Nydam avoids jail time, gets probation for cooperation
Former public works director's cooperation brought down Scarpelli
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer
Law enforcement officials are finished with Jack Nydam. "Jack Nydam's cooperation is done," Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor William H. Porter said. "That's all I'll say."

ERIC SUCAR staff Former Brick Township public works director John H. Nydam (r), leaves the courtroom with his lawyer, Richard F.X. Regan. Superior Court Judge James N. Citta sentenced Nydam to five years' probation on corruption charges.

And it was that "very substantial" cooperation into Brick Township corruption that kept the former longtime public works director out of jail, unlike former Democratic Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli, who began serving an 18-month term in federal prison on Jan. 29, he said.

"He cooperated against a local mayor who was successfully prosecuted as a direct result of that cooperation, which was proactive," Porter said.

Superior Count Judge James N. Citta, sitting in Toms River, sentenced 56-yearold John H. Nydam to five years' probation on Feb. 1, in exchange for his guilty pleas to third-degree official misconduct and theft charges.

"I'm not going to sentence him to any jail time today," Citta said. "His proactive cooperation with county and federal law enforcement authorities resulted in a successful discovery and prosecution of multiple offenses."

Citta dismissed the balance of the charges in the indictment. Nydam's sentencing, originally scheduled for December 2006, was postponed six times before it finally took place last Friday.

"There is no doubt that he did do wrong and he made mistakes," Richard F.X. Regan, Nydam's Teaneck-based attorney told Citta before he was sentenced. "I believe he did everything he could to rectify those mistakes."

Nydam came alone to the Ocean County Justice Complex that morning. He arrived shortly after 9 a.m. and stood near the doors of the complex. He spoke occasionally with Regan until Citta called the case at roughly 10:30 a.m.

"I'm sorry for the people that I hurt and I was wrong," Nydam told Citta. He declined to comment after the sentencing.

Regan told Citta that probation was the proper sentence for Nydam because he had no prior record and had cooperated with law enforcement authorities into another corruption investigation in Brick Township.

"A mayor was successfully prosecuted as a direct result of Mr. Nydam's cooperation," he said. "He significantly contributed."

Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis, who was elected in November to serve the unexpired portion of Scarpelli's fourth term, said he thought Nydam's sentence should have been stiffer.

"Obviously, it's better to be the first guy caught than the last guy," Acropolis said.

But the mayor has nothing but sympathy for Nydam's family.

"It's an embarrassment," he said. "In a strange way, Jack Nydam helped clean up the town. Had other people been as apt to cooperate, we would have cleaned up the town 10 years ago, rather than two."

Nydam pleaded guilty to official misconduct, theft and witness tampering on April 3, 2006. He agreed to cooperate with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in exchange for the plea.

Each charge carried a potential fiveyear jail term. Citta merged the third-degree official misconduct and theft charges, kept the witness tampering charge and sentenced Nydam to five years' probation for the two charges, to run concurrently.

Nydam also made "significant" contributions to the successful prosecution of a private trucking vendor, Porter said.

He did not name the vendor. But Nydam was indirectly named in a July 2006 indictment involving Stephen and Matthew Appolonia, co-owners of International Trucks of Central Jersey. Nydam was not named in the indictment, which refers to Brick's public works director. Nydam took a total of $3,000 in bribes on two occasions from Stephen Appolonia. The money was either concealed in a cigar tube or cigarette boxes, according to the indictment.

He also took trips to watch boat races in Canada, Ocean County and other locales. Federal authorities said that the Appolonia brothers recouped the costs for the trips by inflating the price of two of the four vehicles sold to Brick Township by at least $2,200 sometime betweenMay 2002 and September 2003.

"As I understand it, you're innocent until proven guilty," Scarpelli said when the Appolonia indictment came down. "But now I think it's obvious Brick is involved and the public works director is involved. We're going to go safe."

Nydam's public downfall in Brick began on Aug. 10, 2004, when a resident told Township Council members he saw township employees take down a chainlink fence at a park on Manor Drive and replace it with a board-on-board fence. There was no permit on file for the fence, which bordered Nydam's property.

Scarpelli suspended Nydam for 30 days and ordered him to reimburse the township for the cost of the fence. The former mayor said after Nydam's plea that he didn't think any other Brick officials would be charged in the investigation.

Nydam's bribe taking didn't stop with the Appolonia brothers. Lance Hadley, a local landscaping contractor, pleaded guilty in August 2007 to bribing Nydam with two separate checks of $2,000 apiece. In exchange, Nydam threw more than $40,000 in no-bid snow-plowing contracts his way.

Nydam was responsible for hiring and deploying outside contractors to plow snow in the township during emergency snow conditions, when it snowed more than 5 or inches. He hired Lancescaping, Hadley's business, to plow snow in the township at least three times between December 2002 and March 2003, authorities said.

"For 14 years Jack Nydam did many good things for the town, but he also made some bad mistakes," Regan said after the sentencing. "He is very sorry for his conduct. It's time for everybody to move on."

Scarpelli, who was elected to an unprecedented four terms as mayor, turned himself in to federal authorities on Jan. 28 to begin serving his 18-month term on corruption charges. Federal Bureau of Prisons officials allowed the 68-year-old Scarpelli to serve his time at the minimum security facility at Fort Dix, rather than out of state.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan D. Wigenton also sentenced Scarpelli to a $5,000 fine and three years of supervised release. He will most likely serve most of the 18 months, since there is no parole in the federal system.

Scarpelli resigned abruptly as mayor on Dec. 8, 2006. But rumors had swirled through Brick for several years before that the mayor was involved in some type of wrongdoing.

Scarpelli pleaded guilty on Jan. 8, 2007 to one count of accepting and agreeing to accept cash payments in exchange for official action. He admitted he took at least $5,000 in bribes from an unnamed developer between 1998 and 2003. Authorities have never released the developer's name.