Prosecutor: No Investigation of Terminal Leave Payment Needed

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office has declined to investigate a terminal leave payment made to former Washington Township Police Chief William Cicchetti.

Members of the township council hired an attorney to prepare a report about the issue earlier this year and had requested the Prosecutor's Office also look at the issue.

"There is nothing in the documents presented that would warrant an investigation or any involvement by this office in this matter," Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Keitel wrote in a letter to Ronald Mondello, the attorney hired to prepare the report.

Cicchetti was given a leave payment of $38,184.90 after he retired as chief. The council had favored a sum between $23,000 and $24,000.

The council was "gravely" concerned by Mondello's findings that "a failure to adhere to the Township’s Charter, state laws and regulations exists," Mondello wrote in his synopsis.

Council President Steve Cascio and Mayor Janet Sobkowicz could not immediately be reached for comment.

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