East Brunswick Resident Indicted on Charges of Fraudulent Voting

A New Brunswick police officer who lives in East Brunswick was indicted today by a Middlesex County Grand Jury on charges that he stole $850 in health insurance charges and for illegally voting in New Brunswick while living elsewhere.

According to Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan, Lt. Robert F. Tierney, 39, of East Brunswick, had been charged with theft by deception and fraudulent voting, both third degree offenses.

Tierney was indicted after an investigation by the New Brunswick Police Department and the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office determined that he had voted in four general elections in New Brunswick between Nov. 1, 2004, and Nov. 30, 2009, while he was living in Milltown and later, East Brunswick, according to the prosecutors office.

In addition, the investigation also determined that although he had been divorced in December 2008, he failed to notify the city and Aetna Insurance Co. and continued to list his former spouse as a beneficiary to his health insurance plan between January 2009 and September 2009.

During that time, the insurance company paid approximately $850 in claims to Tierney’s wife.

Tierney, who began working for the city police department on Jan. 10, 1994, was suspended with pay after he was charged on September 3, 2010. Following the indictment, he will be suspended without pay from his $115,972 job.

As is the case with all criminal defendants, Tierney is innocent until proven guilty.