John Sheridan (New Jersey government official)
| John P. Sheridan Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 7, 1942 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | September 28, 2014 (aged 72) Skillman, New Jersey |
| Cause of death | Stabbing of undetermined cause; smoke inhalation |
| Education | Seton Hall Preparatory School |
| Alma mater | Saint Peter's University |
| Occupation | Lawyer, public official, healthcare executive |
| Years active | 1970–2014 |
| Employer | State of New Jersey, Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti, Cooper Health System |
| Known for | Presiding over creation of NJ Transit Rail Operations; controversial death |
| Home town | Skillman |
| Title | Commissioner of New Jersey Department of Transportation |
| Term | 1982–1985 |
| Predecessor | Anne Canby |
| Successor | Roger A. Bodman |
| Political party | Republican |
| Board member of | New Jersey Transit, Carrier Clinic |
| Spouse(s) | Joyce Mitchko |
| Children | Mark, Matthew, Daniel and James |
| Parent(s) | John and Rita Sheridan |
John Sheridan (September 7, 1942 – September 28, 2014) was a lawyer from the U.S. state of New Jersey. During the 1970s and 1980s he served in state government under Republican governors William T. Cahill and Thomas Kean. As the state's Transportation Commissioner during the latter governor's administration, he oversaw the transfer of commuter rail service in the state from Conrail to New Jersey Transit. At the time of his death, he was president and chief executive officer of Cooper Health System.
His death has been a matter of some controversy. Firefighters responding to a fire at his Skillman home in the early morning found Sheridan and his wife Joyce dead in an upstairs room. Both bodies had been stabbed multiple times; an autopsy found John Sheridan had been alive after the fire started. After a lengthy investigation the Somerset County prosecutor ruled that John Sheridan had killed his wife and then himself, setting the fire to make it appear they had died that way.
Sheridan's four sons, the oldest of whom had followed his father's political footsteps and served as chief counsel to the New Jersey Republican Party, vigorously disputed the finding. Not only had their parents not shown any sign that they might do something like this, there were anomalies in the evidence, as well as deficiencies in the investigation. After a court challenge they brought, in 2017 the state's chief medical examiner overruled the prosecutor and said that while John Sheridan's proximate cause of death was the combined effect of the stab wounds he suffered and smoke inhalation, it could not be determined if he had stabbed himself or not.
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