Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
VENTNOR The Atlantic County Prosecutor today announced that following a months-long investigation, a former city employee has been indicted for official misconduct and theft of more than $75,000.
According to a release from the prosecutor, Michelle Calderone, 37, of Egg Harbor Township, a former city Code Enforcement Officer, was indicted April 11 and charged with five second-degree offenses and one offense in the Fourth Degree.
The indictment stems from an investigation that began when the City of Ventnor observed a discrepancy in its financial ledgers. The prosecutor alleges that from 2021 through 2023, Calderon took cash transactions from citizens and businesses intended as payment for various city permits and kept the cash for herself. She would then alter the balance sheets using a city-owned computer to cover up the discrepancies. The total amount of cash taken exceeds $75,000.
The Code Enforcement Department is responsible for registering rental properties, including the 400 short-term rentals on the books, enforcing property maintenance codes, registering contractors, issuing construction permits and inspecting all work done by contractors.
The investigation became apparent last year when the Code Enforcement Office closed unexpectedly for the day on June 19 for the police to conduct their investigation. The office reopened the next day.
Calderone was charged with a pattern of official misconduct, official misconduct, misapplication of entrusted property, failure to make lawful disposition of property and altering computer software to commit theft, all offenses in the Second Degree, and tampering with records, an offense in the Fourth Degree.
The joint investigation was conducted by the prosecutor's Professional Standards & Accountability Unit and Ventnor City Police Department. Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Remy represents the State in the matter.
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