New Brunswick Parking Authority Workers Charged with Thefts, Bribes

New Brunswick, NJ - Ask anyone who knows the city, and they'll tell you: It can be a pain to find parking in New Brunswick.

That's perhaps why, in a scheme that started on Valentine's Day of this year, four employees of the New Brunswick Parking Authority accepted cash bribes from drivers in exchange for letting them park their cars in an abandoned and closed-off garage,

The four Parking Authority workers were arrested and charged Thursday, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and New Brunswick Police Director Anthony Caputo announced.

The investigation began after parking authority officials learned of the thefts and contacted the New Brunswick Police Department.

The thefts allegedly began on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14 of this year, county prosecutors said. The four employees worked as parking valets at two Dennis Street restaurants and conspired to sell parking spots to motorists, who were allowed to park at the Wolfson parking deck, which is closed and earmarked for demolition.

Three of the four also paid bribes to other parking authority employees in exchange for their silence on the parking conspiracy.

The amounts of the bribes and payments for parking spaces have yet to be determined.

Three employees were charged with bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit theft. They are: Atis Mir-Merced, 18, and Joshue Castillo-Mendoza, 24, both of the Kendall Park section of South Brunswick, and Karran Buchhan, 25, of the Somerset section of Franklin township.

The fourth employee, Ferrad West, 22, of East Brunswick, was charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit theft. Bail was set at $2,500.

Bail was set at $7,500 each for Mir-Merced and Castillo-Mendoza and $10,000 for Buchhan.

The investigation is active and is continuing. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Thierry Lemmerling at (732) 745-5217.