SOUTH AMBOY – A South Amboy police officer has been charged with stealing approximately $3,000 in cash that was seized during criminal investigations and held as evidence at the South Amboy Police Department.
Detective Matthew Barcheski, 39, of South Amboy, was charged on Feb. 23 with theft and a related count of official misconduct for taking the money in various amounts from the department’s evidence storage room over an undisclosed period of time, according to a statement released by Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey.
The charges were filed during an investigation by Detective Nicholas Chiorello of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
Barcheski has been a police officer in South Amboy since 2005 and until recently, served as a member of the Middlesex County Special Operations Response Team (SORT). He began his career in March 2003 as a Middlesex County sheriff’s officer, according to Carey.
Anyone with information should call Chiorello at 732-745-3848.