May 13, 2024
TRENTON — Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) announced today that a retired Howell Township police chief has admitted to providing false statements in a township investigation and otherwise trying to conceal a sexual affair with a subordinate.
Andrew Kudrick, 50, of Farmingdale, New Jersey, pled guilty to an accusation charging him with one count of obstructing the administration of law or other governmental function (4th degree). Kudrick entered the plea during a hearing before Judge Paul X. Escandon on May 13, 2024, in state Superior Court for Monmouth County, in Freehold, New Jersey.
Under the plea agreement with OPIA, Kudrick has agreed to a lifetime ban on public employment and prosecutors will recommend that Kudrick be sentenced to a term of non-custodial probation, the length of which will be determined by the court. Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for July 19, 2024.
According to documents and statements in the public record, after an incident that transpired at a work-related event, Howell Township opened a formal investigation into the potential existence of a hostile work environment and sexual harassment within the Howell Township Police Department. During the plea colloquy, Kudrick admitted to falsely denying, during an official interview, the existence of a sexual affair he was involved in with a subordinate employee.
As alleged in the case, in late March 2022, Kudrick threatened to launch an illegitimate internal affairs investigation into a member of the police department, who had knowledge and evidence of the affair, in an effort to intimidate the witness from truthfully cooperating during a scheduled interview in the township’s investigation.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General Sherrod Smith and OPIA Corruption Deputy Bureau Chief Andrew Wellbrock, under the supervision of Corruption Bureau Chief Jeff Manis and OPIA Executive Director Drew Skinner.
Defense counsel:
Robert Honecker, Esq., Ocean, New Jersey
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