Brick schools chief cheated taxpayers of $50,000 to grandkid free services, indictment says

Several former Brick Township school officials were indicted Tuesday on charges of theft by deception and official misconduct, Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato announced.

Former Brick Schools Superintendent Walter Uszenski, 63, of Brick; former Brick Schools Interim Director of Public Services Andrew Morgan, 68, of Edison; former Brick Schools Academic Officer Lorraine Morgan, 58, of Edison; and Jacqueline Halsey, 37, of Brick, the daughter of Walter Uszenski were indicted for their roles in a series of schemes "which was devised and orchestrated to provide a child of Jacqueline Halsey with educational and other services at public expense to which the child was not legally entitled," the prosecutor said in a press release.

Andrew Morgan was also indicted on charges of false swearing and theft by deception "for knowingly concealing his prior criminal conviction for criminal sale of a controlled dangerous substance in New York City in 1990," the prosecutor said.

Authorities say when Morgan applied for a job as the interim director of special services in the Brick School District, he never indicated that he had been arrested or charged with a criminal offense. He resigned from his position on Dec. 31, 2013 and has received more than $60,000 in compensation from the district between March 1 and Dec. 31, 2013.

According to the press release, the indictment alleges that Uszenski and Andrew Morgan, who was hired as the interim director of special services for the Brick public school district upon Uszenski’s recommendation in July of 2013, "engineered a plan to provide Ms. Halsey’s preschool aged child with full-time day care and transportation at the school district’s expense by falsely claiming that the program and services were educationally appropriate and necessary."

During the course of an investigation, police found that after Halsey made the request,  both Morgan and Uszenski gave their approvals needed to allow the school district to fund the child's education. The expense is believed to be more than $50,000 in education costs.

In addition, police found that Andrew Morgan was first hired at the recommendation of the former superintendent to conduct an audit of the district's special services department. The two had worked together previously.

"The $17,499 audit, which is approximately seven pages in length, was critical of the job performance of the then director of special services. Morgan was paid more than $83 per hour for 209 hours to prepare and write the audit,” the press release stated.

The “audit” also advocated saving the district money by providing services to special needs students in-district, rather than sending those students out of district and paying private tuition, the prosecutor said.

"As a result of the audit, Uszenski recommended Morgan to the Board of Education to become the Interim Director of Special Services," the press release states. "The school board hired Morgan for that position."

Investigators allege that the purpose of the audit was to position Morgan as the special services director and subsequently create a fraudulent education plan for Halsey's child.

Uszenski, Morgan and Halsey were charged with the second degree crime of official misconduct and third degree theft by deception as well as third degree official misconduct. Lorraine Morgan, Andrew Morgan’s wife, was also charged by the Grand Jury with official misconduct, a third degree offense, "for her role in approving unnecessary counseling services for the former superintendent’s grandson."

The second degree misconduct charges carry maximum penalties of 10 years jail time with a minimum of 5 years without parole. Third degree official misconduct carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in a NJ state prison, two years of which must be served in order to be eligible for parole. The prosecutor said third degree theft by deception charges carry a maximum period of 5 years incarceration in a NJ state prison.