Nydam's latest sentence date comes and goes
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer

Jack Nydam

BRICK TOWNSHIP - Former public works director John "Jack" Nydam's sentencing has been postponed for the fifth time.

Nydam was scheduled to be sentenced by state Superior Court Judge James A. Citta on April 27. The new sentencing date is June 15.

The judge has been out on sick leave and probably will be for the near future, said municipal division court administrator Eric R. Muniz.

But Muniz said he doubted if the judge's illness was the reason for the sentencing postponement. Citta's cases have been reassigned to Superior Court Judge Barbara A. Villano.

"It's been adjourned in the past and that didn't have anything to do with the judge's health," Muniz said. "Generally speaking, when we take pleas, if a judge was unavailable, that wouldn't necessarily stop a sentencing. The case would be referred to a different judge."

Nydam pleaded guilty on April 3, 2006 to official misconduct, theft and witness - three of the 11 charges he originally faced. Each charge carries a potential five-year term.

Nydam's last sentencing date was postponed at the joint request of both parties, so Nydam could continue to work with law enforcement authorities, Assistant County Prosecutor William Porter said.

"He is continuing to cooperate," Porter said.

Part of Nydam's plea bargain called for his continuing cooperation with the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office investigations. Federal authorities have characterized Nydam's cooperation as "substantial," Porter has said.

Nydam was placed on administrative leave without pay in August 2004, after it was discovered that township workers put up a fence between a township park and his Eastern lane home.

An Ocean County grand jury later indicted him for official misconduct, four counts of compensation for past official behavior and witness tampering.

Nydam was indicted a second time in April 2005, on three counts of official misconduct and one count of theft.

His new sentence date comes little more than two weeks after former longtime Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli's turn in court. Scarpelli is scheduled to be sentenced on May 29 in federal court in Newark.

Scarpelli pleaded guilty on Jan. 8 to accepting bribes from an unnamed developer. He said at the time of the Nydam investigations that he didn't think any other Brick officials would be charged.