LARRISON CHARGED WITH TAKING BRIBES FEDS SAY EX-FREEHOLDER DIRECTOR TOOK CASH FROM DEVELOPERS FBI: Was to get $10,000 for help in Marlboro but received $8,500 Former Freeholder Director Harry W. Larrison Jr. â the patriarch of Monmouth County government for nearly four decades â was charged Wednesday with accepting at least $8,500 in bribes from two developers, the most stunning accusation yet in an ongoing FBI investigation of public corruption. Related Article: Ashbury Park Press - Prosecutors turn spotlight on Howell development project
LARRISON CHARGED WITH TAKING BRIBES
FEDS SAY EX-FREEHOLDER DIRECTOR TOOK CASH FROM DEVELOPERS FBI: Was to get $10,000 for help in Marlboro but received $8,500 Asbury Park Press 04/28/05 By KATHY MATHESON, NINA RIZZO and JAMES QUIRK STAFF WRITERS
(PRESS FILE PHOTO) Former Monmouth County Freeholder Director Harry W. Larrison Jr. was charged Wednesday with accepting bribes from two developers. He is expected to surrender to authorities Friday. | |
Former Freeholder Director Harry W. Larrison Jr. â the patriarch of Monmouth County government for nearly four decades â was charged Wednesday with accepting at least $8,500 in bribes from two developers, the most stunning accusation yet in an ongoing FBI investigation of public corruption.
The allegations, made in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, paint a picture of Larrison using the builders almost like an ATM whenever he wanted cash. But Larrison was careful to keep himself at arm's length from the developers â sending another county official to collect and deliver the money to Larrison's home in Ocean Grove, authorities contend.
They say Larrison then gave a portion of each bribe to the official, who is not named in the complaint but whom sources have identified as Anthony J. Palughi, the county's former superintendent of bridges and Larrison's chauffeur.
Palughi has not been charged.
Larrison, 78, was charged with one count of accepting two bribes from developers whom sources identified as Anthony Spalliero and Terry Sherman. Larrison faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The astonishing allegations set tongues wagging across the county as officials and residents struggled to comprehend the news.
Freeholder Theodore J. Narozanick was blown away.
"Harry Larrison!" he exclaimed. "That's hard to believe. Good Lord!" U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie, who announced the charges in Newark, said even he was surprised at the big fish netted in the federal government's long-running probe of county graft. Larrison is the 13th public official charged since Feb. 22.
The corruption has "gone beyond even what I was imagining . . . to the very top of Monmouth County government," Christie said.
Larrison was in the Neptune offices of his family business, Larrison Coal & Fuel Oil Inc., when he was served with the complaint Wednesday. He is expected to make his initial appearance at 11:30 a.m. Friday in federal court in Newark before U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo.
The criminal charges are not the only battle Larrison is facing â he is also in the advanced stages of cancer.
Larrison's daughter, Judy Larrison, said her father would not comment on the allegations.
Though Larrison was silent, a collective gasp seemed to erupt from the halls of county government, where Larrison served as a freeholder for 39 years until stepping down in December. Longtime friends and colleagues were equally dumbstruck.
Former Monmouth County Republican Chairman William F. Dowd could barely contain his outrage, his voice breaking.
"If the allegation is true, I'm going to be very angry," Dowd said, beginning to shout. "Oh God, that does make me angry . . . I'm stunned and infuriated. I'm furiously angry. How can it be?"
Accused of taking $8,500 Authorities say that Larrison accepted a $5,000 bribe and a $3,500 bribe from the developers between 2001 and 2003 in exchange for smoothing the way for their various projects in the county including an unnamed one in Marlboro. Larrison also served on the county Planning Board.
Although the Marlboro development is not identified in the complaint, township officials said â and an Asbury Park Press review of county and township Planning Board records indicates â that the 184-unit Lexington Estates project on Vanderberg Road is likely at the center of the case.
The complaint alleges:
In either 2001 or 2002, Larrison told Palughi that he was going to Florida and wanted cash for the trip. Larrison then instructed Palughi to ask "Developer 1" â identified by sources as Spalliero â for $5,000.
Palughi and Spalliero then met at an establishment unnamed in the complaint but identified by sources as the Bourbon Street go-go bar in Sayreville owned by Spalliero's family. Spalliero handed over $5,000 from a safe, according to the complaint, which Palughi then delivered to Larrison's home in Ocean Grove.
Larrison allegedly gave Palughi $1,500 of the payment, which Spalliero said was for assistance with various projects.
In either 2002 or 2003, Larrison again told Palughi that he wanted cash and that Palughi should contact "Developer 2" â Sherman, a frequent partner of Spalliero's in development projects, according to sources.
Palughi allegedly met Sherman at an unidentified Marlboro restaurant, where Palughi told the developer that Larrison wanted $5,000.
A few days later, the complaint says, Sherman met Palughi in the restaurant's parking lot and gave him an envelope filled with $100 bills. Sherman told Palughi that the payment was to thank Larrison for his help with sewer lines for the Marlboro development.
Palughi then delivered the money to Larrison in Ocean Grove, authorities said, but it turned out the envelope contained only $3,500. Larrison allegedly gave $500 of it to Palughi.
