Matawan Boro Construction Department under Investigation by Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office

As the owner of a solar electric generating station Triple “G” Energy LLC located in Matawan at the First Presbyterian Church on Rt. #34, I was subjected to a viscous group of individuals in the Boro Construction department. In order to get this project approved it took, $20,000 in legal expenses and 9 months of delays. This project was reviewed by the NJ Department of Community Affairs (DCA) for over 1 year but this review was found to be worthless. So in January of 2013 I brought this matter to the Monmouth County Prosecutors office of Public Corruption. I met with Det. Sgt. Theresa Wilbert (ext. 6169) whom was reluctant to even discuss the matter as she stated this should be handled by the DCA or the Matawan Boro PD. I explained to her that I have met with then Lt. Jason Gallo and he had admittedly refused to review this case for what I believe was personal reasons as he was in line to become Chief of Police and did not want to ruffle any feathers so to speak. After Det. Sgt Wilbert (ext. #6169) personally reviewed this along with Lt. Jason Clark (ext. #7119) they agreed that the allegations being made along with the initial information provided warranted a full investigation which was then assigned to Det. Arnaldo Maestray ( ext. 3691) who then took over 8 months to conduct the investigation. During one of my numerous meetings with the Detectives which resulted in me meeting with Lt. Clark he stated the problem with these types of cases is that they do receive numerous complainants but generally no one is willing to make formal statements. I assured Lt. Clark that I will participate in very capacity possible. While I have had quite a few Matawan business men confide in me that they too have been exposed to the same type of harassment and extortion as myself but none were willing to make formal complaints due to the retaliation of the “Organized Crime Ring” in the Matawan Construction office. They would say look at what you are going through and I cannot afford to take any chances as this is how Matawan does business.

All my problems started when I had my first encounter with Glenn Turner, Fire Prevention Inspector. While I was a Ruling Elder / Trustee of FPC and we had 3 false fire alarms Turner made a un- announced visit to FPC where he was rude, arrogant and utterly nasty to the staff at FPC. I was the Property Chairman so of course this was raised to my attention and I spoke with Turner that same day on the phone. During the conversation Turner was brutally rude and made statements that I do not respect his authority. After this he then asked me very specifically “are you ready to open your wallet”, I then asked him to repeat himself and he did. At that point I told Turner I will not open my wallet for you or anyone else for that matter. Turner then went off on a tirade and stated then he is going to write a $5,000 fine on me personally for tampering with the fire alarms. I then told Turner I am an officer of FPC and I was acting in my capacity of the position. This infuriated Turner and he stated “oh so you are protected by the church.”

So within an hour of ending the conversation Turner arrived at FPC and threw the $5,000 violation into the Pastor’s face stating how is that going affect the churches finances. It was quite obvious that Turner was out of control so he was asked to leave the building or be removed as his yelling and screaming in a house of worship would not be tolerated. The Police had to be called and when they arrived we met with Sgt Walker who stated this type of thing with Turner is not uncommon as it has happened at other locations. 

The Pastor wrote a letter to Mayor Buccellato and council and the Mayor met with us and apologized relentlessly stating Turner is a problem employee and he even had the same problem at his own church St. Benedicts. Mayor Buccellato told us that Father John was so upset and how he held his hand and told him everything would be OK. We then asked the Mayor if this type of issue has happened in the past then was had been done about this. The Mayor stated the Boro Attorney Pasquale Menna (Red Bank Mayor) had taken care of this with Turner and he had been reprimanded. After we looked into this we found that Turner was a model employee and while complaints might have been made they were never memorialized.   This $5,000 fine was after 7 months of litigation with the church attorney Joel Davies Esq. handling the matter.

After this ordeal and it was time for my solar project to be inspected I was subject to retailation from the electrical inspector Nick Fabiano. On the first day he without even looking at the documentation cited as many as 14 violations stating there are so many things wrong here he will not even take the time to write them up. When he was forced to put them in writing the list was narrowed down to 2 violations which 3 months later at the Construction Board of Appeals Fabiano admitted to the board that there are no electrical violations here but referred to OSHA safety issues. It then took another 6 months as Fabiano along with Construction Officer John Quinn had joined forces to make it clear to me that they were in charge and would be setting the rules regardless of what the Code states as they have the authority to interrupt the Code.

So this story keeps getting worse so for now this is the short version of the story. If any has experienced the same type of issues please call the Prosecutors office at 732-431-7160.