Ex-Monmouth County prosecutor charged with drunken driving

EAST WINDSOR – Former Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin is due in court next week to face drunken driving charges from a December arrest in East Windsor, authorities said Friday. Valentin, 49, who currently works as an attorney in the civil rights division of the Attorney General’s Office, is scheduled to appear in East Windsor Municipal… Read the rest of this entry »

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Three $50K Powerball Winning Tickets Sold in Monmouth County

Three Monmouth County retailers sold Powerball tickets that won $50,000 in the January 13 drawing, according to a press release by the  NJ Lottery.

Penny Pantry Food Store, located at 4345 Route 9 North in Freehold,  Keansburg Drugs, 119 Main St., Keansburg, and Welsh Farms, 130 Route 33 W., in Manalapan each sold tickets that match four of five numbers and the Powerball. The winning numbers were 4,8,19,27,34 and the Powerball was 10.

Two tickets that matched the five winning numbers but not the Powerball were sold in New Jersey.  A ticket sold at the Wawa on Spingside Rd in Westhampton, Burlington County is worth $2 million to the player who bet and extra dollar and match the powerplay. A $1 million ticket matching five numbers without the powerplay was sold at the 7-11 on Buckelew Ave in Jamesburg, Middlesex County.

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Woman lied about being kidnapped at gunpoint, authorities say

HOWELL — A 911 call reporting a kidnapping last week that prompted a multi-agency police response in the township was a hoax — and the 46-year-old Bergen County woman who placed the call has been arrested, authorities announced Thursday. On Aug. 19 at around 6:30 a.m., police in Monroe Township received a 911 call from a… Read the rest of this entry »

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In world record pushup attempt, community rallies around boy with rare muscular disease

MANALAPAN — Jim Raffone and more than 600 others came up a notch short Sunday afternoon in their world-record attempt to have the most people performing pushups simultaneously. But that’s not what the day was really about, Raffone proclaimed. “The record was just one microcosm of our mission,” he shouted from the bleachers at the Manalapan… Read the rest of this entry »

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Ginsberg defeats Green in Manalapan

Rebecca Ginsberg

Rebecca Ginsberg has defeated incumbent Committeeman Ryan Green for the GOP nomination for Township Committee in Manalapan.  The unoffical vote totals are 321 for Ginsberg and 188 for Green.

Ginsberg,  the chair of the Township’s Recreation Committee was backed by the Manalapan and Monmouth County Republican Organizations to fill the seat that Green has held for two terms.

Green fell out of favor with his colleagues on the Township Committee after he “declared war” after not being selected to be Mayor in 2014.  Former Manalapan GOP Chairman Steven McEnery dubbed Green a “petulant pipsqueak” in response the Committeeman’s juvenile behavior.

Ginsberg is slated to face Democratic nominee John Alfano in the November general election.

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Prosecutors want charge reinstated against man accused of shooting NYPD cop in Manalapan

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Exclusive: Andrew Lucas’s Sentencing Postponed Till March

By Jeremy Baratta

Andrew Lucas

Former Manalapan Township Mayor Andrew Lucas told More Monmouth Musings that his sentencing in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, originally scheduled for Tuesday, January 20, has been postponed until March.

Matthew Reilly, Deputy Public Affairs Officer for U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman’s Office, told MMM that Lucas’s sentencing is scheduled for March 25th.

During a telephone interview today, Lucas stated that the reason for the rescheduling is that the United States Probation Office has not prepared his Pre-sentence Investigation Report – which is a detailed account of the defendant’s history and convictions and is used by judges during sentencing.

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Now and then, Good does prevail

By Stuart J. Moskovitz

In every election there are winners and losers. This year was no exception. On the national scene, the obvious losers will be written about by most pundits – Obama and the Clintons. Obviously Harry Reid has probably seen his last days of power in any form. But there are other losers. The entire Democratic platform — the so-called war on women, the freebie mentality, the irresponsible blind eye to international distress, the cowardly acquiescence of the Democratic congress to Obama’s war on Israel, are all losers. Republicans elected young people, African-Americans, women, as diverse a group as anyone would want to see. In many cases these were the first of such to be elected in their state — an accomplishment the Democrats never managed and never would manage. These Democratic campaign platforms were as fake as their claim for the last forty years that Republicans would overturn Roe v. Wade. The electorate is simply not as naive as they were in 2008 and 2012. No more. Obama has accomplished at least that.

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The Lucas Farm Deal Explained

By Steve McEnery, Manalapan

Steve McEnery

We have been hearing about the Lucas Farm deal for about 4 years now, especially around election time. I wonder why that is? With this letter, I will try and explain what has transpired.

First, let me explain why I believe I know how this unfolded. I was friendly with Mr. Lucas, when the Farm became available. He thought about buying it; placing the property into the States Farmland Preservation Program. One of the first actions he took was to question the State’s Ethics Board to see if it was ok.  They wrote back (he read me their response) that there was nothing illegal or unethical about what he was doing, However, it might be better, politically, if he waited until he was out of office. He chose not to.

He acted then, because the property was zoned for residential use, and homes could be built on the property, adding to the congestion on Route 522A, not far from his home and farm.

This property was also viewed by the County as a prize because of its size and location since 2008. (“Target Farm List update” Sept 17, 2008).

Another Myth was that Andrew voted for this property. The Township vote took place on May 11^th, 2011. The vote was Green, Maskowitz, Holland yes, Roth no and Lucas recused himself (from the Manalapan Township meeting notes). Jack McNaboe and Susan Cohen did not vote on the Farmland acquisition, they were not elected at this time.

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Lucas Found Guilty

Andrew Lucas

Former Manalapan Mayor Andrew Lucas has been convicted of all the charges against him by a federal jury in Trenton, according to a report in The Asbury Park Press.

The jury deliberated for three hours after a two week trial before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson.

Lucas, 37, is scheduled to be sentenced to federal prison on January 20, 2015.  He remains released on $500,000 bail, subject to home confinement and electronic monitoring, according to Matthew Reilly, Deputy Public Affairs Officer of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.  Lucas could face over 60 years in prison for his wire fraud, making an illegal monetary transaction, loan application fraud, making false statements to the Internal Revenue Service, aggravated identity theft, obstruction of a grand jury investigation and falsification of records in a federal investigation convictions.

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