The charges were based on tape recordings and statements made by Palughi, Larrison and Sherman. It's unclear how the tapes were made â whether by a cooperating witness wearing a hidden recording device, from wiretaps or some other surveillance technique.
The complaint describes a Feb. 2 recording â sources said it was made at the Park Place Diner in Matawan â in which Sherman confirmed that Spalliero had not turned over the extra $1,500 that Larrison was expecting from the meeting in Marlboro.
In a Feb. 8 recording at the same place, Sherman reportedly is heard saying that Larrison has nothing to worry about because the developers kept no records of the cash payments.
Authorities allege Larrison was recorded Feb. 7 in Neptune City indicating that Spalliero was supposed to make an additional $1,500 payment but never did. Three days later, Larrison acknowledged receiving the original $3,500 from Sherman, according to the complaint.
Palughi, who retired from his $92,000-a-year job as county bridges superintendent March 1, could not be reached for comment.
Spalliero declined to comment. Sherman could not be reached. Health not a factor U.S. Attorney Christie said Wednesday that Larrison's health was not a factor in bringing the charges but might play a role as the case progresses.
"We'll see how that turns out over time," he said.
Noting Larrison is the 82nd public official in New Jersey to have been charged with corruption in the past three years, Christie called him "another in a rogue's gallery of people who believe that public service is self-service."
In February, Christie brought extortion charges against 10 officials and a money-laundering charge against an 11th.
The men, including the mayors of Keyport, Hazlet and West Long Branch, are accused of accepting thousands of dollars from a demolition contractor â who was cooperating with the FBI â in exchange for promises of steering municipal contracts to his business. The contractor, identified as Robert "Duke" Steffer, also posed as a loan shark.
In March, Christie charged three men â two major Monmouth County contractors and a former councilman from Far Hills, Somerset County â with laundering more than $450,000 for Steffer's phony loan-sharking business.
Then on April 12, former Marlboro Mayor Matthew V. Scannapieco pleaded guilty to accepting $245,000 in bribes in exchange for his support for housing and commercial developments opposed by many township residents.
Authorities did not identify the alleged briber in the Scannapieco case but did list the locations of the developments involved; township planning records indicate the sites involve Spalliero.
Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye said Larrison's name "has never come up" in his office's investigations, including a corruption and bribery probe related to Colts Neck Crossing, a housing project in Howell backed by Spalliero and Sherman.
While Kaye's investigation is nearly complete, a municipal inquiry found that massive political contributions to county Democrats by Spalliero, Sherman and their business entities could have been "wheeled" into Howell to buy votes for a requested zoning change.
"Wheeling" involves sending money from one political organization to another to hide the source of the original contribution. Some not surprised Jeffrey Pringle, a Democrat from Tinton Falls who has run unsuccessfully for the freeholder board three times, said the Monmouth County corruption charges unveiled since late February represent "a personal vindication."
"It doesn't surprise me in the least," Pringle said.
Pringle, who had made numerous allegations of mismanagement by county officials during his campaigns, said the bribery charges against Larrison "go with the whole culture of corruption in county government."
"The freeholders try to present this image as reformers, but they are the problem," said Pringle. "The only way to get rid of the problem is to get rid of the career politicians."
State Sen. Ellen Karcher, D-Monmouth, also said she wasn't surprised.
"There were certainly concerns in the past, when Democrats ran candidates for freeholder, but there was no proof that these things were going on, only a sense of it," said Karcher, predicting that Larrison's case "will have wide consequences and pretty massive reverberations."
State Sen. Joseph A. Palaia, R-Monmouth, has known Larrison for decades. The two graduated in 1945 from Neptune High School, where they were co-captains of the basketball team.
"This shakes me. It really does," Palaia said. "I never thought his name would be involved with any of this."
Palaia said Larrison has made Monmouth County the envy of many other counties, from its roads to its open space to its sound financial condition.
"It just bothers me that his legacy would have this as part of it," Palaia said. "He's had a fantastic legacy here."
Others weren't as impressed.
"It is just another example of these guys making a living off of public service and being more concerned with building their power base than serving their constituency," said Brian Daneman, 44, of Little Silver.
Daneman called on voters to become more politically active and change a system that allows the same people to serve in office for decades.
"The system that is in place allows these people to become lifelong party hacks. . . . They get corrupted from being in their positions for a long time," he said.
Some residents were glad to see corruption being rooted out.
"I am very relieved there are some big names coming out," said David Jarashow, 38, of the Morganville section of Marlboro. "I hope that everyone who is corrupt . . . I hope that it is all purged from the system. It is better to get it all out as soon as possible."
Neptune resident Patrick Daugherty, 78, a longtime watchdog of the freeholder board and a critic of Larrison, invoked a famous quote by a British historian to characterize Wednesday's events.
"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely," he said, adding that the charges against Larrison represent "an extraordinary wake-up" call to Monmouth County residents.
"Because of the very sparsely attended (freeholder) meetings, we have ourselves to blame," he said. "We don't function in a way that democracy calls us to." Staff writers Andrea Alexander, Bob Cullinane, Jason Method and Karen Sudol contributed to this story. Kathy Matheson: (732) 643-4230 or
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