State board will have to decide Nucera’s pension’s fate
CAMDEN » Will Frank Nucera lose his six-figure pension after getting convicted of lying to the feds?
That question rests with New Jersey pension officials, according to William Skaggs, a spokesman from the Department of Treasury. The pension board has wide discretion in deciding whether to reduce or revoke Nucera’s pension under state guidelines, but a final decision may not come for months.
“Once a verdict is rendered, the matter is scheduled for a subsequent PFRSNJ Board meeting, which is held once per month,” Skaggs said Thursday. “The PFRS Board will then decide whether to forfeit any of his pension service credit of salary.”
It was not immediately clear whether the pension board has scheduled a meeting following Nucera’s conviction Wednesday for lying to FBI special agents Vernon Addison and Arthur Durrant III.
Nucera, a 34-year veteran of the police force, retired from his dual role as police chief and township administrator in January 2017 once he learned he was under federal investigation.
He faces up to five years in prison after a jury returned the verdict around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday believing he lied in some way to the feds when they questioned him about the alleged hate-crime assault of a handcuffed black suspect in September 2016.
A jury convicted the former chief on one of the three counts following about 37 hours of deliberations over six days. The jury is still undecided over counts of hate-crime assault and deprivation of civil rights, each carrying up to 10 years in prison, and returned Thursday to continue deliberations. They were still deliberating as of noon.
New Jersey’s “honorable service” guidelines say pensions can be stripped from members convicted of crimes related to employment or “moral turpitude.”
The board considers 11 factors, including the “quality or moral turpitude, the “degree of guilt and culpability” and an “employee’s motives and reasons, personal gain” when deciding whether Nucera loses all or some of his $106,000 annual payout. Nucera’s pension was frozen in March pending the outcome of the case.
Nucera was indicted in 2017 in connection with an alleged racially motivated attack on black Stroye at a township hotel. Police were called to the Ramada Inn on Sept. 1, 2016 after a manager mistakenly believed Stroye, then 18, and his 16-year-old girlfriend were swimming in the pool without paying for a room.
FBI special agents Addison and Durrant secretly recorded their interrogation of Nucera at the Iron Skillet restaurant at the Petro truck stop. Nucera repeatedly denied going “hands on” with the handcuffed Stroye.
Federal prosecutors have said Nucera slammed the teen’s head into a metal doorjamb of a second-floor doorway as he was being escorted to a police cruiser.
The defense insisted Nucera never put his hands on Stroye despite testimony from two of his former rank-and-file.
Sgt. Nathan Roohr testified that he saw Nucera slam the handcuffed Stroye’ head into the door jamb “like a basketball” after the teen stopped short of the doorway and yelled and cursed about how he would sue all the cops involved in his arrest. He turned over 81 secret recordings to the FBI of Nucera using racial slurs and calling Stroye the N-words within hours of the alleged attack.
Detective Sgt. Salvatore Guido described the chief’s actions as more of a push but declined to say it amounted to excessive force despite being pressed by federal prosecutor Molly Lorber on the stand.
He said the chief’s actions were “uncalled for “and “embarrassing.”
Township official expressed shock over Nucera’s racist antics when he was arrested claiming their was no hint of his hateful beliefs.
Township cops testified and former cops told The Trentonian that they heard Nucera use racial slurs for years prior to being arrested by the feds. Guido said Nucera didn’t use the N-word in front of African Americans but freely unloaded back at the police station.
Nucera referred to blacks as “you people” to their faces, according to trial testimony.
Township Mayor Stephen Benowitz said in a statement he “respects the legal process and the outcome of the trial” and that the township remains “focused on moving forward and continuing to provide the best possible public services to all our residents, businesses and visitors.”