March 8, 10

NEWS / Former Employee of Juvenile Justice Commission Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Time Sheets to Collect $1

TRENTON – Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced that a former administrative assistant for the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission pleaded guilty today to official misconduct for submitting false time sheets in order to collect more than $10,000 in overtime pay for hours she did not work.

According to Director Taylor, Cindy K. Franks, 50, of Morrisville, Pa., pleaded guilty to an accusation charging her with second-degree official misconduct before Superior Court Judge Robert C. Billmeier in Mercer County.

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Franks be sentenced to state prison for a term of no more than five years. She must pay restitution to the Juvenile Justice Commission of $10,313 and may face an additional fine of up to double that amount. She will be permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey.

In pleading guilty, Franks admitted that between September 2005 and April 2007, she submitted time sheets that contained false information about overtime hours that she worked on a special project that was assigned to her at the Juvenile Justice Commission. She admitted that she falsely reported working various periods of overtime that she did not actually work, and obtained payment for that time of $10,313 to which she was not entitled.

Judge Billmeier scheduled sentencing for May 6.

Deputy Attorney General Thomas R. Clark prosecuted the case and took the guilty plea for the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau. The case was investigated by Sgt. David Salzmann and Lt. Stanley Beet Jr. of the Division of Criminal Justice.

http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases10/pr20100305b.html