He leaked details about NHL star Johnny Gaudreau’s death — and now he’s out of a job for good

A county medical examiner’s office was right to fire a morgue employee accused of leaking information about the deaths of NHL hockey star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother in a Salem County crash, the state Civil Service Commission has ruled. Johnny Gaudreau, 31, and Matthew R. Gaudreau, 29, were bicycling along a rural roadway in Oldmans Township when they were struck by an allegedly intoxicated motorist in 2024. Driver Sean M. Higgins is awaiting trial on charges including aggravated manslaughter in their deaths. Hours after the crash, a photo of handwritten notes identifying the Gaudreau brothers with details about the accident appeared in social media posts on Reddit and X, formerly known as Twitter. The information included birth dates, home addresses and details about the crash that were not publicly available when the photo appeared online. It also included the cellphone number of a state trooper. The social media post included a screenshot of a text chain between eight people. The names of those participating in the text chain included Connor J. McGlynn, a morgue assistant with the regional medical examiner’s office operated by Gloucester County. McGlynn was fired in September 2024 after admitting he disclosed the information to his friends via text, according to court documents, which said he was not the one who posted the information to social media. McGlynn testified that he knew the Gaudreau brothers personally and was in shock when he learned of their deaths and shared the information with friends. Civil Service Commission documents recently posted online identify McGlynn only by his initials and do not name the Gaudreau brothers. However, the details included match previously disclosed information about the leak and the name of the county employee involved. McGlynn’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the commission’s decision. McGlynn appealed his termination in 2024 and Administrative Law Judge Allison Friedman recommended last year that his firing be modified to a six-month suspension. In her decision, the judge said that McGlynn had not been insubordinate, had not failed to perform his duties and did not violate his employer’s social media policy because he didn’t post the information online. McGlynn knew the Gaudreau brothers personally, had played ice hockey with the men and admired them, according to details in Friedman’s written decision. He said he was shocked when he discovered they had been killed. After taking down information about the accident victims as part of his duties soon after the crash, McGlynn was in an emotional state when he texted a picture of his notes to his hockey teammates, he testified. His teammates also knew the Gaudreau brothers and McGlynn said he wanted them to know that he would not be at their planned hockey game later that evening because he was working on the case. Without McGlynn’s knowledge, someone in the chat group posted his text on social media, he testified. Around 3:30 the following morning, McGlynn said he received a call from an angry New Jersey State Police sergeant whose cellphone number was included on the shared notes. The sergeant told him he had received 10 to 12 phone calls from the media asking about the accident. Realizing what had happened, McGlynn said he contacted his supervisor to report that he “f----- up.” He followed up with a written statement about his actions. The judge noted that McGlynn immediately took responsibility for his mistake, completed all of his work-related reports on the Gaudreau case and that he had no prior disciplinary history during his employment. Friedman did find that McGlynn breached the non-disclosure agreement he had signed when working for the office and that his actions “adversely affected the morale and efficiency of the County Medical Examiner’s Office.” The judge also found he “damaged the first responders’ and the public’s view of the quality of work of the Medical Examiner’s Office and confidence in the Medical Examiner’s Office.” The commission disagreed with the judge’s finding that only a suspension was warranted and voted 3-2 to uphold McGlynn’s termination at its Feb. 25 meeting. “The appellant’s offense in the instant matter constituted a serious breach of the standard of conduct expected from all public employees who have access to confidential personal information,” the commission wrote in its final order. “In light of the seriousness and egregious nature of the appellant’s conduct, the fact that he had been emotional, took responsibility for his actions, and tried to limit the damage, does not serve as mitigation in the instant matter.” The state attorney general’s office launched an investigation of the leak in 2024 but no outcome of that review was ever disclosed. McGlynn was hired by the medical examiner’s office in 2011 and was paid a salary of around $71,000 a year, according to information previously provided to NJ.com in response to an Open Public Records Act request. The crash that killed the Gaudreaus occurred around 8:15 p.m. as Higgins, 45, of Pilesgrove, was driving north on Route 551/Pennsville-Auburn Road in Oldmans. He tried to illegally pass an SUV on the right and struck the Gaudreaus, prosecutors said. The brothers were riding their bikes single-file on the solid white line marking the edge of the roadway, according to witnesses. Those witnesses described Higgins’ driving as erratic and reckless, and said his vehicle was partially on the grass when he hit the men. His attorneys have challenged the accuracy of the prosecution’s claim that Higgins was legally intoxicated at the time of the crash. They recently filed a motion seeking to dismiss the indictment over that issue. Higgins, who remains jailed pending trial, will return to court April 14 for a pre-trial conference. Johnny Gaudreau played 11 seasons in the NHL, while Matthew was a college hockey player and later a coach. The gold medal-winning U.S. men’s Olympic ice hockey team honored the Gaudreau brothers during the recent Winter Olympic Games.