Judge sentences Abate to prison; appeal planned

Frank G. Abate, the former executive director of the Western Monmouth Utilities Authority (WMUA), was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison on Monday.

In May, a federal jury in Newark convicted Abate, 60, 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.

The jury convicted Abate on five counts of defrauding the public of his honest services and one count of obstructing a grand jury investigation.

U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigen-ton, sitting in Newark, also ordered Abate to pay a $10,000 fine. In sentencing the defendant, Wigenton acknowledged Abate's failure in accepting responsibility for his conduct, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Wigenton continued Abate's bail pending his surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, on a date to be determined.

Following Abate's sentencing, attorney Joseph Benedict, who represented Abate, issued a statement in which he said, "During the trial the government alleged that Frank solicited a bribe or accepted a corrupt benefit from seven different individuals or entities. He was acquitted on six of those claims and believes that the government succeeded on the one allegation on the often abused theory that if you throw enough mud, something might stick.

"What the jury didn't know was that, aside from those false claims, the government had targeted Frank for five years during which a government informant had secretly taped conversation with Frank on six occasions.

"On two occasions the tapes clearly show the FBI informant offering $8,000 bribes to Frank which he was not enticed to take because he is not the corrupt person the government portrays, but the honest, family minded, community oriented person described in the attachments by the people who know him.

"Frank's hard-earned good reputation has been tarnished by this wrongful conviction. He is appealing and firmly believes that the unjust verdict was the result of judicial error and prosecutorial misconduct. He remains confident that his name will be cleared. He thanks his family and friends for their continued support and belief in him," Benedict said.

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.

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 Meiter-man to pay $4,800 toward two separate sets of architectural plans relating to Abate's home addition and the remodeling of his 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.