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Pleads guilty to official misconduct

A Paulsboro woman who formerly worked as a local administrator of the state Home Energy Assistance (HEA) Program has pleaded guilty to defrauding the program of $22,980 by filing false applications to obtain benefits.

Denise Nicole Johnson, 36, pleaded guilty to second-degree official misconduct before state Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson in Woodbury, state Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor said Tuesday. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that she be sentenced to four years in state prison. She must pay full restitution of $22,980 to the state Department of Community Affairs and is permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey.

Johnson was charged in a July 28 state grand jury indictment stemming from ongoing investigations by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau. As a result of the investigations, two other women who were local administrators of the HEA Program previously pleaded guilty to official misconduct and were sentenced to prison. A heating oil supplier was also sentenced to prison.

"It is unconscionable that individuals entrusted with administering this program, which provides funding to heat the homes of low-income families, would instead enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers," state Attorney General Paula T. Dow said. "This is the third local administrator who is facing prison as a result of our ongoing investigations."

"These cases should send a loud and clear message that we have zero tolerance for officials who engage in fraud involving public assistance programs," Taylor added.

Deputy Attorneys General Christine Hoffman, David M. Fritch and Robert Czepiel prosecuted the case. Judge Allen-Jackson scheduled sentencing for Johnson for July 15.

From February 2005 through September 2006, Johnson was employed as an HEA aide in the Paulsboro Office of Tri-County Community Action, a nonprofit contracted by the DCA to administer the HEA program in Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties.

In pleading guilty, Johnson admitted that between March 2006 and August 2009, she received approximately $22,905 on nine false applications that she filed, including two fraudulent applications that she created by entering false information into the DCA benefits system while still employed by Tri-County Community Action.

Johnson was indicted along with a boyfriend, Anthony Lamont Taylor, 35, of Paulsboro, who allegedly received $2,648 on one application for which he submitted false information. The charges are pending against Taylor. A second man named in the indictment was admitted by the court into the Pre-Trial Intervention program in November.

The investigation revealed that Johnson accepted two-party HEA benefit checks that were payable only to individuals and their home heating suppliers. The checks were to be used for the sole purpose of procuring home heating fuel and could be deposited only into the account of a home heating supplier. However, Johnson exchanged and cashed the benefit checks through third parties for cash or checks payable solely to her.

Some of the HEA checks were exchanged for cash or company checks from Harris Fuel Oil of Paulsboro. Thomas J. Harris, 66, of Woolwich, the owner Harris Fuel Oil, pleaded guilty to money laundering and misapplication of entrusted property and property of government as a result of the state investigations. He was sentenced on June 17, 2010 to four years in prison. He admitted he defrauded the HEA Program of $400,000 by offering low-income beneficiaries cash for their state-issued assistance checks instead of fuel oil. He was ordered to pay full restitution.

In related cases, Nicole Victor, 38, of Paulsboro, was sentenced on Jan. 7 to five years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $11,705 in connection with false applications she filed. Constance Campbell, 25, of Chester, Pa., a former HEA manager for Tri-County's Salem and Gloucester County offices, was sentenced on July 19 to five years in prison for official misconduct and was ordered to pay full restitution. Charges are pending against Marvin Laws, 55, of Atlantic City, who allegedly stole $9,062 through false applications while employed as an HEA benefits manager by Atlantic Human Resources, a nonprofit contracted by DCA to administer the program in Atlantic County.

— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM