A Superior Court Judge has denied a bid for an elected official being charged with stealing six political signs to dismiss his case because the value was “too trivial” to merit prosecution, ending speculation that the theft of a small number of signs would not constitute a crime.
Readington Councilman John Albanese, Jr. was arrested in May after stealing six signs belonging to a rival faction in the Republican primary. Apple Air Tags were attached to the signs, which were tracked to Albanese’s home.
A former mayor, Albanese sought a dismissal under New Jersey’s de minimis law. In court filings, Albanese equated the charges against him to be akin to a 1984 ruling that dismissed shoplifting charges against a defendant who stole three pieces of bubble gum valued at fifteen cents.
Albanese has admitted to taking the signs found at his home. He must now return to municipal court to face criminal charges.
The judge, Kevin Shanahan, said it would be up to the municipal court judge in Hightstown, where the case has been transferred, to determine if the signs – which were used by Tom Kean, Jr. in his 2022 congressional campaign against incumbent Tom Malinowski – were the property of Readington Republicans and not simply abandoned property.
“A factfinder might indeed find that the elements of theft cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” Shanahan wrote in his decision. “A factfinder could also reasonably conclude that the defendant’s conduct, therefore, did not fall within the established understanding of a crime of moral turpitude but rather simply falls within the ever-expending ambit of political silliness.”
The sign-stealing issue is just one component of a Republican civil war in Readington, a rural Hunterdon County community.
Last week, the Hunterdon County Prosecutor charged two political allies of Albanese with planting a recording device at a local restaurant to record a private meeting of two elected officials who are Albanese’s rivals.
Robeson alleges that Christina Albrecht, whose husband, former Mayor Ben Smith, lost a Republican primary for township committee in June, placed an audio recording device on July 1 to capture private, oral communications between Mayor Adam Mueller and Deputy Mayor Vinny Panico.
Albrecht later returned to The Rail, a local eatery, and retrieved the device – and then allegedly uploaded the recordings to a shared drive with Jacqueline Hindle, who ran on a GOP ticket with Smith.
The two women are charged with violating the New Jersey Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act. Albrecht faces charges of burglary and wiretapping charges, and Hindle faces charges of conspiracy to disclose an illegally obtained recording and wiretapping charges.