By John Burton
TRENTON – Former Manalapan Mayor Andrew Lucas was found guilty in federal court Thursday on all 11 counts related to his acquisition of a local farm, which garnered him more than $1 million in public money for farmland preservation.
The charges included wire fraud, loan application fraud, obstruction of a federal grand jury, false statements to the federal Internal Revenue Service, falsification of records in a federal investigation and aggravated identity theft, among others, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Lucas, 37, purchased the 97-acre farm on Iron Ore Road, Manalapan, while he was serving as mayor, and then applied for and received approximately $1.6 million from the state Farmland Preservation Program, the Monmouth County open space fund and Manalapan. The public funds allowed Lucas to keep the property but prevented him from developing almost all of the property, preserving it as open space farmland. Federal authorities said he used fraud to obtain the funding to purchase the property.
The majority county freeholders’ vote to authorize the payment to Lucas sparked a political controversy with Democratic freeholder candidates seizing upon it as a campaign issue for the November election. Republican Freeholder John Curley, who, along with Freeholder Thomas Arnone, voted against it, has been almost as vocal as the Democrats in his criticism of Lucas and the freeholder vote.
Curley has said previously he contacted county and federal law enforcement authorities seeking an investigation.
Lucas remains free on bail until he returns to federal court in Trenton on Jan. 20 for sentencing.
Lucas served on the Manalapan Township Committee from 2005 until his resignation last October.
