COURT HOUSE – On Oct. 10, Superior Court Judge Raymond Batten, under orders from the New Jersey Appellate Court, held a resentencing for David Romeo, former Wildwood police sergeant convicted under the New Jersey Official Misconduct Statute for an incident that happened in July 2007. A jury convicted him March 8, 2010. An appeal followed.
The Appeals Court upheld the conviction but sent the case back to trial court for resentencing. Under the New Jersey statute there is a mandatory minimum of five years without the possibility of parole, unless there are special circumstances that warrant overriding that requirement.
This sentencing differed in that this time Romeo expressed sincere and deep regret for his actions. “I embarrassed the name of Romeo,” he said. “It had good standing in this community until I did that name wrong.”
In the interim between the trial and the recent hearing, Romeo had suffered both personal and financial losses including death in the family and the threatened foreclosure on his family’s home. He also lost his career as a police officer and all benefits.
Batten essentially imposed the same sentence as he had previously. The sentence was a five-year minimum with eligibility for parole in a year and five days. Romeo was also granted “time served” for the 29 days spent in jail. Romeo was immediately taken into custody.
Defense attorney John Tumelty said that he thought the resentencing was “tremendously fair. The issue though was whether Judge Batten was going to give him a five-year stip.” The judge, he said, had the power to “waive parole ineligibility.” He did. The judge decided that the mitigating factors far outweighed the aggravating ones.
Tumulty said that Romeo is “tremendously strong and is in a strong state of mind.” Commenting on the tragedy of the whole thing Tumelty noted, “Dave spent a lot of years as a police officer and did a good job.” Because of his former police officer status, Romeo most certainly will need special protection in prison. He may also be eligible for Intensive Supervised Parole (ISP) within six months.
“He is resilient. He’ll do his time, come home and be once again a productive member of the community,” Tumelty forecast. And he will have a completely different perspective.
Read the Sept. 6 article, Former Police Sergeant David Romeo’s Conviction Holds Up
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