Former DPW chief's sentencing delayed again Nydam's court date was originally slated for last September BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer The sentencing of former public works Director John H. "Jack" Nydam has been postponed again, a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said. Nydam was slated to be sentenced on Feb. 16 by Superior Court Judge James A. Citta. The matter was still on the calendar several days before the cancellation. A new sentencing date has not yet been set, said spokesman Lt. Jeffrey Harper. It was the latest in a string of postponements involving Nydam, a 13-year township employee. He was originally scheduled to be sentenced last Sept. 15. That date was moved to December, then canceled again and rescheduled for Feb. 16. Richard Regan, Nydam's Teaneck attorney, could not be reached for comment, and neither could Assistant County Prosecutor William Porter. Nydam pleaded guilty last April 3 before Citta to official misconduct, theft and witness tampering - three of 11 charges he originally faced. Each charge carries with it a potential five-year prison term. Part of his plea deal called for his ongoing cooperation with FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office investigations. Porter has said that federal authorities have characterized Nydam's cooperation as "substantial." Nydam was placed on administrative leave without pay in August 2004, for having township workers put up a board-on-board fence between a township park and his Eastern Lane home. An Ocean County grand jury indicted him less than six months later for official misconduct, four counts of compensation for past official behavior and witness tampering. He was indicted for accepting $2,700 in payments from Samuel A. Davis, of Monmouth Ocean Contracting and Hardrock Industries, in exchange for township work. The witness tampering charged stemmed from Nydam's attempt to persuade Davis to provide false testimony or to withhold testimony from the grand jury about the payments. Davis was never charged because he cooperated with the investigations from the beginning, Porter has said. Nydam was indicted a second time in April 2005 on three counts of official misconduct and one count of theft. Robert J. DeForest, owner of DeForest Excavating and Demolition, Point Pleasant Beach, pleaded guilty in April 2005 to criminal trespass, a disorderly persons offense, Porter has said. DeForest was originally charged with theft and official misconduct as an accessory for accepting equipment that belonged to the township from Nydam between April 1, 2001 and Aug. 30, 2001. The items included a bulldozer, a woodchipper, two trash bins, police cars, sanitation truck bodies and school buses. Former Democratic Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli, who pleaded guilty in federal court last month to accepting bribes from an unnamed developer, said at the time of the Nydam investigations that he didn't think any other Brick officials would be charged in the investigation. Scarpelli is slated to be sentenced in federal court on May 29. The longtime mayor could face up to a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, Scarpelli will more likely face a probable sentencing range of between 24 and 30 months in federal prison, authorities said. U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christopher has said the investigation in Brick Township is continuing. "We will follow the evidence wherever it takes us," Christie said in January.