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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Chump change corruption catches up Elizabeth BOE attorneys


Risking everything over chump change?

One Plainfield
Today reader always calls my attention to how paltry much of the public corruption that is prosecuted in New Jersey actually is.

A case in point is the breaking news item concerning Elizabeth Board of Education attorneys Kirk Nelson and Frank Capece. (Complete links to coverage of the story are at the bottom of this post.)

Nelson, who is the Board's attorney, and Capece, who is outside counsel to the Board, were arrested yesterday in connection with the ongoing investigation into a rip-off of the federally-funded free lunch program by yet another Board of Ed member, John Donoso, whose wife allegedly filed false applications for the free lunches for three years.


Donoso recently made the news in an odd story regarding his resignation from the BOE following the rejection of his petitions to run against Sen. Ray Lesniak in the June Democratic Primary (see story here). Now that Donoso has been charged in the school lunch scandal, we can perhaps better understand the resignation.

Nelson and Capece are alleged to have attempted to 'fix' the situation for Donoso, by physically removing the applications for his child from the records submitted to the state as the result of a subpoena in 2011, along with switching the child's electronic record from 'free' to 'paid'.

The total amount estimated to be involved in the three-year free lunch scam? $1,700.

As the Plainfield Today reader says, chump change.

Yet two attorneys are faced with the possibility of jail time and potential disbarment.

One additional irony, attorney Capece was once the law partner of Union County Prosecutor Ted Romankow in the former firm of Garrubbo Romankow Rinaldo & Capece.






-- Dan Damon [follow]

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1 comments:

Bob said...

Greed knows no limits or morals. Look at Plainfield's city hall and some of our past and current city workers. You can also take a look at the PMUA.