BY JENNIFER DOME
Staff Writer
Department of Public Works Director John H. Nydam was indicted for the second time last week on charges that he allowed a local demolition contractor to take Brick Township-owned vehicles and equipment without authorization.
Nydam, who is known as “Jack” and is a 13-year township employee, was charged with three counts of official misconduct and one count of theft. Robert J. DeForest, owner of DeForest Excavating and Demolition, Point Pleasant Beach, was charged with one count of official misconduct and one count of theft.
The indictments were handed up by an Ocean County grand jury on April 20 and were unsealed by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office on April 28.
Nydam allegedly allowed DeForest to take items belonging to the township between April 1, 2001, and Aug. 30, 2001, according to a copy of the second indictment. Among the list of items were a bulldozer, a wood chipper, two trash bins, police cars, sanitation truck bodies and school buses.
Nydam was also charged with allowing a person, identified in the indictment as “P.D.,” to take a dump trailer that belonged to the township between Oct. 1, 2001, and Dec. 23, 2002. Lt. Jeff Harper with the Prosecutor’s Office said that the initials “P.D.” represent “an identity that we are not ready to disclose.”
In the second indictment, Nydam was also charged with assigning township employees to replace a chain-link fence with a board-on-board fence on township property adjoining his Eastern Lane home. The event was said to take place between May 1, 2004, and Aug. 24, 2004, and was carried out without proper permits in violation of a township ordinance.
The indictment does not state a specific amount for the items that Nydam and DeForest were charged with stealing, only to say they were worth more than $200. Township Business Administrator Scott MacFadden said he did not know the exact amount of the vehicles or equipment, which were in possession of the Department of Public Works and in “various states of disrepair.”
Usually when vehicles and equipment reach a state when they can no longer be used, MacFadden receives a list of the items, which is then approved by the Township Council for surplus or scrap materials. The township does stand to make some money on auctioning the items, or selling them as scrap, MacFadden said.
DeForest Excavating and Demolition did approximately $31,000 of work for the township between 1998 and 2000, township purchasing agent Rich MacDonald said. The company demolished two homes and helped with construction of the detention basin at the public works site on Ridge Road.
DeForest has not worked with the township since 2000, MacDonald said.
Nydam could face up to 35 years in prison; DeForest faces up to 15 years, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Thomas F. Kelaher.
Nydam did not return a message left at his home asking for comment. DeForest also did not return a message left at his business.
In addition to the charges listed in the second indictment, Nydam faces 55 years in prison for charges that were lodged against him in January alleging that he accepted payments from a local contractor totaling $2,700. At that time, Nydam was charged with official misconduct, four counts of compensation for past official behavior and witness tampering.
Nydam, who earned a $110,000 salary, was put on administrative leave without pay for the fence incident in August. Since the first indictment was handed down in January, Nydam has been suspended without pay.
Kelaher confirmed recently that the FBI’s Red Bank office has joined the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office in a joint investigation of “Brick Township matters.” Township officials have said that at least part of the investigation involves Nydam and his possible connection to Howell-based International Trucks of Central Jersey, a company that was the focus of recent indictments in Monmouth County.
In March, International Trucks’ former owner, Stephen Appolonia of Colts Neck, was arrested and charged with allegedly laundering more than $350,000. Appolonia, 52, has since resigned from International Trucks, and his brother, Michael, now runs the company, according to the company’s attorney, Anthony J. Iacullo, Nutley.