Toms River Man Whose Company Collected Coins From Hoboken Parking Meters entenced To Prison For Stealing Over $1 Million
Former city parking utility director [John Corea] previously sentenced to prison in theft case
TRENTON – Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that a Toms River contractor whose company was hired by the City of Hoboken to collect coins from city parking meters was sentenced to state prison today for stealing over $1 million in parking revenues.
Brian A. Petaccio, 52, of Toms River, the owner of United Textile Fabricators LLC, was sentenced to five years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson Jr. in Ocean County. Petaccio pleaded guilty on Sept. 30, 2009 to an accusation charging him with second-degree theft by unlawful taking for stealing approximately $1,175,000 in coins from Hoboken’s parking meters between June 2005 and April 2008. After an audit in 2007 uncovered parking revenue shortfalls, Petaccio and his company returned approximately $575,000 to the city. However, Petaccio admitted, in pleading guilty, that he diverted an additional $600,000 that was not reported to the city.
On April 2, 2012, John P. Corea, 48, former director of the Hoboken Parking Utility, was sentenced to seven years in state prison, including three years of parole ineligibility, by Judge Hodgson. Corea pleaded guilty to second-degree official misconduct, admitting that he became aware that Petaccio and United Textile had stolen a large amount of the city’s parking revenues, but did not take any steps to stop the thefts or notify the city. Corea also admitted that he steered three separate no-bid contracts to United Textile to collect, count and manage the coins from the city’s parking meters, and made false statements to the city council about the qualifications and experience of the company, which is a coin-operated arcade game manufacturer.
Corea and Petaccio were each ordered to pay $300,000 to the City of Hoboken in restitution for the $600,000 in revenue that was stolen from the city by Petaccio and not previously repaid.
Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey J. Manis prosecuted the case and handled the sentencing for the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau. The charges resulted from an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice and the New Jersey State Police. The investigation was conducted by Detective Sgt. Peter Layng of the State Police Official Corruption Bureau North Unit, and Sgt. Lisa Shea, Deputy Attorney General Manis, Deputy Attorney General Perry Primavera, and Administrative Analyst Kathleen Ratliff of the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau.
Link to Release: http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases12/pr20120427b.html
Editor's Comment: To some this might be the conclusion of the case of the missing quarters at Hoboken HPU, but to this editor questions still remain is to who knew what and when. When Terry Castellano boldly stated at a City Council meeting, "It's all cleared up" , we should have known then to smell a rat and fast forward to 2011-2012, we know now that rat was indeed there and it has been sentenced. Its kind of a fat rat who was living off the fat of Hoboken for quite some time. Interestingly, under Ian Sacs , the new HPU Director parking revenues are way up so I think its quite possible we are talking about more than a million dollars in revenue that was missing. Quite possible. No wonder why the Russos are so upset with Ian Sacs. He was upsetting a potential revenue stream. Key word is potential.
The question is how many more rats were at this "Quarter Party", and what was their knowledge and involvement? If "Quarter- Gate" has the potential to teach us anything, its not just the crime, its the coverup. ◦
