08-09-05 -- Gartz, Louis J. -- Sentencing -- News Release

Retired Monmouth County Accountant Sentenced to 26 Months in Federal Prison for Bribery

NEWARK - A retired public accountant was sentenced today to 26 months in federal prison for paying cash bribes to former Ocean Township Mayor Terrence Weldon and another public official, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

U.S. District Judge William H. Walls also fined Louis J. Gartz, 70, of Galloway Township, $10,000 and ordered him to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons by Oct. 11 to begin serving his sentence.

Judge Walls ruled that Gartz was eligible for a sentence within the range of 24 to 30 months, as determined under the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.

During sentencing arguments today, Assistant U.S. Attorney A. Matthew Boxer described Gartz's long history of making cash payments to public officials in Monmouth County - in addition to those Gartz specifically admitted when he pleaded guilty on March 16. Boxer said that Gartz admitted to FBI agents during an interview that he had made numerous cash payments to public officials over decades.

Gartz's attorney described the two payments Gartz admitted making as akin to "gratuities," an argument which Judge Walls specifically rejected since the money was paid in an attempt to influence official action by public officials. The judge also rejected an argument that Gartz acted as he did because he was "financially vulnerable" as he neared retirement.

"The punishment is for violating the public trust because all of us are dependent on the integrity of the public order," Judge Walls said.

Gartz had provided accounting and auditing services to Ocean Township and the Township of Ocean Sewerage Authority. During his guilty plea, Gartz admitted that he made the bribes with the intent of rewarding Weldon and to influence him to continue doing business with Gartz and his new accounting firm.

Gartz pleaded guilty in March to one count of bribery, admitting that he made the two cash payments to Weldon. Gartz specifically admitted making one payment of $5,000 to Weldon after Weldon, then the mayor of Ocean Township, solicited the bribe from Gartz in the late 1990s or 2000. Gartz made another $5,000 cash bribe to Weldon at a subsequent time.

On July 14, 2005, Stephen D. Kessler, a former chairman of the Township of Ocean Sewerage Authority, pleaded guilty to extortion under color of official right. Kessler admitted then that he accepted bribe payments from Gartz when Gartz was the auditor and accountant for the Sewerage Authority and for Ocean Township. Kessler said those payments came to him through another public official - who was identified in court today as Weldon. The payments were in return for their official influence to benefit Gartz's accounting firm, including continuing the firm's status as accountant to the Sewerage Authority.

U.S. Attorney Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI's Red Bank Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Leslie Wiser, Jr., with the Gartz investigation as well as the wider investigation of public corruption in Monmouth County.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Boxer.

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Defense Counsel: Robert S. Bonney, Jr., Esq. Red Bank