By Sue Epstein
Six, including a sheriff's officer and investigators,
suspended for their link to former Middlesex County Sheriff Joseph Spicuzzo's
jobs-fire cash bribery scheme, want their jobs back.Patti Sapone/The Star
Ledger
MIDDLESEX COUNTY — Five investigators and one officer in the
Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department — suspended for their link to former
Sheriff Joseph Spicuzzo’s jobs-for-cash scheme — have gone to court to get
their jobs back.
Tim Smith, an attorney from Fairfield who is representing
the six who were suspended without pay in January, said his clients are victims
of Spicuzzo, that they cooperated with the Attorney General’s Office to
prosecute the long-time sheriff and should not have been charged or suspended.
Smith said his six clients are awaiting a decision by
Superior Court Judge Lawrence Lawson in Freehold whether they can return to
their jobs until the administrative hearings are held on the charges filed
against them.
He said he filed an action in Superior Court in New
Brunswick against Middlesex County Sheriff Mildred Scott last month, asking the
sheriff to show cause why the six should not be returned to their jobs. The
case was moved to Monmouth County to avoid any conflict of interest.
Smith represents investigators Christopher Jarema, Richard
Mucia, Thomas Varga, Giancarlo Russo and Daniel Link and officer Bruce Kentos.
They had been with the department five to 18 years.
The six, plus Investigator Eric Strachan, were suspended in
January without pay and departmental charges of bribery and “other sufficient
cause” were filed against them. Kentos, Link and Russo are also charged with
conduct unbecoming a public employee. They are pending termination, according
to the sheriff’s department.
“These officers were victims of extortion,” Smith said.
“Their cooperation contributed in part to the cleansing of an agency. Now
they’re being retaliated against for that very cooperation.”
Sheriff Scott said she could not comment on the case because
it was in court and “we are awaiting a decision” by Lawson.
Several of the investigators involved testified before a
grand jury and would have testified in a trial that they, or relatives for
them, paid thousands of dollars to Spicuzzo in order to secure their jobs or
promotions.
Spicuzzo pleaded guilty in June to taking $25,000 in cash
bribes in exchange for promoting his own employees. That was a fraction of the
$112,000 the Attorney General’s Office said the 68-year-old accepted from
people seeking jobs or promotions in the sheriff’s office during his 30-year tenure.
He retired in 2010 and lost his pension as a result of his plea. He is also
serving a nine-year prison sentence.
Smith said his clients did not commit bribery under any
description of the law.
“These are people who had legitimately applied for their
jobs and were qualified,” Smith said. “Not each individual paid for the job. In
several cases, the payments were made by third parties without their knowledge.
Where payments were made, it was the head of the agency (Spicuzzo) who made the
demand.”
He also said Scott “violated the Attorney General’s
guidelines” when she made the departmental charges public.
“Obviously the sheriff is not well versed in the AG’s
guidelines and that’s astonishing,” Smith said.
He said his clients allege that the sheriff could only
suspend them immediately without pay for specific reasons outlined under Civil
Service in Kentos’ case and the Attorney General’s guidelines for the other
five—if they were charged by law enforcement with indictable criminal offenses
or were totally unfit for duty.
“The allegations against them pertain to a period prior to
their joining (the sheriff’s department) and are not related to their service
once they joined,” Smith said. “Their work records are impeccable.”
The attorney said the departmental hearings have not yet
been scheduled for the six.
