Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

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

 

                                *Press Release*           Date: February 27, 2009                     

                                                     

 

 
 

      

 

 

Perth Amboy tax clerk indicted

 

          Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan announced that a Middlesex County grand jury indicted a Perth Amboy tax office clerk today on charges of taking $714 from the city for her own use.

 

          The grand jury, sitting in New Brunswick, charged Maddelin Custodio, 30, of  Perth Amboy, with second degree official misconduct, third degree theft and a fourth degree count of misapplication of entrusted property. The indictment was handed up following a presentation to the grand jury by Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Brian D. Gillet.

 

Custodio, who had been employed as a clerk in the tax office since August 2003, was arrested at her job on July 10, 2008, after city officials told the Perth Amboy Police Department that the money was missing from Custodio’s cash drawer.

 

An investigation by Detective Mabner Terron of the Perth Amboy police, and Investigator Donald Heck of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigations Unit, determined that Custodio took the money from the cash drawer for her own personal use.

 

 If convicted, she faces a penalty of up to 10 years in a New Jersey state prison.

 

As is the case with all defendants, the charges against Custodio are merely accusations and she is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

 

No trial date has been set and she remains free on $30,000 bail.