Businessman deals for five-year suspended sentence
By Charles W. Kim, Managing Editor
CRANBURY — Township resident and Hightstown funeral home owner Joseph Barlow, 69, pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing some $750,000 from an elderly relative, according to officials.
The businessman pled guilty to a second-degree charge of misappropriation of funds in front of Mercer County Superior Court Judge Thomas Brown, according to a press release from the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office Thursday.
Mr. Barlow, who owns the Barlow and Zimmer Funeral home in Hightstown, bilked a 96-year old relative out of the money during a two-year period once he was able to get power of attorney over her affairs, according to the press release.
He was arrested on the charges June 20 and indicted by a Grand Jury in July, and was freed on $25,000 bail after surrendering to police.
After gaining power of attorney for the relative in March 2011, Mr. Barlow wrote four checks to himself that he later cashed at a Wachovia Bank.
Three of the checks were for $35,000 and the fourth for $55,000, according to the arrest warrant.
In addition, the warrant alleges Mr. Barlow also canceled a life insurance policy on the victim, taking the cash value of more than $300,000 in September 2011.
Police said they were made aware of the alleged activity by the state’s Adult Protective Services in May.
According to the release, he used the money taken for his funeral home business in Hightstown.
Mr. Barlow and partner Richard Zimmer bought the funeral home from the estate of the late Middlesex County Freeholder Director David B. Crabiel in 2009 for $470,000, according to borough records.
Both Mr. Barlow and Mr. Zimmer worked in the Crabiel funeral home prior to the purchase, according to the funeral home’s website.
In return for his plea, Mr. Barlow will receive a five-year suspended sentence conditioned on serving 10 days in jail and making restitution in the amounts of $50,000 due at his July 19 sentencing and then $70,000 per year until the debt is paid, according to the release.
The victim will also receive a 20-percent stake in the funeral home, according to the release.
Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr. credited Detective Michele Russell of the prosecutor’s Economic Crime Unit and Detective Benjamin Miller of the Hightstown Police Department with the investigation leading to the guilty plea. Assistant Prosecutor James Scott, chief of the Economic Crime Unit, represented the state.