Seven months after his arrest, former Manalapan Mayor Andrew Lucas was found guilty by a federal jury on 11 criminal counts related to his purchase of a 97-acre farm in Manalapan.
Lucas, 37, will stand before a judge on Jan. 20 in federal court in Trenton and learn the sentence that will be imposed on him following his conviction on Sept. 18.
He is facing the prospect of being sentenced to decades in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Lucas was found guilty of wire fraud, conducting an illegal monetary transaction, loan application fraud, making false statements to the IRS, aggravated identity theft, obstruction of a grand jury investigation and falsification of records in a federal investigation.
The jury deliberated for three hours before returning its verdict following a twoweek trial before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson.
Lucas purchased the 97-acre Burke farm on Iron Ore Road, Manalapan, in March 2010.
In February 2013, a total of $1.2 million from Manalapan, Monmouth County and the state was authorized as payment to Lucas for a development easement on the Burke farm. The easement would preclude anything other than agricultural uses and the construction of one home on the property, according to previous articles.
The charges on which Lucas was convicted related to his financial dealings to acquire the money he needed to purchase the development corporation that owned the Burke farm. They remain unrelated to the application process Lucas followed once he had purchased the farm and was seeking to enter it into the state’s farmland preservation program.
After learning that Lucas had been convicted,