Nydam's sentencing postponed

The sentencing of former township public works Director John H. Nydam in state Superior Court has been postponed, said Ocean County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Gasser.

"It happens all the time," he said. "There's nothing suspicious about it."

Gasser said the request for a postponement was made by the defense, not by prosecutors.

Nydam pleaded guilty to official misconduct, theft and witness tampering in April before state Superior Court Judge James N. Citta.

He was scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 15. It was postponed for approximately two weeks, Gasser said.

Nydam was originally charged with 11 counts in 2005, which were downgraded to three as a result of a plea deal made earlier this year.

Nydam's ongoing cooperation with state and federal authorities was also a part of the plea deal.

Nydam was also indicated, by title, not by name, in a federal indictment that charged Stephen and Matthew Appolonia, former co-owners of International Trucks in Howell, and their municipal salesman, Brick resident Robert Feldman, with bribing public officials.

The indictment stated that Brick's public works director in 1998 and 2004 accepted a total of $3,000 in bribes from Stephen Appolonia, sometimes in a pack of cigarettes, in exchange for throwing work Appolonia's way. Nydam was Brick's public works director at the time.

Appolonia wasn't the only businessman Nydam was allegedly accepting bribes from.

Nydam was indicted for accepting $2,700 in cash payments from Samuel A. Davis, of Monmouth Ocean Contracting and Hardrock Industries. The witness tampering charge was a result of Nydam attempting to persuade Davis to provide false testimony or to withhold testimony to a grand jury regarding the payments, according to authorities.

Originally facing 90 years in jail, with the downgraded charges, Nydam now faces a possible 15-year prison term.

- Colleen Lutolf