TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Division
of Criminal Justice Director Gregory A.
Paw announced that a Monmouth County contractor
was sentenced today for stealing money from
construction clients, including two churches.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Joseph Kohler, 45, of Holmdel, was
ordered by Superior Court Judge Michael
A. Petrolle in Essex County to serve five
years probation and pay $219,000 in restitution.
Kohler was sentenced pursuant to his guilty
plea to third-degree theft by failure to
make a required disposition of property,
a charge contained in an Aug. 15, 2007 State
Grand Jury indictment.
At
his Nov. 28 guilty plea hearing before Judge
Petrolle, Kohler admitted that between April
20, 2001 and Sept. 4, 2003, he took money
for construction projects but did not finish
the projects. Kohler admitted that in April
2001, he accepted money from the Mt. Olive
Church of God located in Orange to remodel
the church. Kohler received $1,417,496 of
the $1,516,790 contract price, but walked
off the job and never completed the construction
work.
Kohler
also admitted that in April 2003, he received
$166,000 to remodel the Restored Holiness
Church in Newark, but again walked off the
job and never completed the work. Due to
Kohler’s failure to complete the project,
the church had to pay an additional $52,522
for materials so that church volunteers
could complete the work themselves.
Lastly,
Kohler admitted that in April 2003, he received
$60,000 of the $70,000 that was promised
to him for repairing the home of a Newark
resident, but again failed to complete the
work.
State Investigators Robert Stemmer and Naike
Kudlik, and Deputy Attorney General Dennis
Kwasnik were assigned to the investigation.
Kwasnik represented the Office of Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing.
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