02-18-04 -- Nash, James J. -- Sentencing -- News Release

Former New Hanover Township Administrator Sentenced to Prison for Steering a Construction Contract to the Mayor's Relative

TRENTON - Former New Hanover Township Administrator James J. Nash was sentenced today to three months in federal prison to be followed by three months of home confinement for participating in a scheme to steer a 1999 federally funded New Hanover Board of Education contract to a relative of former New Hanover Mayor Patrick G. Malloy, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

U.S. District Judge Garrett E. Brown, Jr., also ordered Nash, 64, of New Hanover Twp., to serve three years of supervised release (which includes the home confinement period) upon the completion of his prison sentence and to pay $25,000 in fines. Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Under Sentencing Guidelines, defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all of that time.

Judge Brown sentenced Malloy yesterday to six months in prison to be followed by six months of home confinement. (See news release at www.njusao.org .)

Nash pleaded guilty to a one-count Information on June 16, 2003, charging him with misapplying federal money received by the New Hanover Board of Education by causing fabricated vendors' quotes to be submitted to the school board to steer a Board of Education contract to a relative of Mayor Malloy, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Treby Williams.

According to the felony Information to which Nash pleaded guilty, he held numerous salaried municipal positions in New Hanover throughout 1999, including Township Administrator and Treasurer of School Funds for the New Hanover Township Board of Education.

The Information states that in April 1999, the New Hanover Board of Education decided to contract with a vendor to replace the sidewalk in front of the New Hanover Township School. The contract was to be funded with federal funds received by the Board of Education that year. Consistent with New Jersey State Law, the Board of Education was to be presented with at least two vendor quotes prior to awarding the contract.

At his plea hearing, Nash admitted that on April 15, 1999, he met with Mayor Malloy, a member of the New Hanover Board of Education and others. Nash admitted that they had decided to steer the sidewalk project to a relative of Mayor Malloy. He also acknowledged that prior to the meeting, the Board of Education member obtained a written quote from the relative which priced the sidewalk job at $11,500.

Nash admitted that at the meeting, they decided to obtain two fabricated written quotes for higher prices in the names of local vendors that would be submitted to the Board of Education along with the relative's quote. Nash admitted that he directed another New Hanover Township employee to prepare one of the fabricated quotes in the name of a local vendor. Nash also acknowledged that the Board of Education member submitted the relative's quote and the two fabricated quotes (one for $11,950 and the other for $12,200) to the Board of Education at its evening meeting on April 15. Nash stated that at the meeting, based on the three quotes submitted, the Board of Education awarded the sidewalk contract to the relative, who was paid the $11,500 after he completed the job three months later.

According to the Information, the relative was paid with funds that the Board of Education received from Impact Aid, a federal grant program designed to reimburse local school districts for the impact that federal land acquisitions had on the municipal tax base, and consequently, their respective school budgets. The New Hanover Board of Education qualified for Impact Aid because the United States owned the land occupied by the Fort Dix military base in New Hanover Township.

Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Judge Brown determined Nash's actual sentence based upon a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, and the defendant's criminal history, if any.

New Hanover Township Mayor Patrick G. Malloy, 69, pleaded guilty on Nov.13, 2003, to a one-count Information which charges that he instructed a witness - who was cooperating with the FBI and wearing a recording device - to lie to a grand jury investigating the award of the school board contract to Malloy's relative.

Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI's Trenton Resident Agency, under the direction of Louie F. Allen, Special Agent in Charge in Newark, with the investigation, which is continuing.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Treby Williams, of the U.S. Attorney's Criminal Division in Trenton.

Defense Attorney: Paul H. Zoubek, Esq. Cherry Hill