Five Edison cops made more than $840,000 collectively over the last two years for side-job police work, but authorities now say they never showed up for their shifts.
The group -- Sgt. Ioannis "John" Mpletsakis, 38, Officer Paul Pappas, 43, Officer James Panagoulakos, 32, all of Edison Township, Officer Gregory Makras, 33, of Cranford, and Sgt. Brian Rossmeyer, 41, of Bedminster -- all face charges of theft and two counts of official misconduct, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey said Friday.
The officers clocked into these no-show shifts from Nov. 14, 2016, through this May, when the officers received tens of thousands of dollars in addition to their base salary and overtime pay, according to authorities.
"Any police officer who knowingly got paid for an off-duty job they did not do, is guilty of malfeasance," Carey said in a statement, which noted that more arrests are possible.
For two weeks, NJ Advance Media had been looking into the department's doling out of side jobs. The off-duty shifts, which are separate from overtime pay, are volunteer jobs where officers have full police responsibilities.
The officers, who were suspended without pay after the charges were made public, were on pace to double their base salaries with the extra overtime and side-jobs. Mpletsakis could have made more than $200,000 in 2018 if he held a similar schedule through the rest of the year.
Andres Rosa, a retired Edison officer, handles the books for the police force's off-duty work, in which officers are paid by a third-party through the township for private security and shifts monitoring road construction and utility work with hourly rates ranging from $40 to $90.
Despite Rosa's position, Carey's office said there is no real centralized system to assign these jobs and the cops tasked with assigning the shifts have a "wide discretion" in who gets what job.
The details of the jobs were not known. NJ Advance Media had requested records on all contracts with the township for these off-duty jobs, but the clerk's office said they had no records.
The new accusations are believed to have come out of authorities' probe into Pappas's alleged tire slashing incident that also led to seven officers being placed on desk duty over accusations of illegal steroid use. Those officers' names have not been released.
"Edison township officials, however, are responsible for allowing a system of fiscal irresponsibility to exist," Carey said. "The assignment of extra-duty jobs being handled by multiple individuals with very little oversight, paired with an inadequate system of accounting, has directly resulted in nepotism and corruption."
Chief Thomas Bryan said he could not comment on the arrests, referring questions to the prosecutor's office, but issued a statement.
"Once again, this demonstrates that the Edison Police Department took appropriate action," he said in the statment. "We identified an internal concern. We alerted the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office about those concerns and detectives from our Professional Standards Bureau worked closely with the county to investigate these matters. We continue to cooperate with the prosecutor's office as this investigation proceeds."
Rossmeyer, who came on the force in 2007, and Mpletsakis, who was hired in 2002, were just recently promoted in the department.
Mpletsakis --who pulled in more than $217,000 in 2016 with his base salary, overtime and side-job pay -- was originally fired from the police force a decade ago after he ran from the scene of a car crash while off-duty. Mpletsakis had no clothes on at the time.
A judge reinstated him in 2007.
One of the top side-job earners, Pappas, is also facing numerous charges after cops arrested the 15-year veteran of the force over an alleged tire slashing incident. The cop allegedly took an unmarked police car to New Brunswick while on duty and slashed his former girlfriend's tires.
Pappas, 43, has since been suspended without pay.
Makras was hired in 2011 and Panagoulakos in 2013.
Rosa, 76, retired from the department in 1995 and collects an annual pension of $64,375, according to state records. He was hired by the township two years later as a scheduling clerk and currently makes $51,868.
Rosa did not return calls for comment. Someone who identified himself as Rosa's son told NJ Advance Media his father was on vacation.
The officers are scheduled to appear in Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick on June 21.
Editor's note: A previous version of this article calculated Edison officers' total pay on inaccurate information provided by the township. This story has since been updated to reflect the correct salaries.
Craig McCarthy may be reached at 732-372-2078 or at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig and on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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