Ex-Sayreville Dem chairman indicted of 14 counts, including a bribe from a strip club

Former Sayreville Democratic Municipal Chairman Thomas Pollando has been indicted on charges that he sought payment from a local strip club in exchange for using his political connections to influence the outcome of a law enforcement investigation, Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone said today. 

Pollando’s son and daughter-in-law were also indicted for allegedly tampering with a witness.

Detectives from the prosecutors office were conducting electronic surveillance of XXXV Gentlemen’s Club (Club 35) when they watched Pollando, a former councilman, accept several thousand dollars in cash.   He was still in possession of the cash when Pollando was arrested in August.  He quickly resigned his party post, several appointed positions in Sayreville, and lost his job at the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.

The indictment alleges that David Pollando threatened a witness to his father’s alleged bribe in November 2022, and that Lizmarie Pollando, who is married to David Pollando, alerted her husband to the location of a witness and then lied to detectives who questioned her.   Both now face prison.

David Pollando was charged with second-degree conspiracy, second-degree witness tampering, second-degree Retaliation Against a Witness and third degree terroristic threats. Lizmarie Pollando was charged with second degree conspiracy and third-degree hindering the apprehension of another.

The fourteen-count indictment against Thomas Polando alleges that as party chairman, he directed a Sayreville council candidate’s campaign funds to be used to pay for personal expenditures and ordered  that election records be falsified to cover up that payment.