Theft charges against four officials dropped

Construction official
files suit against boro,
two council members
By jennifer dome
Staff Writer

SAYREVILLE — Four borough construction officials arrested nearly a year ago have been cleared on charges they wrongfully took money from the municipality.

A Middlesex County grand jury chose not to indict the four men in January, resulting in the charges being dropped, according to Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Cindy Glaser.

In April 2002, Construction Official Anthony D’Altrui, of Point Pleasant, Ocean County; Fire Subcode Official David Herbert, of Plainsboro; Plumbing Subcode Official James Hudson, of North Brunswick; and Electrical Subcode Official James Watson, of Martinsville, Somerset County, were arrested at Borough Hall, Main Street, on charges of theft, tampering with public records and official misconduct.

The men were collectively accused of stealing approximately $130,000 from the borough by submitting false work records, according to police.

The four men have been suspended without pay from their part-time positions, according to Borough Chief Financial Officer and Acting Business Administrator Wayne Kronowski.

Mayor Kennedy O’Brien declined comment on the grand jury’s decision, stating that the matter was still in litigation.

D’Altrui, who said he would like to recover back pay, benefits and legal fees from the borough, last week filed a lawsuit against the borough, also naming council members Thomas Marcinczyk and Phyllis Batko and Fire Official/Director of Code Enforcement and Zoning Michael Dandorph. D’Altrui claims he was charged because he disclosed problems with the borough’s construction department to the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA).

D’Altrui maintains that the employees did not falsify any records or wrongfully take money from the borough.

"I don’t know where they got that pie in the sky number," he said regarding the $130,000 the group is accused of taking.

The prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the grand jury’s decision. Robert Merryman, a labor attorney representing the borough, said the administration will determine what action, if any, will be taken with regard to the construction officials.

D’Altrui said that prior to his arrest last year, he had already been removed from his position as the borough’s acting director of code enforcement, a position he held in addition to being the construction official. He believes his removal from the acting director post was made because he informed the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) of problems with the borough’s code enforcement operation and the funding of its construction office.

"We needed people and we needed equipment," D’Altrui said.

"The grand jury’s action clearly demonstrates what I have been saying all along, that there never was probable cause for three code officials and myself to have been arrested, handcuffed, held to high bail, humiliated and defamed, merely for doing our jobs," D’Altrui said.

He added that he believes the arrests were made in retribution for his referring the borough’s construction office problems to the DCA.

Kronowski said that the DCA issued a report to the borough stating that there should be additional staffing in the construction department.

"The governing body didn’t completely agree with that," Kronowski said.

D’Altrui, who is required to follow DCA rules when acting as a municipal construction official, said that the DCA held meetings with the borough over the period of a year.

The borough did hold several meetings with the DCA, Kronowski confirmed, and an agreement was reached regarding the DCA’s suggestions for the borough department’s operation, Kronowski said.

Police said at the time of the arrests that they were the result of a six-month investigation by the Sayreville Police Detective and Patrol divisions in conjunction with the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. The four construction officials were accused of filing to be paid for time they did not work, police said at the time.

As a result of police surveillance, the investigators found that the officials often stayed home and never went into the borough on days that they filed for time worked, Police Detective Ken Kelly said at the time. Alexander Previdi, who was the borough’s business administrator at the time, said it is the supervisor’s responsibility to keep the employees accountable by looking over time sheets. In this case, D’Altrui was the supervisor of the other code officials and he signed off on their time sheets, Kelly said.

The four men were all part-time employees of the borough who worked at an hourly rate of $24.66, Previdi said. D’Altrui was hired to work with the borough in 1994. Herbert, Hudson and Watson were all hired in 1997.

"This disgraceful injustice has caused my wife and family to suffer greatly, and we are considering all legal remedies that might be available to us," D’Altrui said in a statement released last week.

D’Altrui, who was also the construction official for the Borough of Helmetta until last summer, is not presently working for any municipalities, but operates A&S Consulting, a Point Pleasant-based construction management company.

In D’Altrui’s complaint, Marcinczyk and Batko are accused of asking the Police Department to investigate the four individuals and then alerting the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office about the investigation, despite having "no evidence of criminal behavior at that time."