Wally Nance was convicted of theft by deception on Aug. 7 in Mercer County Superior Court.
TRENTON - A former Trenton Water Works employee was sentenced to jail Friday for stealing state unemployment money while he was suspended from his job after being charged in a criminal case.
Wally Nance was convicted of theft by deception on Aug. 7 in Mercer County Superior Court.
Nance had been enrolled in the pre-trial intervention (PTI) for the charge, but left the diversionary program for first-time offenders in late 2014 and opted for a trial, officials said.
On Friday, Judge Timothy Lydon sentenced Nance to 364 days in jail, 90 of which has to be served immediately, and five years of probation. The balance of jail time will be served when his sentence concludes, prosecutor's said.
Lydon also required Nance to make restitution of about $16,000 to the state of New Jersey, and enroll in an anger management program.
Nance was indicted in 2011 on official misconduct and theft charges following a Mercer County Prosecutor's Office investigation into a bribery scheme at Trenton Water Works.
Also charged in the case were Water Works employees Keith Williams and Stanley "Muscles" Davis, the brother of former Trenton Mayor Tony Mack.
Nance was suspended without pay from his job as a heavy equipment operator at the utility after his indictment and enrolled in the state unemployment system, officials said.
While the Water Works case was pending, Nance took a paid job with a private construction company for almost a year, while he collected unemployment, Nance and officials have said.
In November 2013, Nance was admitted into PTI for the theft of the unemployment money in a deal with prosecutors in which the official misconduct and related theft charges from the Water Works case were dismissed.
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Nance also had to resign from his Water Works job as a condition of the plea agreement, prosecutor's said.
But in November 2014, Nance quit PTI and opted to go to trial on the unemployment funds theft. He was accused of bilking the state system from July 2011 to January 2012.
In February, Nance appeared before City Council and said he was an innocent man, all charges against him had been dismissed and he deserved to be paid for the salary he missed while the charges were pending.
"I wasn't convicted of any crime," Nance said to City Council. "I was innocent from day one." The council told him to speak with the city administration.
Nance also petitioned the state Civil Service Commission to get his Water Works position back, saying he was coerced into quitting by a supervisor, and that the criminal charges against him were "dropped" in late 2013.
The commission, in June, wholly rejected Nance's arguments, saying there was not one "scintilla" of evidence that the utility forced him into resigning his position, that it was the deal with prosecutors, which Nance agreed to.
Furthermore, the commission ruling shows that Nance submitted his PTI termination paperwork to bolster his arguments, but that paperwork states that if he left the PTI program, the charges against him would be reactivated.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.
