Readers divided over No-jail plea deal for Ridgewood coin thief
I suspect that during the course of the investigation, it became evident that others were helping themselves to the coins. Whether Rica himself provided this information or not, it might be a case of the prosecutor wanting to keep this additional thievery out of the public domain as it would certainly have surfaced had Rica gone to trial. This was probably the crux of the no-jailtime plea deal. Even if Rica was the only thief, a trial would have brought up a lot of information about supervisors not carrying out written control procedures.
and some think …
If he gets charged with a federal charge…say tax evasion, then if he is convicted, a judge could impose paying back the $480,000 as part of sentencing. If that happens, then filing bankruptcy does not allow him to discharge that debt.
I am not sure if the state statutes allow him to file a bankruptcy if part of his sentence is to pay back the money.
Also, if he had ‘info’ on others as the original post stated, then he wouldn’t be sentenced until AFTER he testifies so I’m thinking he doesn’t have anything on anyone else in the Village. He just got a great once-in-a-lifetime deal due to a very good lawyer.
If it’s the latter case, it’s not so much a “good” lawyer as it was a “connected” lawyer.
Some have said it was in the interest of the village to recover the money rather than send him to jail. Is it worth $500k to set a precedent to the effect that embezzlement is merely punishable by zero sum retribution? And not really zero sum: half the down payment was soft dollars i.e. forfeit pension and accrued vacation (the second number we know is bullshit anyway…somehow, public workers never get sick or take vacations).
All I can say for certain is that if he had been a janitor living in Paterson, he’d have not seen daylight since his arrest and would be in jail now. Something’s fishy and I hope it comes to light in spectacular fashion, so we can get a new government that’s not hell bent on turning Ridgewood into North Hoboken. As someone who lived in Hoboken before it was cool, and lived there wile Teams Roberts and Reia destroyed it through over-development, trust me: you don’t want that.
I can’t help but think that these deals are made because of the very incestuous nature in which staff are selected in local governments. People are typically hired because of political favors and/or because they are connected in some way to an insider. Putting asside the mild corruption that this entails, or the incompetence that these hired staff invariably display, it causes all kinds of problems when one of these people gets busted for acts of blatant criminality.
This money will never be paid back. $2,000 per month you must be kidding the man belongs in prison.
he made many people look like a real jerk. all the one’s that backed him .
why would they back that boy, well he was the lap dog. now we have a new lap dog sniffing around.talk about a real ass kisser my god.