COURT HOUSE – Three Wildwood elected officials were arraigned March 17 on charges they illegally accepted health benefits in their role as public servants.
Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron, Commissioner Steve Mikulski and former Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. each entered a not guilty plea, after waiving a formal reading of the indictment, which was returned March 10 by a state grand jury.
The Herald was the only media outlet in the courtroom for the proceedings, which was also attended by a few concerned residents of the city.
All three were indicted for the same four alleged crimes: Second-degree official misconduct, second-degree theft by unlawful taking, third-degree tampering with public records, and fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with records.
Prosecutors alleged the three elected officials were not entitled to benefits during their tenure as public servants because they were not full-time employees. The state also alleged that while serving as elected officials, they falsified timecards to make it appear as though they worked full days, Monday through Friday.
Troiano allegedly received the benefits from July 2011 through December 2019, billing a total of $286,500 to the city and State Health Benefits Program (SHBP), court records indicate. Byron was allegedly covered for $608,900 in premiums and claims from July 2011 through October 2021, according to records.
Although Mikulski did not join the city government until 2020, over $103,000 in premiums and claims were allegedly paid on his behalf, between January 2020 and October 2021, according to court documents.
Since 2010, New Jersey law has required elected officials to be full-time employees “whose hours of work are fixed at 35 or more per week” in their elected positions to be eligible to participate in the SHBP and receive employer-provided health care.
The state put plea offers for the three men on the record at the arraignment proceeding March 17. All three would be looking at a three-year recommended sentence, to be served in state prison.
Mikuslki had turned down a prior offer of probation, but it’s unclear if that offer was ever extended to Byron or Troiano.
The St. Patrick’s Day proceedings, in Presiding Judge Bernard E. DeLury Jr.’s courtroom in Cape May County Superior Court, lasted less than 15 minutes, with each defendant being called before the court one at a time.
Stave v. Troiano
Troiano’s lawyer, Brian Pelloni, told the judge that his client is not taking a deal and wants to go to trial as soon as possible.
“The only thing we’d ask is that we’d be given an expedited trial date,” Pelloni said in court. “We are prepared to go to trial within 30- to 60-days, if the court’s available.”
Pelloni told the judge if any other defendant asks for more time, beyond the speedy trial timeframe Troiano is seeking, he may file a motion to sever Troiano’s case, asking DeLury to allow Troiano, as a solo defendant, to proceed to trial sooner than Mikulski and Byron may be ready.
“It’s three very distinct cases,” Pelloni told the judge.
“Was a conspiracy count returned?” DeLury asked.
“No, Your Honor, but the witnesses, the proofs, the abundance of evidence; it would all be the same,” Brian Uzdavinis, one of the deputy attorney generals assigned to the case, argued.
Pelloni told the judge he does not expect to file any other pre-trial motions. He said he is still waiting for the grand jury transcripts, but otherwise, discovery is mostly complete.
The state had offered Troiano a deal that included pleading guilty to a second-degree theft by unlawful taking, cooperating with the state in its ongoing prosecution, signing a consent order agreeing to a lifetime ban on holding public office, full restitution, and a three-year state prison term. He rejected the offer.
The judge listed Troiano for a status conference April 21.
Troiano referred questions from the Herald to his lawyer. Pelloni said after court it is his firm’s policy not to comment to the media during an ongoing case.
State v. Byron
Eric Shenkus, Byron’s attorney, said in court his client did make a statement to investigators.
Shenkus took over the case from high-profile defense lawyer Bill Hughes Jr., who asked the judge to let him out of it in October.
Shenkus, a deputy public defender, said he anticipates filing a motion to dismiss the charges. He said it’s a little too early to speak on what other pre-trial motions he may file, as some discovery is still outstanding in the case.
Byron was offered the same plea deal as Troiano. Uzdavinis, the prosecutor, told the judge since Shenkus was new to the case, he would give him some time to discuss the offer with his client, but warned that soon the offers would again accelerate.
After the hearing, Byron referred a reporter to his attorney. Shenkus said he doesn’t think the state’s case is as strong as they’re saying it is.
“Just because they’ve got a big pile of paper doesn’t mean that it amounts to any certain criminal offense, by any means,” he told the Herald after court.
Shenkus said it wasn’t the time for him to lay out his defense strategy, something he would prefer to save for trial.
“Is the jury here? What’s going on?” Shenkus responded when asked what the defense would be by a reporter.
“My client has taken no deal and plans to take no deal,” he added.
Byron will also be back before the judge April 21 for a status conference.
Stave v. Mikulski
“I’m kind of new to the party here,” David Stefankiewicz, Mikulski’s new lawyer, said in court, adding he is still in the process of reviewing the discovery he got from Mikulski’s former lawyer in the case. “It’s voluminous. I think there are 23 discs and I’m on disc 18 as we speak.”
Asked by the judge if he anticipated any issues that would need to be litigated pre-trial, Stefankiewicz replied “it’s a little premature for me to articulate that.”
He said he is also considering a motion to break Mikulski off from his co-defendants.
“I don’t know what I think about severance, at this point in time. I do believe my client is situated a little bit differently factually than some of the other defendants in this case,” Stefankiewicz told the judge.
Mikulski received benefits for a much shorter period of time than Troiano or Byron.
“There’s enough going on where, to try three guys, it might take a month. To try one, it might take a week. And I don’t want Mikulski’s case being polluted by a lot of minutia that might be developed in the other two cases,” Stefankiewicz told the Herald after court.
The deal offered to Mikulski prior to the indictment would have allowed him to avoid any prison time, however he did not accept it before a state grand jury returned a true bill, indicating a finding of probable cause, March 10.
“The plea offer for Mr. Mikulski was a little bit different. I had gone back and forth with his former attorney, John Tumelty, who, off and on, expressed the defendant’s interest in accepting the plea offer, before then later declining it. The offer did involve him pleading guilty to a third-degree offense,” the prosecutor said.
The terms of the guilty plea involved Mikulski paying restitution, cooperating in the ongoing prosecution, agreeing to a lifetime ban on holding public office and stepping down from office immediately.
In exchange, the state offered Mikulski probation.
However, Uzdavinis, the prosecutor, warned that if it was not accepted before an indictment was returned the offer would change.
“As of today, his offer would escalate,” said Uzdavinis, indicating he would now require Mikulski to plead guilty to a second-degree charge. “All of the other terms would remain the same except the state would be recommending a flat three-year prison term.”
It didn’t take Mikulski’s lawyer long to turn that deal down.
“That makes it easy for us. My client rejected the probationary offer prior to my involvement. He’s certainly going to reject the state prison offer,” Stefankiewicz told the judge.
Mikulski, too, will be back in DeLury’s courtroom for a status conference April 21.
To contact Shay Roddy, email sroddy@cmcherald.com or call (609) 886-8600 ext. 142.
