Fiore asks U.S. Attorney to investigate Walsh

Middletown GOP Township Committee candidate Tony Fiore has asked U. S. Attorney Christopher Christie to investigate the $30,000 in gifts received by Middletown Board of Education member and Democratic candidate for Township Committee Patricia Walsh:

Honorable Christopher Christie
Office of the United State Attorney
Peter Rodino Federal Building
970 Broad Street, Suite 700
Newark, New Jersey 07102

Re: Gratuities Given To Middletown Township
School Board Member Pat Walsh

Dear Mr. Christie:

I would like to respectfully request that your office investigate what
appears to be a gratuity of at least $30,000 paid to Pat Walsh, a longtime
member of the Middletown Township School Board. I recently read that your
office prosecuted individuals who provided a gratuity of $15,000 to a former public official in the Ocean Township, Monmouth County. This situation may be similar.

The enclosed documents and depositions from a civil suit that have recently been
provided to me indicate that Middletown Township School Board Member Pat Walsh
received significant gratuities totaling at least $30,000. Additionally, Ms.
Walsh deposited a few hundred dollars of checks to herself from a PNC bank
account called “Friends of Pat Walsh.” The purpose of this account is not
clear, I am not sure whether it was an election campaign account or for some
other purpose, such as a legal defense fund.

These gratuities were neither disclosed on any of Ms. Walsh’s personal financial
disclosure statements required to be filed by school board members under the
School Ethics Act, nor by her own admission in the enclosed deposition, were
these gratuities disclosed on her income taxes. There is also no indication
that these funds were provided as a personal loan. There is no evidence of any
loan agreement, payment schedule, interest charges, or security that would
normally exist under such circumstances.

I do not know whether the individual(s) who provided these gratuities to
Pat Walsh had any contracts with the school district, or whether they worked for
vendors of the school district. I do know that they may have had a few
different businesses in the insurance and software/database industry. One of
these entities being a company called “CJS Consulting” that may have done work
for a vendor of the school district. I am still researching this matter. I do
know that the individual(s) that gave Ms. Walsh these gratuities were very
active in school board politics for many years, but their motives for giving
such a large gift are not clear. It is possible that they were just straw
donors for someone else.

Accordingly, I respectfully request that your office investigate this matter. I firmly believe that public officials should not be treated as if they
are above the law and that we owe it to the public to look into such matters to
ensure full integrity and transparency from all public officials.

Please do not hesitate to contact me about this matter, or if I can be
of any assistance to your investigation of the same.


Respectfully submitted,

Tony Fiore

Fiore provided MoreMonmouthMusings with a copy of Cathy Sullivan's deposition in the Stokes vs Walsh, et al case. Sullivan is the woman who gave Walsh $30,000. The deposition can be downloaded here..

Fiore said, "Take particular notice of Sullivan's deposition that states that she had no documentation of these monies being a loan, no interest to be repaid and that all of the money may not have been applied to the legal defense."