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TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that a Paulsboro woman who formerly
worked as a local administrator of the New
Jersey Home Energy Assistance (HEA) Program
has pleaded guilty to defrauding the program
of $22,980 by filing false applications
to obtain benefits.
According
to Director Taylor, Denise Nicole Johnson,
36, of Paulsboro, pleaded guilty to second-degree
official misconduct before Superior Court
Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson in Gloucester
County. Under the plea agreement, the state
will recommend that she be sentenced to
four years in state prison. She must pay
full restitution of $22,980 to the New Jersey
Department of Community Affairs and will
be permanently barred from public employment
in New Jersey.
Johnson
was charged in a July 28, 2010 state grand
jury indictment stemming from ongoing investigations
by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption
Bureau, conducted with assistance from the
Department of Community Affairs (DCA). As
a result of the investigations, two other
women who were local administrators of the
HEA Program previously pleaded guilty to
official misconduct and were sentenced to
prison. A heating oil supplier was also
sentenced to prison.
“It
is unconscionable that individuals entrusted
with administering this program, which provides
funding to heat the homes of low-income
families, would instead enrich themselves
at the expense of taxpayers,” said
Attorney General Dow. “This is the
third local administrator who is facing
prison as a result of our ongoing investigations.”
“These
cases should send a loud and clear message
that we have zero tolerance for officials
who engage in fraud involving public assistance
programs,” said Director Taylor.
Deputy
Attorney General Christine Hoffman, Chief
of the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption
Bureau, appeared in court to take the guilty
plea today. Deputy Attorneys General David
M. Fritch and Robert Czepiel have prosecuted
Johnson and the other HEA cases. Judge Allen-Jackson
scheduled sentencing for Johnson for July
15.
From
February 2005 through September 2006, Johnson
was employed as an HEA aide in the Paulsboro
Office of Tri-County Community Action, a
nonprofit contracted by the DCA to administer
the HEA program in Cumberland, Gloucester
and Salem counties.
In
pleading guilty, she admitted that between
March 2006 and August 2009, she received
approximately $22,905 on nine false applications
that she filed, including two fraudulent
applications that she created by entering
false information into the DCA benefits
system while still employed by Tri-County
Community Action.
Johnson
was indicted along with a boyfriend, Anthony
Lamont Taylor, 35, of Paulsboro, who allegedly
received $2,648 on one application for which
he submitted false information. The charges
are pending against Taylor. A second man
named in the indictment was admitted by
the court into the Pre-Trial Intervention
program in November.
The
investigation revealed that Johnson accepted
two-party HEA benefit checks that were payable
only to individuals and their home heating
suppliers. The checks were to be used for
the sole purpose of procuring home heating
fuel and could be deposited only into the
account of a home heating supplier. However,
Johnson exchanged and cashed the benefit
checks through third parties for cash or
checks payable solely to her.
Some
of the HEA checks were exchanged for cash
or company checks from Harris Fuel Oil of
Paulsboro. Thomas J. Harris, 66, of Woolwich,
the owner Harris Fuel Oil, pleaded guilty
to money laundering and misapplication of
entrusted property and property of government
as a result of the state investigations.
He was sentenced on June 17, 2010 to four
years in prison. He admitted he defrauded
the HEA Program of $400,000 by offering
low-income beneficiaries cash for their
state-issued assistance checks instead of
fuel oil. He was ordered to pay full restitution.
In
related cases, Nicole Victor, 38, of Paulsboro,
was sentenced on Jan. 7, 2011 to five years
in prison and ordered to pay restitution
of $11,705 in connection with false applications
she filed. Victor pleaded guilty to second-degree
official misconduct. She had been an HEA
administrator in the Paulsboro office of
Tri-County Community Action. ,
25, of Chester, Pa., a former HEA manager
for Tri-County’s Salem and Gloucester
County offices, was sentenced on July 19,
2010 to five years in prison for official
misconduct and was ordered to pay full restitution.
She processed false HEA applications for
herself and five family members, by which
they obtained $24,010 in benefits. Charges
are pending against Marvin Laws, 55, of
Atlantic City, who allegedly stole $9,062
through false applications while employed
as an HEA benefits manager by Atlantic Human
Resources, a nonprofit contracted by DCA
to administer the program in Atlantic County.
The
investigations have been conducted and coordinated
for the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption
Bureau by Lt. Keith Lerner, Sgt. Robert
Ferriozzi, Detective Andrea Salvatini, Detective
Anthony Luyber, Deputy Chief of Detectives
Neal Cohen, Analyst Alison Callery and Deputy
Attorneys General Fritch and Czepiel.
The
HEA Program is administered by the Department
of Community Affairs and local agencies
contracted by the DCA. The HEA Program encompasses
two separate programs, the federally funded
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program
(LIHEAP) and the state-funded Universal
Service Fund Program (USF). The LIHEAP program
provides direct financial assistance to
beneficiaries in the form of payments to
utility companies and to fuel vendors to
help low-income households meet the cost
of home heating and medically necessary
cooling. The USF program assists such households
by providing credits against their natural
gas and electric bills. The Johnson,
and Victor cases involved both programs.
The Harris case involved the LIHEAP program.
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