TRENTON – Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that a technician for the New Jersey Department of Transportation was indicted today for allegedly collecting thousands of dollars in unearned overtime pay by falsely listing overtime shifts on his time sheets that he did not work.

Kyle Rounsaville, 50, of Easton, Pa., was indicted by a state grand jury on charges of second-degree official misconduct, third-degree theft by deception, third-degree tampering with public records, and fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with records. The charges stem from an investigation by the New Jersey State Police, the Division of Criminal Justice and the NJDOT Inspector General’s Office.

Rounsaville is employed as a DOT construction and maintenance technician who inspects job sites for safety violations. DOT technicians work both planned and emergency overtime on projects, for which they are paid from an escrow account set up by the contractors at the beginning of the project. It is alleged that Rounsaville routinely put in for overtime shifts he claimed to have worked at job sites, when in fact he never went to the job sites or performed any work during the shifts. From January through June 2013, he allegedly stole a total of 308 hours of overtime pay totaling $14,889. Each DOT technician is assigned a state vehicle containing a GPS tracker. It is alleged that Rounsaville tried to circumvent the tracker and conceal where he went in his state vehicle by purchasing a GPS jammer.

Deputy Attorney General Matthew J. Lafargue and Deputy Attorney General Anthony A Picione, Chief of the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau, presented the case to the state grand jury. Detective Thomas Donnelly investigated for the State Police Official Corruption Bureau. Investigator Rochelle Miller investigated for the DOT Inspector General’s Office, under the supervision of Chief of Investigators Thomas Flanagan. NJDOT Inspector General Johanna Barba Jones referred the case to the State Police.

The second-degree official misconduct charge carries a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison, with a mandatory period of five years of parole ineligibility, and a fine of up to $150,000. The third-degree charges carry a sentence of three to five years in state prison, with a mandatory period of two years of parole ineligibility, and a fine of up to $15,000. Fourth-degree crimes carry a sentence of up to 18 months in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The indictment is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The indictment was handed up to Superior Court Judge Pedro J. Jimenez Jr. in Mercer County, who assigned the case to Morris County, where Rounsaville will be ordered to appear in court at a later date for arraignment.

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