Federal jury convicts Abate on six counts

A federal jury on May 25 convicted the former executive director of the Western Monmouth Utilities Authority (WMUA), Frank G. Abate, of Marlboro, of taking thousands of dollars worth of free architectural drawings for his home from developers in exchange for exercising his authority in favor of those developers, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

Following a two-week trial at the federal courthouse in Newark, the jury convicted Abate on five counts of defrauding the public of his honest services and one count of obstructing a grand jury investigation. The jury deliberated about 10 hours over two days.

The WMUA, based on Pension Road, Manalapan, operates a sewage treatment plant that services customers in Manalapan, Marlboro, Englishtown and Freehold Township.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, in finding Abate guilty, the jury found that Abate corruptly traded on his position as the WMUA's executive director when developers with matters pending before the WMUA paid $4,800 for architectural plans for improvements to Abate's home. The jury also concluded that Abate tried to conceal his corrupt acts and impede a federal investigation.

The jury acquitted Abate of four other counts of defrauding the public of his honest services, two counts of extortion and one other count of obstructing a grand jury investigation.

Abate, 60, was arrested on Nov. 21, 2006 by special agents of the FBI on the 13-count indictment.

"Abate operated with arrogance and a sense of entitlement," Christie said. "A generous public paycheck was not enough, so he used his position and authority to corrupt the utilities authority and serve himself."

U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton scheduled sentencing for Aug. 13. Abate remains free on bail pending sentencing.

According to the government's calculation under the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Abate faces a probable sentencing range of between 51 and 63 months in federal prison. However, Wigenton, while required to consult the guidelines, has wide discretion and can impose a sentence within the range or above or below the range.

The sentencing guidelines take into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, the defendant's criminal history, if any, and other factors.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the honest services counts on which Abate was convicted related to Abate's failure to disclose to the WMUA commissioners or the public that he allowed residential home developers Bernard Meiterman and Steven Meiterman to pay $4,800 toward two separate sets of architectural plans relating to Abate's home addition and the remodeling of his garage.

According to testimony and evidence at trial, during the spring of 2002 the Meitermans employed an architect to draft architectural plans for an addition to Abate's home. The architect put approximately 60 to 80 hours into developing the plans for Abate, and gave them to him.

The architect sent a $2,500 bill for the plans to the Meitermans, who at the time had several applications to the WMUA seeking critical approvals for sewage connections to multimillion dollar home projects.

Testimony at trial revealed that Abate used the WMUA's in-house electrical contractor to perform approximately $7,000 in work on Abate's home addition. Abate was never billed for the electrical work. Similarly, the WMUA's in-house heating and cooling contractor performed approximately $5,000 in work on Abate's home. Abate was never billed for that work either, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Testimony also revealed that the Meitermans paid the same architect discussed above $2,300 in 2005 for architectural plans for the expansion and remodeling of Abate's garage.

The obstruction count on which he was convicted related to Abate's attempt to conceal that the Meitermans had paid for both architectural plans, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.