TRENTON
– Acting Attorney General Ricardo Solano
Jr. and Criminal Justice Director Deborah
L. Gramiccioni announced that a former Hudson
County sheriff’s officer pleaded guilty
today to signing false documents so a bounty
hunter could collect additional fees for fugitives
he didn’t catch. He is the second sheriff’s
officer to plead guilty as a result of an
investigation into alleged fraud involving
Jersey City bounty hunter Adel Mikhaeil.
According
to Director Gramiccioni, Alberto Vasquez,
40, of Apex, North Carolina, a former detective
with the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office,
pleaded guilty to an accusation charging him
with third-degree pattern of official misconduct
before Superior Court Judge Salem Vincent
Ahto in Morris County.
Under
the plea agreement, the state will recommend
that Vasquez be sentenced to serve 270 days
in the county jail as a condition of a term
of probation. In addition, he must forfeit
$3,500 in illegal cash gifts that he admitted
receiving from the bounty hunter. Vasquez
will be permanently barred from public employment
in New Jersey and must cooperate in the ongoing
prosecution of Mikhaeil, 45, and other defendants
in the case.
The
guilty plea was taken by Deputy Attorney General
Anthony A. Picione, who is deputy chief of
the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption
Bureau.
In
pleading guilty, Vasquez admitted that he
signed documents known as body receipts that
falsely indicated that Mikhaeil caught certain
fugitives, when the fugitives had actually
been arrested by law enforcement officers.
He admitted Mikhaeil paid him for signing
false body receipts and also for providing
official information about fugitives, including
arrest photos.
Another
former Hudson County sheriff’s officer,
William Chadwick, 54, of Keansburg, pleaded
guilty on July 14, 2009, to second-degree
official misconduct for signing false body
receipts for Mikhaeil. The state will recommend
that he be sentenced to five years in state
prison. He forfeited $5,500 in illegal cash
gifts that he admitted receiving from Mikhaeil.
Chadwick,
Vasquez and Mikhaeil were indicted on Oct.
1, 2008 along with Kenneth Sisk, 49, of Bayonne,
a captain who was in charge of homicide detectives
in the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office,
and two other individuals. In the indictment,
Sisk was charged with signing two false body
receipts. The charges against Sisk are pending.
The
indictment resulted from an investigation
by the New Jersey State Police, the Division
of Criminal Justice and the Hudson County
Prosecutor’s Office.
By
claiming he caught the fugitives and presenting
the false body receipts, Mikhaeil collected
higher fees from insurance companies that
insured the fugitives’ bail bonds.
While
a bounty hunter does receive a fee for locating
a fugitive who is already in custody –
what is called a “paper transfer”
– the fee is lower than for a “physical
apprehension,” when the bounty hunter
actually locates and arrests a fugitive who
is at large. The fraudulent body receipts
also had the effect of reducing the amount
of bail forfeited, resulting in savings for
the insurance companies that insured the bail
bonds but a loss of funds to the counties
where the fugitive jumped bail and the State
of New Jersey, which divide the forfeited
funds.
On
Feb. 5, 2009, another defendant named in the
indictment, James Irizarry, 43, of Mohnton,
Pa., pleaded guilty to commercial bribery
before Judge Ahto. Irizarry admitted he took
bribes from Mikhaeil in return for hiring
Mikhaeil to recover fugitives for his former
employer and for approving Mikhaeil’s
invoices for payment. Irizarry worked for
a firm that locates fugitives for insurance
companies that insure bail bonds. The state
will recommend that he be sentenced to probation,
conditioned on him serving 364 days in jail
and forfeiting $5,000 Mikhaeil gave him.
Trevor
Williams, 37, of Jersey City, a bounty hunter
employed by Mikhaeil, was charged in the indictment
with helping to cover up $92,000 in commercial
bribes that Mikhaeil allegedly paid to an
insurance company executive in return for
business. The charges against Williams are
pending.
The
insurance company executive, John Sullivan,
43, the former vice president for Sirius America
Insurance Company, pleaded guilty on May 30,
2008 to commercial bribery and financial facilitation
of criminal activity. He faces a 364-day jail
term as a condition of a sentence of probation.
Another employee of Mikhaeil’s, George
Formoe, 43, of Ridgefield Park, pleaded guilty
to covering up those payments and faces probation.
The
charges against the remaining defendants are
merely accusations and they are presumed innocent
until proven guilty.
The
case is being prosecuted by Deputy Attorney
General Picione and Deputy Attorney General
Jeffrey Manis. They led the investigation
along with Detective Sgt. Myles Cappiello
and Detective Sgt. Neil Hickey of the New
Jersey State Police Official Corruption North
Unit; Detective Scott Donlan and Analyst Alison
Callery of the Division of Criminal Justice
Corruption Bureau; and Detective Sgt. Mary
Reinke of the Hudson County Prosecutor’s
Office. The Hudson County Sheriff’s
Office also assisted in the investigation.
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