Former Little Egg Harbor fire official gets prison for theft

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Former Little Egg Harbor fire official gets prison for theft

Published: Friday, June 27, 2008

4 p.m. Update - TRENTON - A former Little Egg Harbor Township fire commissioner was sentenced to three years in state prison Friday for stealing more than $1,600 in raffle ticket proceeds.

Woodrow Nelson Jr., 50, of Absecon, was ordered by Superior Court Judge Wendell E. Daniels in Ocean County to serve three years in state prison, according to Acting Criminal Justice Director Deborah Gramiccioni in a news release from the state Attorney General's Office.

The sentence was in accordance to Nelson's Feb. 1 guilty plea to official misconduct, a charge in a July 31, 2007, state grand jury indictment.

Nelson admitted that he used his position as a fire commissioner for Little Egg Harbor Township Fire District No. 2 to steal $1,640 in proceeds of raffle tickets to benefit the Mystic Islands Volunteer Fire Company, according to the release. Nelson admitted that rather than turning the money over to the fire company, he used it for his personal benefit, it said.

Detective Kim Husband coordinated the investigation for the Division of Criminal Justice. Deputy Attorney General Erik Daab handled the case for the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau. The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office assisted in the investigation.

Nelson was one of three Fire District No. 2 officials who have admitted to illegal activities. In an unrelated case, former fire commissioners Leroy Kaufman and Edward A. "Tony" Kluver pleaded guilty to using their positions to improperly transfer department vehicles to each other.

Kaufman, a former member of the Mystic Islands Fire Company, was sentenced to serve three years probation and pay a $500 auto-theft fine. Kluver, a former chief of the fire company, was sentenced to three years in state prison. Both were ordered to forfeit their positions as commissioners and were permanently barred from holding public office in New Jersey.

From Press staff