Ex-committeeman appeals sentence

By: Cara Latham
   PLUMSTED — Paul Bruni, a former North Hanover committeeman, is free on $25,000 bail pending his appeal of a three-month jail sentence for harassing the teenage daughter of a former friend.
   Municipal Court Judge Paul Carr sentenced Mr. Bruni on Nov. 16 to three months in jail on a disorderly persons charge that he harassed a 15-year-old Plumsted girl.
   Mr. Bruni’s attorney, Mitchell J. Ansell, said on Friday that Mr. Bruni is out on bail pending the appeal, which was filed last week. Mr. Ansell added in an e-mail Monday that he is appealing the sentence because it was excessive. "My client was under the impression that there would be no jail imposed," he said.
   Mr. Bruni, 52, had pleaded guilty on Sept. 27 to the disorderly persons charge of inappropriately touching a the girl in her home earlier in the year.
   A Republican committeeman since 2004, Mr. Bruni had originally pleaded not guilty to a disorderly persons charge and a charge of verbal harassment in April in a Plumsted municipal court. As part of a plea deal, a second disorderly persons charge of verbal harassment was dropped. He resigned from the North Hanover Township Committee in October.
   The plea stems from allegations by a New Egypt man, who filed harassment charges against Mr. Bruni on March 15. The man, a former friend of the committeeman, claimed in court documents that Mr. Bruni subjected the man’s 15-year-old daughter to "offensive touching, specifically by talking to the victim…about sexual acts, touching her underwear, trying to go into her shirt, playing with her bra strap and attempting to put his mouth on her ear."
   Mr. Ansell said that the case had been sent to the Ocean County prosecutor’s office twice, but was not serious enough to warrant criminal charges. Instead, the case was returned to Plumsted Township Municipal Court as a disorderly person’s offense. North Hanover Committeeman Michael Moscatiello said last week that Mr. Bruni had been asked to step down from his elected office because of the guilty plea.
   "He served a role in the township community, and the mayor and the rest of the committee don’t condone that kind of activity, so his resignation was asked of him," said Mr. Moscatiello.
   Mr. Mosciatello said that James Durr, a local farmer who is a member of the Planning Board, will serve the remainder of Mr. Bruni’s term on the Township Committee.