NJ Cop admits his role in looting dead man's estate
- OFR -
Saturday, May 12, 2001
By JENNIFER V. HUGHES
Staff Writer
A suspended Cliffside Park police sergeant pleaded guilty Friday to
theft
and arson, admitting his role in a plot with seven other men -- most of
them
borough employees -- to loot the estate of a dead man and then burn his
house to cover up their crimes.
Frank Biasco Jr., 34, agreed to give up his police job, testify against
co-defendants, and pay restitution. The counts carry maximum five-year
prison terms, but for first-time offenders such as Biasco, they often
result in
probation.
Biasco's attorney, James Patuto, said his client decided to plead guilty
after
his father, Frank Sr., a longtime borough councilman, died.
"He felt this was the best way to end this for him and his family,"
Partuto
said.
The defendants -- who include the brother of former Bergen County
Sheriff Joseph Ciccone and four municipal employees -- allegedly looted
the Oregon Avenue home of Frederick Erdos, an elderly man who died of
cancer in May 1998.
Under questioning by his attorney Friday in Superior Court, Biasco
admitted that in the summer of 1998, he and other people named in the
indictment stripped the house of items worth about $5,000, including
scrap
metal, the boiler, and furniture.
"You received some payments for these items and in some cases, you split
the money with other people named in the indictment?" asked Patuto.
Biasco said, "Yes."
Then on Jan. 28, 1999, Biasco said, he told volunteer firefighter Tony
Issa
to set fire to the house with a road flare.
"And you knew that the house had been burned . . . because you were
working on the police desk at the time?" Patuto asked. Again, Biasco
said,
"Yes."
Although the charges were brought in Bergen County, the case is being
heard in Paterson to avoid any conflict.
Six months ago, Issa accepted his own plea deal, implicating Biasco. A
third defendant, John Villanella, accepted a plea deal in December.
Villanella said Biasco gave him the deceased man's 1969 Plymouth and
told him to find a place to sell it.
In exchange for the plea, the state agreed to dismiss counts that would
have carried more certainty of prison time for Biasco. He had also been
charged with witness tampering and attempting to thwart the
investigation,
but those counts, too, will be dismissed.
Authorities have said the scheme unfolded after Erdos' house lay empty
for
months. After supposed reports of vandalism, the borough secured the
property by hiring Biasco's boarding-up service. When Biasco allegedly
found chemicals in the house -- Erdos was a retired jewelry maker -- the
town's construction code official, Robert Cimmino, was alerted.
Cimmino called in a hazardous materials contractor, Vincent Aiello of
Ridgefield, officials have said. Aiello's company then hired Biasco as
the
foreman on the chemical removal job. The indictment charges that
Cimmino falsely declared an emergency at the site and that the $35,000
cleanup bill submitted to the borough -- and ultimately to Erdos' estate
--
was fraudulent.
The indictment also charges that Cimmino and Biasco's brother, David, a
borough fire official, abused their positions by ordering the complete
removal of the contents of the Erdos home, facilitating the thefts of
property. Michael Ciccone, the brother of the former sheriff and a
Cliffside
Park Department of Public Works employee, allegedly served as a fence
for the stolen goods through his part-time job at an antique shop.
All of the municipal employees have been suspended.
Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Maher said there are
"ongoing plea negotiations with at least one other defendant," but he
later
declined to elaborate. He also declined to say which co-defendants
Biasco
was implicating.
Staff Writer Jennifer V. Hughes' e-mail address is
hug...@northjersey.com
--
- Outlaw Frog Raper -
Schenectady Copwatch
(518) 356-4238