N.J. Attorney General appoints temporary acting prosecutor for Mercer County

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced Friday that he has appointed Theresa Hilton, the deputy director of the state’s Division of Criminal Justice, to serve as the temporary acting prosecutor for Mercer County.

Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri is retiring at the end of the month after working in the prosecutor’s office for 27 years. Onofri, who joined the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office in 1998, served as the acting prosecutor starting in March 2015 and was appointed county prosecutor in December 2016. In New Jersey, county prosecutors are appointed by the governor.

“Angelo Onofri has been a tremendous county prosecutor and an invaluable partner in cooperative efforts to reduce gun violence, combat human trafficking, and address the opioid epidemic,” Platkin said. “He is an esteemed public servant and a friend, and I congratulate him on his retirement and wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Hilton will serve as the acting prosecutor until Gov. Phil Murphy appoints a permanent prosecutor with the advice and consent of the New Jersey Senate. She has extensive experience prosecuting domestic violence and sexual assault crimes. She was hired to work in the Attorney General’s office in September 2022 to oversee sexual and domestic violence prevention policy and criminal enforcement work. She also was the inaugural leader of the Human Trafficking Unit for the Division of Criminal Justice.

Previously, Hilton was an assistant prosecutor with the Union County Prosecutor’s Office for seven years. She led its domestic violence unit, where she revamped policies to remove barriers to justice, including those that unfairly placed the weight of prosecutions on the shoulders of victims. She served as an assistant staff judge advocate in the United States Air Force from 2009 to 2015. A graduate of Hamilton College, she received her law degree from the University of California College of Law in San Francisco.