Community Corner

Poll: Do You Agree With Ritacco Sentencing?

Former superintendent sentenced to 135 months in federal prison

Former Toms River Schools Superintendent Michael Ritacco was sentenced to 135 months federal jail time at a sentencing today where a federal judge admonished him for 12 years of kickbacks and bribery for insurance contracts in the school district.

Judge Joel Pisano called the scheme "the worst case of public corruption he has ever seen" and ordered Ritacco to serve 135 months for one count of mail fraud and 60 months concurrently one count of tax evasion.

Ritacco admitted in his plea of guilt that approximately $2.5 million in kickbacks and bribes passed hands between him and co-conspirators Francis X. Gartland and other intermediaries who await sentencing.

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A restitution hearing has yet to be scheduled. Ritacco must serve 85 percent of his sentenced before his release, and faces three years thereafter of supervision.

The full article is . Do you agree with the sentence?

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