A used Lexus. A deposit on a mansion. Clothes, spa services and about $25,000 in personal credit card debt.
Oh, and there was that ticket to a Paul McCartney concert.
Those were some of the items paid for by Merlin’s Kids, a New Jersey nonprofit that promised to provide service dogs for children and veterans.
Over more than a decade, it generated more than $2.5 million in donations, thanks to families who raised as much as $17,000 to bring home what founder Janice Wolfe promised would be a specially trained service dog to help their special needs children.
But a judge ordered Merlin’s Kids be shut down Wednesday and barred Wolfe from ever starting another charity or fundraiser in New Jersey after finding she and the nonprofit violated charity laws.
In a decision that concludes four years of fierce legal wrangling between Wolfe and the state Attorney General’s Office, Judge Edward A. Jerejian found the trainer misrepresented herself and her work, used the nonprofit’s funds for personal expenses and could not provide required documentation for hundreds of thousands of expenditures due to “mind boggling” accounting practices.
Jerejian, of the Bergen County Chancery Division, also ordered Wolfe to pay $150,000 in civil penalties and the nonprofit to give up nearly $350,000 in funds that will go to an “appropriate” nonprofit.
“The court is asked to believe she never took a dime from this… I didn’t start doing this yesterday, so I don’t believe it,” he said.
Janice Wolfe poses with her dog Wyatt after he won an AKC Humane Fund Award for Canine Excellence Oct. 17, 2010 in New York. Michael Loccisano/Getty ImagesMichael Loccisano/Getty Images
Jerejian dismissed a countersuit by Wolfe — who had claimed the state’s case was frivolous. But he also denied the state’s request that Wolfe pay over a half million dollars to cover its legal fees during the lengthy action.
Wolfe and her attorney Scott Piekarsky argued she did nothing wrong and the donated funds were all used to further the mission of the nonprofit, which she never took a salary for, she claimed. They blame the state’s investigation — which began after complaints were made to the Division of Consumer Affairs — on former disgruntled students, some of whom she’s sued for defamation.
In a statement Thursday, Wolfe said she appreciated the judge “exonerating us of any intentional wrongdoing” — which he did not actually do — and for acknowledging the good work that was done.
She also noted the Attorney General’s initial claim in 2020 that the nonprofit unlawfully raised $6.9 million was wrong. (It was based on the unusual method Merlin’s Kids used to report in-kind donations on tax documents.)
“All of our time, energy and focus has always been dedicated to saving dogs’ lives, then training them intensively to be service dogs for special needs children and veterans while helping firefighters and first responders, rather than just state requested paperwork,” Wolfe said in the statement.
Trainer Janice Wolfe brings substitute service dog Savannah, a two-and-a-half year old Rhodesian ridgeback, to work with Darrin at the Calais School. 4/2/15 Whippany, NJ (John Munson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) NJ Advance Media for NJ.comNJ Advance Media for NJ.com
But a six-month investigation by NJ Advance Media in 2022 found that some Merlin’s Kids clients reported receiving untrained dogs that were anxious, terrified, not house trained and in one case, nipped a child. One mother said a volunteer admitted the dog had never been trained in the main task it was billed to perform for her special needs daughter. Instead, it chased squirrels and other dogs.
The report also revealed aspiring dog trainers who sought education through Wolfe’s now defunct training business, United K9 Professionals, complained to the state that they received no hands-on training and little more than rambling conference calls. And customers of Wolfe’s private dog training business described paying $1,500 for unlimited training for a problem dog, only to have Wolfe never return, the story reported.
Jerejian found that Wolfe was not a diabolical mastermind of an elaborate scheme. But she did fail to lawfully operate the nonprofit, he ruled.
“I don’t doubt that she’s done some good work. But again, this is not how you run a nonprofit,” Jerejian said. “This was being run like, ‘It’s my personal little kingdom, my little fiefdom, where what I buy, what I spend, who I give it to, what I pay it with — I make the rules.’”
The trial last summer featured a parade of witnesses who told wildly different stories of dealing with Wolfe — testimony Jerejian called “the battle of the satisfied and the unsatisfied.”
Wyatt, a Rhodesian ridgeback, was trained to detect cancer in humans after sniffing their breath, Janice Wolfe claims. The founder and CEO of the now defunct United K9 Professionals watches in 2014 as Wyatt evaluates New York City firefighter Jim McGowan. Ellen M. Blalock | [email protected]
Wolfe portrayed herself as an award-winning and respected dog behaviorist who has trained service dogs for decades and appeared on television shows, including NBC’s “TODAY.” She has said she poured her own money into the nonprofit, dealing largely in cash, and lost some documentation to floods and mouse infestation.
Some witnesses defended her, saying they received dogs that helped them or their special needs children live much fuller lives.
But the state Attorney General’s Office claimed she misused donations for her own gain, failed to provide clients with the quality service dogs or dog training classes they expected and misled the public about her work, including claims about how she trains dogs to detect cancer.
Matthew Estersohn, the state’s accounting expert, testified that 38% of the Merlin’s Kids budget from 2014 to 2021 involved “suspicious” spending.
The expenditures included regularly withdrawing cash from ATMs with no records of where it went, or paying for salon services, dog show entry fees and repairs to her Lexus from the nonprofit accounts. Even Wolfe’s own accounting expert could provide no documentation for more than $419,000 in spending.
Wolfe also boasted a “virtually 100%” success rate in dog training, claiming to have rehabilitated more than 30,000 canines over a more than 30-year period — which would add up to almost three dogs a day.
“I don’t even know where they come up with numbers like this,” Jerejian said.

Pictured clockwise from bottom left in the trial last June are Chancery Judge Edward A. Jerejian, Deputy Attorney General Leslie Prentice, the state’s accounting expert Matthew Estersohn, and Merlin’s Kids founder Janice Wolfe with her attorney, Scott Piekarsky.Rebecca Everett | NJ Advance Media
The numbers the state was more concerned about were the dollars disappearing from Merlin’s Kids’ accounts. Wolfe’s own attorney acknowledged the commingling of accounts and said some expenditures were mistakes that were reimbursed.
But when she testified or was deposed, Wolfe always had an explanation, insisting that every dollar was for a genuine purpose related to the nonprofit’s mission.
The judge, apparently not swayed by her explanations, mentioned a few he felt stretched credulity.
After being questioned about dozens of regular charges at spas and salons, Wolfe had testified she treated a child with special needs to a spa day. She said the other charges were for special hypoallergenic makeup to go under certain face paints that Merlin’s Kids used at several charity events, Jerejian recalled Wednesday.
“I don’t believe it,” the judge said, letting out a short laugh. “I don’t know how else to put it.”
Wolfe did admit she does not use blood samples to train dogs to detect cancer, and she could not provide evidence that her dogs screened thousands of people for cancer as she claims.
“I do believe that this is, in essence, her business. This is what she does and this is what she wants to do, and I think she believes she’s good at it,” Jerejian said. “And I think maybe in her mind, she thinks that, you know, these dogs do detect cancer and disease, and they do do certain things.”
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Rebecca Everett may be reached at [email protected].
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