Jeff Goldman reports for NJ.com:
The former mayor of a Mercer County (NJ) town has been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing thousands of dollars and using the money to give himself a raise while he served as the executive director of Asbury Park Housing Authority. Mark W. Holmes Sr., 56, was ordered to pay $35,000 in additional restitution and to forfeit his pension. In addition, Holmes can never again hold a public job, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
Holmes, a Democratic former mayor and councilman in Lawrence Township, pleaded guilty to second-degree theft in January.
He stole more than $90,000 by using state grant money intended to help low-income residents of Asbury Park to give himself a salary increase that wasn't approved by the agency's board between 2008 and 2011. Read the full story
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