Yolanda Ciccone, of Metuchen, the former Assignment Judge of Somerset County, was sworn in today as Prosecutor of Middlesex County during a brief ceremony officiated by retired Judge and former Prosecutor Alan A. Rockoff.
In June 2020, Governor Phil Murphy nominated Yolanda Ciccone to be the Prosecutor of Middlesex County. She was confirmed by the Senate on June 15, 2020, beginning a five-year term as the county prosecutor.
Prosecutor Ciccone began her legal career in 1980 as a law clerk to the Hon. John E. Bachman J.S.C. and Hon. Theodore Appleby, J.S.C. In September of 1981, Prosecutor Ciccone began working as an Assistant Prosecutor in Middlesex County.
During her 10 years in the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, Prosecutor Ciccone had a number of different duties including Chief of the Juvenile Division, advisor to the Narcotics and Gambling Task Force, oversaw the Hate Crimes Task Force and negotiated memorandums of understanding with 23 of the Middlesex County school districts.
In October of 1991 Governor Jim Florio nominated Prosecutor Ciccone to the Superior Court, Middlesex County. During her tenure as a Superior Court Judge, Ciccone served in the Family, Criminal and Civil Divisions. She was the Presiding Judge of the Civil Division from 2005 to 2006.
In September of 2006 Chief Justice Deborah Poritz selected Ciccone to be the Assignment Judge of Vicinage 13 comprising Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren counties.
Prosecutor Ciccone earned her law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, NJ, and is a graduate of Douglass College at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.
Following her being sworn into office, Prosecutor Ciccone swore in assistant prosecutors, detectives, and staff who work in the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office via a virtual ceremony.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office oversees 26 municipal and university/college police departments as well as the County Sheriff’s Department and is among the busiest in the state. The office handles more than 6,500 criminal complaints annually, has a budget of $20.7 million and employs just over 200 people.