Juan Romaniello, a retired Jersey City police officer, may lose his pension because of his guilty plea in federal court. Reena Rose Sibayan | The Jersey JournalJersey Journal file photo
The former Jersey City police officer at the center of a federal probe of the city’s off-duty jobs program for cops may lose some or all of his $74,334 pension.
An official with the state Treasury’s government records unit told The Jersey Journal there is an “active investigation” into former cop Juan Romaniello’s public pension. The comment was in response to a public-records request filed by this newspaper, a request the state denied, citing the investigation.
The State Police Retirement Board would be the body to determine whether Romaniello’s pension should be cut or revoked. His case was not on the board’s most recent meeting agenda.
Romaniello, who retired sometime between July and October 2015, pleaded guilty in federal court in November 2015 to conspiracy to commit fraud and accept corrupt payments and to making false tax returns. He told federal prosecutors he oversaw a conspiracy to accept payments directly from companies that were required to hire off-duty police officers (for security purposes or to manage traffic at construction sites), cutting the city out as the middleman.
He is facing eight years in federal prison when he is sentenced on April 13.
Sources have told The Jersey Journal that Romaniello’s case is part of a broader federal investigation that could ensnare about a dozen police officers. The city has already put 12 officers on modified duty, an action it said was related to the federal probe.
Asked about Romaniello’s pension, Matthew Reilly, spokesman for the U.S. attorney, declined to comment. Romaniello’s plea agreement requires him to forfeit $297,429, but his pension is a state, not federal, issue.
State Treasury spokesman Willem Rijksen also declined to comment.
The State Police Retirement Board has in the past cut or revoked pensions for police officers convicted of crimes. In 2014, it reduced by 12 percent the pension of an ex-state trooper convicted of crimes related to a hit-and-run on the Garden State Parkway in May 2011. That same year, a retired state police commander saw his pension slashed by nearly a quarter and his lifetime health benefits revoked after he admitted stealing from a police charity.
A request for comment from Romaniello’s attorney was not immediately returned.
Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
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