Former Superintendent Convicted After Taking $60,000, Falsifying Records

Former Superintendent James Habel has been found guilty of official misconduct - one of the more serious charges against him.

But the Monmouth County jury hearing the case deadlocked on others, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.

Habel, who retired from the Wall district in June 2012, was found guilty of official misconduct for taking 105 vacation days but not reporting them to the school district, according to the report. He also was found guilty of four counts of falsifying records for underreporting his personal use of a $60,000 Yukon Denali issued to him by the school district.

But the report says the jury of eight women and four men acquitted Habel of destroying records in his personnel file and failing to return electronics equipment to the district upon his retirement.

The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the charges of theft of vacation days, money laundering and a portion of the misconduct charge alleging that Habel took cash payments for unused vacation days he wasn’t entitled to.

The official misconduct charge for which Habel was convicted carries a mandatory, five-year prison term without the possibility of parole.

Defense attorneys Robert A. Honecker and Tara Walsh argued that Habel often worked nights and weekends, and his contract allowed him to take vacation time at his discretion. They have argued that Habel didn’t intend to take payouts for days he wasn’t owed, but that the school district failed to properly keep track of his time. The defense team also disputed the number of days the state alleges Habel took off without reporting the time off, arguing that he was working from his home office in Florida on many of the days.

Habel served as schools superintendent in Wall from March of 2003 until his retirement in June of 2012. In that position, he earned an annual salary that started at $145,000 and escalated to $225,000.

Habel bilked the Wall school district throughout his career by lying about his vacation time, according to his indictment. Habel claimed to be in the district or working in a professional capacity at least 110 days when he was actually at his second home in Florida or otherwise not working. Those days cost the district about $93,000, the indictment says.

Habel, who was solely responsible for reporting his time off, was paid for 549 vacation days – or more than a year and a half – resulting in payments of about $443,000, the indictment says.

But while he was paid for those 549 accrued vacation days, Habel’s attendance records show that he was paid for only 363 days, leaving 186 “double dipped’’ days paid by the district and adding another $268,992 Habel was not entitled to, the indictment says.

Habel also “substantially underreported’’ his personal mileage in the district-provided Yukon Denali, falsely declaring no more than 3,750 annual miles on the vehicle, while driving it several times in a given year from New Jersey to his second home in Dunedin, Florida – a round-trip of about 2,282 miles. The underreporting resulted in about $7,000 in lost taxable income for Habel, the indictment says.

Habel on numerous occasions directed district employees to destroy records that accurately accounted for his vacation time and attendance, the indictment says. He also personally removed such records on occasion from his own personnel file and elsewhere, according to prosecutors.

Habel ordered the district Information Technology director, Jeff Janover, to delete emails from the district’s servers, including emails from an airline Habel frequently used to travel to Florida as well as emails from some members of the Board of Education, prosecutors say. Janover, however, never followed through, according to the indictment.

Habel also shredded or destroyed all of his office files before leaving the district in December 2011, creating “severe transition challenges’’ for the next administrator, the indictment says.

Prosecutors say that in October 2011 Habel refinanced his Point Pleasant home, lying to the mortgage company about his intention to stay in the home that he identified as his ‘primary residence’’ and that his monthly income would not drop, despite that he had already submitted his resignation to the Wall Township School district four months prior.

Habel’s income was going to be reduced from his regular $18,700 monthly salary to $9,767 pension payments, but he did not disclose this to the mortgage company. And the home had already been on the market for sale in June 2011, even while Habel certified to the mortgage company his intention to stay in the home for another year, the indictment says.

Habel also certified to the mortgage company that his “probability of continued employment’’ with the Wall School District was “100%,’’ the indictment says, despite that he had already submitted his resignation.

In February of 2012, Habel refinanced his home in Dunedin, Fla., claiming it to be his “primary residence,’’ and his New Jersey home as his ‘secondary residence.’’ He also withheld from that mortgage company that his income was about to be cut in half, since he had submitted his resignation to the Wall School District already, the indictment says.

Habel also certified to the mortgage company on March 12, 2012 that his “probability of continued employment’’ with the Wall School District was “100%,’’ the indictment says.

Habel at the time was out on sick leave before leaving the district on June 30, 2012.

During the closing, Habel presented a Florida driver’s license listing his Dunedin property as his primary residence, entitling him to a reduction in his Florida property taxes, never mentioning that he had a New Jersey driver’s license and a New Jersey home he also claimed as his primary residence, the indictment says.

The district issued Habel about $8,771 in electronics – an iPad, a laptop computer and a desktop computer and a cell phone -- that Habel never returned after he quit the district, ignoring numerous attempts by district officials to contact Habel about returning the electronics, the indictment says.

The indictments ended months of speculation after Habel’s Point Pleasant home was raided three years ago.

In the early morning hours of Sept. 13, 2012, Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office officers raided Habel’s home on Blue Heron Court, which was up for sale at the time. Acting Prosecutor Gramiccioni said only that his office had conducted a “investigative action’’ at Habel’s home.

The raid followed a Wall Patch story quoting former Board of Education President John Tavis, who has since resigned from the panel, saying that Habel’s vacation time payout would exceed $400,000, since the former administrator had never taken a vacation day in his tenure.

Habel spent the last six months of his term at the helm of the school district on medical leave, citing an undisclosed medical problem. The superintendent used some of that accrued sick time beginning in January 2013. He did not return to the district.