JACKSON – During the September 22 Township Council meeting, residents brought flyers naming a puppeteer who was scheduled to appear at Mayor Jennifer Kuhn’s recently announced Safe Trick-or-Treat event who had served jail time for trying to have sex with who he thought was a minor.
While officials addressed the serious allegations, they later questioned why the flyer was sent around instead of contacting the town about a potentially unsafe issue immediately.
One of the scheduled performers is named “Matthew Adam Brand” who works with a puppet named Batty Belfry. Brand was hired by an entertainment agency named DCA to work for Jackson.
According to a federal appellate record, Brand was a voice instructor who used the online screen name “Tempoteech.” He was convicted after traveling to New York to meet someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl and attempting to lure the minor into illegal sexual activity. The teenage girl was actually part of an undercover police sting. Prosecutors said he told her he wanted take pictures of her with puppets as part of a calendar in an attempt to groom her into sexual favors and “do it all.”
He was convicted and sentenced in 2005 to serve five years in prison and another five years of supervised release.
Elenor Hannum, who speaks regularly at Township Council meetings, brought up the matter questioning how the performer came to be booked for the family Halloween event. She asked “when we are putting together these special events for our children, are we looking at the people that we are putting our children with that will have direct contact with our children? Do you guys vet them?”
“I’m going to take notes and get back to you,” Council President Mordechai Burnstein responded. He said he would review the matter with other officials on September 23 to determine how this happened and how the situation was handled.
“You hired Matthew Brand – a former music teacher in Jackson,” Hannum said. “This puppeteer was caught crossing state lines to meet a 13-year-old girl with the intent to bring her back. It is disgusting.”
She was critical of current recreation director and events coordinator Fred Meabe, a retired cop saying, “he was a cop in Jackson at that time.”
Mayoral candidate Elliot Shem-Tov pointed out that Brand was not only arrested, “he was convicted, put in jail for five years, came back to Jackson, sat on the bleachers cooing young girls in high school, cheerleaders. This is the person you have in front of hundreds of thousands of kids for Halloween for a safe event. I wouldn’t put this man in charge of my dog for five minutes.”
According to records of the township that are currently under review, DCA has provided entertainment services for township events dating back to 2004 and across multiple administrations. The performer in question had also reportedly worked at Jackson events in prior years, including Senior Center programs and previous Mayor’s Safe Trick-or-Treat events.
Once the mayor and members of the Township Council became aware of this information, Brand was removed from the event and the town’s relationship with DCA was terminated.
According to Mayor Kuhn, she, the Council and township department heads were not aware of the performer’s criminal history prior to the council meeting. DCA had selected and assigned its employees to fulfill its contract with Jackson.
The township has not previously conducted independent criminal background investigations on each employee of every private company that it contracts with. By practice, private employers have been responsible for the screening process of employees assigned to work for the township.
That practice will now be reviewed, specifically when outside personnel may interact directly with children. The mayor noted that should additional safeguards become necessary, her administration will put them in place.
The municipality has an ordinance that requires certain youth-oriented organizations and personnel who interact with minors on township property to undergo background checks. Such positions involving those requirements include camp staff, coaches, trainers, teachers as well as others working directly with minors.
Some officials have been critical of people bringing up issues at public meetings as political attacks. If there was enough time to gather information to prepare flyers and distribute them at the meeting that there was also enough time to communicate with the township government directly.
Mayor Kuhn issued a statement on the township Facebook page stating that if a dangerous situation is known that individuals shouldn’t wait for a Council meeting to make a flyer. “Do not wait for the most politically convenient moment. Pick up the phone. Send the email. Give us the information so we can act.”
The Halloween event was promoted as Mayor Jennifer Kuhn’s “Safe Trick-or-Treat” and will take place from 3 to 7 p.m. on October 30 at Township Hall, 95 West Veterans Highway. It was billed as “a safe fun event for families” and lists free treats, pumpkin painting, giveaways, a Halloween circus, a costume contest and several performers. This type of event was also held in prior years when there were other mayors.
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