NJ lieutenant’s 50-count indictment accuses him drug corruption, fishy bank deposits

State prosecutors have accused one of their lieutenants of stealing and trying to sell drugs confiscated as evidence, adding that he left a trail of shady bank deposits.

Prosecutors say the corrupt actions of the now-suspended Bergen County Prosecutor's Office official from January 2019 to November 2023 jeopardized criminal prosecutions.

A Mercer County grand jury on March 12 handed up a 50-count indictment against Kevin T. Matthew, 48, of Cedar Grove.

Matthew has been suspended from his job at the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office since December 2023, following his arrest. His attorney, Charles Sciarra, said his client maintains his innocence and would be “vigorously defended.”

“The alleged misconduct by the defendant represents a stunning, tremendous disservice to the public," Platkin said in a statement.

Despite lacking an official role in narcotics investigations, authorities say Matthew used his access to law enforcement databases to search for drug cases before he signed out the evidence.

He then removed large amounts of cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl from the vault, authorities said.

He then put the evidence back with differences in composition, packaging, and weight, which could compromise the prosecutions tied to the cases those drugs were central to, officials said.

The charges say Matthew did this with nine drug-related cases.

Officials also said that during the period when Matthew was messing with the drug case evidence, he made multiple cash deposits into bank accounts he controlled to the tune of around $600,000.

Investigators found that the deposits were not connected to his pay as a law enforcement official and were broken down into smaller incremental sums to avoid triggering the federal requirement to report transactions exceeding $10,000.

The vast indictment also says  Matthew did not report those deposits on his tax returns, meaning he filed fraudulent ones in 2022 and 2023.

Charges against Matthew

• First-degree financial facilitation of criminal activity
• First- and second-degree possession with intent to distribute drugs
• Second-degree pattern of official misconduct
• Second-degree official misconduct
• Third-degree possession of a drug
• Third-degree tampering with public records
• Fourth-degree tampering with physical evidence
• Third-degree filing a fraudulent tax return in 2022, and in 2023
• Third-degree structuring one or more transactions with the purpose of evading a transaction reporting requirement

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