MIDDLESEX
COUNTY — The former president of the Middlesex County Sheriff’s
Officers Policemen’s Benevolent Union Local 165 and another officer, who was a
state delegate for the union, were charged today with using union credit cards
for personal expenses.
Paul Lucarelli, 46, of South River, the former PBA
president, and Mark Papi, 57, of Edison, were each charged with third degree
theft by unlawful taking by the state Attorney General’s Office.
Lucarelli is already facing charges he helped former
sheriff, Joseph Spicuzzo, run a jobs-for-cash scheme in which Spicuzzo
allegedly collected about $112,000 in bribes from individuals seeking
promotions or positions in the sheriff’s office. Lucarelli, Spicuzzo, and
Darrin DiBiasi, a sheriff’s investigator, are all awaiting trial on the
charges.
The state charged today Lucarelli and Papi, who recently
retired, used union credit cards for, among other things, flights for their
significant others to the national PBA convention, hotel stays for Lucarelli
and a guest, and fireworks.
Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa, in a statement released
this afternoon, said the state alleges the expenses were not authorized by the
PBA members and none were reimbursed by the men.
Chiesa said the two men surrendered yesterday afternoon to
detectives of the State Police Office Corruption Bureau and later released on
their own recognizance.
If they are convicted, a third degree charge has a potential
state prison term of three to five years, but there is a presumption of no
prison time.
Lucarelli served as PBA Local 165 president for more than 15
years. Papi was a state delegate for the PBA for about 20 years.