N.J. cops investigating activist who took teacher drug video

Police say James O'Keefe should have brought evidence of drug use by the teacher to police or the school district immediately.

James O'Keefe as he leaves the St. Bernard Parish jail in Chalmette, La., Jan. 26, 2010. O'Keefe, a conservative activist who posed as a pimp to target the community-organizing group ACORN, is one of four people arrested by the FBI and accused of trying to interfere with phones at Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)  

HOWELL -- Howell Township police are investigating whether conservative activist James O'Keefe broke any laws when he staged a mock presentation at a district public school earlier this year.

Chief Andrew Kudrick said that besides investigating the teacher featured in the video made by O'Keefe and released Wednesday night, his department is looking into the actions of O'Keefe "who gained access to the school using a fictitious name and under false pretenses."

At the phony award ceremony, O'Keefe, who identified himself as Bill Stern of the New Star Education Foundation,, gave a commendation to a teacher he purportedly filmed bragging about easy access to cocaine.

O'Keefe, whose Project Veritas video productions have often focused on teachers and the New Jersey Education Association, secretly filmed a Howell teacher at the NJEA convention in November. In the blurry and heavily edited video, the teacher purportedly offers cocaine to two people in a hotel room. The two people identify themselves as journalists but are actually O'Keefe and an actor.

The teacher never provides any actual drugs in the video.

Later in that same video, O'Keefe, posing as a representative of a bogus education foundation, presents the teacher with what turned out to be a fake award during a school assembly in April.

N.J. teacher suspended after conservative activist video claims drug use

The school district is conducting its own investigation into the drug allegations and into how O'Keefe got access to the school using a fake identity, superintendent Joseph Isola has said.

NJ Advance Media is not identifying the teacher, who has been suspended.

Kudrick called the alleged conduct of the teacher "disturbing" and said "the behavior of the journalist was concerning as well."

He said O'Keefe should have brought the drug allegations against the teacher to police or the school district immediately.

In an emailed statement, O'Keefe defended his actions as a service to the students. 

"The vice principal of the school invited me to the gymnasium and never even asked for my ID," he said in the statement. "Additionally, there is no trespass by deception law in New Jersey. If we hadn't released that video, (the teacher) would be standing in front of students right now. Is that what the Howell Township police really prefer?""

A representative of Project Veritas also forwarded NJ Advance Media a link to a new video, posted Friday, as O'Keefe's response.

In the video, O'Keefe says he got into the school without any background verification from officials. The video, however, doesn't explain how he first set up the appointment for the assembly.

He said that when he arrived at the school, the door wasn't locked and he wasn't asked to present identification.

In a portion of the video, taken in April after the assembly, O'Keefe says the principal started getting suspicious toward the end of the ceremony but was headed off after he said the teacher "got a good referral from the NJEA."

A vice principal asked how the teacher was recommended and O'Keefe is heard saying "So we do education control and we work a lot in Common Core standards and we also work with the NJEA."

In the original video, the teacher also purportedly brags about getting a "heads-up" before police conduct drug sweeps at the school.

Kudrick said the teacher could not have gotten any advance warning of drug sweeps at that school because police have not conducted any sweeps there. He said officers and drug dogs have been at the school in the past, but for presentations to the students.

O'Keefe, a Rutgers graduate, pleaded guilty in May 2010 to misdemeanor charges after entering the offices of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu while posing as a telephone repairman.

Several of his videos have been aimed at the NJEA. In 2010, he produced a video claiming to have undercover footage from an NJEA conference of teachers criticizing Gov. Chris Christie.