Candela Connection

Now, Kulak finds himself playing a star role in the township soap opera that also ensnared Frank Candela, who is part of the dynamic brotherly duo that owned Candela’s Pizzeria.

The Candela brothers fell on hard times. They shuttered their family business on Lawn Park Avenue after federal bankruptcy records showed Candela’s owed more than $136,000 in taxes to the New Jersey Department of Treasury. They have since gotten back into the restaurant business and now run Chuckles Pizza on Lawrenceville-Pennington

Road.

With Kulak under investigation in the road-rage incident, Frank Candela — short for Francesco — was forced to revisit a painful chapter in his past, a cocaine conviction from February 1995.

Police filed drug possession and manufacturing charges against Candela in February 1994, court records show.

Prosecutors hit Candela with a nine-count indictment in December of that year, alleging he was dealing cocaine and heroin.

The pizzeria owner copped out to a third-degree drug-dealing charge and was sentenced to four years of probation by then-Superior Court Judge Charles Delehey in May 1995, court records show.

The relevance? It depends who you talk to, but people with intimate knowledge of the matter tell The Trentonian that Candela and Kulak go way back.

They suggested something was possibly amiss when the two were caught in the 1990s, which has been roundly rejected by Kulak’s attorney and Candela himself.

Candela disputed being a former drug dealer during an interview with The Trentonian.

“I was not a drug dealer,” he said. “I made mistakes in my life, and I got clean and sober and have been clean and sober ever since.”

Candela confirmed knowing Kulak, saying they grew up in the same neighborhood, but denied being involved in nefarious

dealings with the ex-cop.

“I would appreciate you keeping me out of anybody else’s business,” he said. “Why are you gonna put my name back in the paper? It wasn’t in the paper before. You trying to ruin somebody?”

He lamented that his past was being dredged up because of his association to Kulak.

“I haven’t talked to the kid in well over 10, 12 years,” he said.

Nerwinski accused disgruntled cops of funneling “false information” to The Trentonian to “continue with their character assassinations of good, hardworking, honorable and ethical people.”

“It would be wonderful if those individuals spent more time honoring the oath they swore as

police officers to actually do the work of police officers instead of contacting The Trentonian, spreading lies, filing frivolous lawsuits, constant memorandums to superior officers challenging decisions made at every turn, filing OPRA requests with the Township, and basically destroying the morale of the entire LTPD, all because they want more money, benefits and special treatment,” the township manager wrote.

“The amount of wasted time and tax payer money on these people is incalculable and continues with no end in sight. Our community deserves better than this adolescent behavior.”

Staub echoed the township manager’s point saying people want to “make Rich and/or Lawrence PD look bad.”