Grace MacAuly Named Acting Camden County Prosecutor

CAMDEN COUNTY, NJ — A woman with more than 25 years of experience is the new acting prosecutor in Camden County, authorities announced.

Grace C. MacAulay retired in 2018, but came out of retirement to succeed Jill S. Mayer as Acting Camden County Prosecutor on Wednesday, after Mayer announced her retirement one day earlier. Read more here: Acting Camden County Prosecutor Jill Mayer Retires

“This is seriously one of the greatest days of my life,” MacAulay told the staff at the prosecutor’s office before she was sworn in by The Honorable Kathleen M. Delaney, J.S.C. “I believe the crux of the criminal justice system is a prosecutor’s discretion, and working here, we have an awesome responsibility. We have vast authority, often daunting, but it’s an authority which must be exercised with the appropriate balance of prudent discernment and intestinal fortitude. I look around the room today and I couldn’t ask for better, more competent people, whom I respect and trust, to share these weighty responsibilities with.”

Earlier in the morning, MacAulay was sworn in over the phone as an Assistant Attorney General by Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck, according to the prosecutor’s office.

“Thank you for your faith in me, thank you for your support. I’m so grateful,” MacAuly told Bruck.

“You are going to be a phenomenal acting prosecutor,” Bruck said. “I am so excited for you.”

In her retirement, MacAuly served as President of “The Friends of the Camden County Child Advocacy Center,” a nonprofit she co-founded while serving as Deputy First Assistant Camden County Prosecutor. The organization supports the needs of child abuse victims and their families.

During her nearly four years as Deputy First Assistant Camden County Prosecutor, MacAulay supervised all Camden County Prosecutor’s Section Chiefs and Assistant Prosecutors. She also assisted the Prosecutor and First Assistant Prosecutor with managerial duties.

While serving as Deputy First Assistant, MacAulay simultaneously served as Section Chief of the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Victims Unit. As SVU Section Chief, she prosecuted adults and juveniles who committed criminal acts of sexual and physical abuse. She also rewrote the Special Victims Unit/Child Abuse Unit Policies and Protocols.

Before that, MacAulay spent nearly two years as Deputy Section Chief of the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office’s Juvenile Unit, where she prosecuted all crimes committed by juveniles and supervised newly hired Assistant Prosecutors. MacAulay spent 20 years before that as an Assistant Prosecutor herself at the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, serving in seven different units.

She received her Juris Doctor from Widener School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Gettysburg College.

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