NEW BRUNSWICK – A Middlesex County Grand Jury has indicted a four-year veteran of the Edison Police Department with obstruction of a criminal investigation.
The indictment of Nicholas R. Lunetta, 31, of Scotch Plains, was handed up following a presentation to the grand jury by Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Anny Lopez, according to a statement provided by Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey on April 25.
Lunetta is charged with two counts of official misconduct in the second degree, one count of hindering prosecution in the third degree, one count of tampering with physical evidence in the fourth degree, and one count of obstruction of the administration of law, criminal investigation in the fourth-degree, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Lunetta, who was previously a police officer in Madison Borough, Morris County, for about a year before coming to Edison in December 2014, turned himself in to authorities at the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office on Dec. 13, 2018, according to the statement.
The investigation determined that from March 20 to April 28, 2018, Lunetta allegedly tampered with and destroyed evidence that he believed would be included in a pending official proceeding or investigation, the prosecutor’s office said.
He remains suspended from the Edison Police Department without pay, the prosecutor’s office said. His annual salary is $75,000, according to township officials.
Anyone with information should call Capt. Kenneth M. Schreck of the Edison Police Department at 732-248-7400, or Detective Joseph Chesseri of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at 732-745-4335.