for firing her in May, because she allowed her third-grade students to write "get well" letters to a convicted cop killer.
Zuniga is alleging school board members discussed her case privately in violation of the state's Open Public Meetings. An attorney for the school board has said no such private meeting occurred.
The school district has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
6. Nanny-cam trial
Shawn Custis is scheduled to go on trial in January on charges of beating a Millburn woman in a 2013 home invasion robbery caught on a "nanny-cam."
Shawn Custis, 44, of Newark, appears in Superior Court for a hearing where stated that he wanted to proceed to trial on charges of beating a Millburn woman in a 2013 home invasion attack caught on a "nanny-cam." Newark, NJ 10/16/15 (Robert Sciarrino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Authorities allege Custis kicked, punched and threw the woman down the basement stairs as her daughter sat on the living-room couch, and her 18-month-old son was asleep in an upstairs bedroom.
Custis is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, robbery, burglary, criminal restraint and theft in connection with the June 21, 2013 incident.
The trial comes after Superior Court Judge Ronald Wigler ruled in May that Custis is competent to stand trial.
5. Mother's murder trial in daughter's death
A trial is scheduled to begin in January for Krisla Rezireksyon on charges of murdering her eight-year-old daughter, Christiana Glenn, and abusing and neglecting her two other children in 2011 in their Irvington apartment.
Her roommate and co-defendant, Myriam Janvier, is expected to be tried separately at a later date.
The trial will be based in large part on the women's religious practices and how their Christian faith affected how they cared for the children.
The two women -- both of whom reported speaking with "Christ" -- have indicated their faith guided how they fed and disciplined the children. As forms of discipline, Janvier has said they would tie the children to radiators, make them kneel on salt, and sometimes delay feeding them.
After she found Glenn not breathing, Rezireksyon has said she, her two younger children and Janvier prayed over the girl's body for an hour to 90 minutes before she called 911.
Rezireksyon's attorney, Adrien Moncur, has argued she was under "delusional spells" due to her pastor's teachings. At the trial, he is expected to present a "diminished capacity" defense, meaning she was suffering from a "mental defect or deficiency" at the time of Glenn's death.
4. Maplewood teacher sex assault case
Maplewood teacher Nicole Dufault is facing charges of sexually assaulting six male students at Columbia High School.
The alleged sex acts occurred in Dufault's classroom and in her car - including an incident when one student recorded a cell phone video of her performing oral sex on another student in her car, court documents state.
Her attorney, Timothy Smith, has said Dufault suffers from frontal lobe syndrome, which he claims left her vulnerable to the students' "over-aggressive behavior." Dufault developed the syndrome after brain surgery she underwent following complications due to her first pregnancy, Smith said.
Last month, Dufault lost a bid to dismiss her charges over claims that prosecutors improperly presented her case to the grand jury that issued a 40-count indictment charging her with aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
3. Rutgers-Newark professor heading to prison
Rutgers-Newark professor Anna Stubblefield is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 15 after being convicted on Oct. 2 of two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault for abusing a disabled man in her Newark office in 2011. She is facing a potential state prison term of between 10 and 20 years on each count for a maximum possible sentence of 40 years.
Anna Stubblefield, a Rutgers-Newark professor of West Orange, appears in a Newark courtroom on Sept. 9 for the start of her trial on two counts of aggravated sexual assault for allegedly abusing a disabled man in 2011. She was convicted on Oct. 2. (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) The victim, known as D.J., has cerebral palsy and is unable to speak beyond making noises, but Stubblefield has said they fell in love and communicated through a controversial typing technique known as "facilitated communication."
Under that method, Stubblefield claimed she provided physical support to D.J. as he typed messages on a keyboard.
But during her trial, prosecutors presented evidence from psychologists who have determined D.J. is mentally incompetent and cannot consent to sexual activity.
Stubblefield lost a motion last month to set aside the jury's guilty verdict and either grant her a judgment of acquittal or a new trial.
2. Ali Brown robbery and murder cases
Ali Muhammad Brown is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 20 after being convicted on Nov. 17 of an armed robbery, but he continues to face charges in a separate case of fatally shooting Livingston resident Brendan Tevlin on June 25, 2014.
Brown, who has been indicted on terrorism, murder and related charges in Tevlin's killing, has told investigators he gunned down Tevlin as an act of "vengeance" for innocent lives lost in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Iran. He also is charged with killing three men in Washington State.
In the robbery case, Brown was convicted of robbing a man at gunpoint at on July 10, 2014 in the parking lot of an apartment complex at 200 Mount Pleasant Avenue in West Orange. The state is seeking a 20-year prison sentence for Brown in that case.
Brown also is charged with robbing a man on June 29, 2014 at a coffee shop in Point Pleasant Beach.
1. Short Hills mall carjacking cases
A criminal case and a lawsuit are moving forward over the Dec. 15, 2013 fatal shooting of Dustin Friedland during a carjacking at The Mall at Short Hills in Millburn.
His widow, Jamie Schare Friedland, is pursuing a lawsuit over the incident against the mall's owners and other defendants. She alleges the defendants failed to provide adequate security at the upscale shopping center and could have prevented her husband's death.
In the criminal case, four defendants - Karif Ford, Basim Henry, Hanif Thompson and Kevin Roberts - are each facing murder, felony murder, carjacking and weapons charges in Dustin Friedland's killing.
Over the last few months, the four men have lost motions to gather more information from prosecutors and prevent certain evidence from being used against them at their trial.
Bill Wichert may be reached at bwichert@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillWichertNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.