Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

                                 25 Kirkpatrick Street, 3rd Floor, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901 (732) 745-3300

 

                              *News Release*                 Date: April 21, 2011
 
 

       

 

 

 

 

 

Officer indicted on voter fraud; theft charges

 

 

Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan announced that a city police officer was indicted today by a grand jury in Middlesex County on charges of stealing about $850 in health insurance benefits and, in a separate case, illegally voting in New Brunswick while living in other communities.

 

Lt. Robert F. Tierney (DOB 4/23/71) of East Brunswick was named as defendant in the indictment charging him with theft by deception and fraudulent voting, both third degree offenses.

 

Tierney was indicted after an investigation by the New Brunswick Police Department and the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office determined that he had voted in four general elections in New Brunswick between November 1, 2004, and November 30, 2009, while he was living in Milltown and later, East Brunswick.

 

The investigation also determined that although he had been divorced in December 2008, he failed to notify the city and Aetna Insurance Co. and continued to list his former spouse as a beneficiary to his health insurance plan between January 2009 and September 2009.

 

During that time, the insurance company paid approximately $850 in claims to Tierney’s wife.

 

Tierney, who began working for the city police department on January 10, 1994, was suspended with pay after he was charged on September 3, 2010. Following the indictment, he will be suspended without pay from his $115,972 job.

 

As is the case with all criminal defendants, Tierney is innocent until proven guilty.