PORTASH: The Indictments

The next installment of a series on Joseph Portash, who helped fashion the township as a seasonal alternative for retirees who thought Florida was too far, and too hot for them to treat as a year-round home.

In the early 1990s, however, he became the central figure in a scandal that transformed his image from a reformer and innovator to that of a large-scale petty thief and burglar.

Every Thursday, we'll look back at the stories that told the tale of what happened, and how Manchester survived one of the worst corruption scandals in the state' history.

We'll also look at how Portash rose to prominence as an Ocean County freeholder and Manchester mayor, and then as an administrator who ushered in the cash cow known as "adult communities."

This installment features an Associated Press story that looks at some of the first indictments handed down in connection with the scandal.

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Seven Former Town Officials Indicted After Records Found in Dump

HENRY STERN , Associated Press AP News Archive  Mar. 1, 1991 12:17 AM ET

TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) _ Public records found in a county dump led to the indictments of three former mayors and four other ex-officials on charges they stole more than $2 million in townshxip funds.

The 53-count indictment against the former Manchester Township officials charges them with conspiring to siphon off at least $2.25 million from 1983 to June 1990, when a new administration came in. The indictment was returned Tuesday and unsealed Thursday.

Ocean County Prosecutor James Holzapfel said he believes even more was stolen. ''There was a tremendous destruction of records. We had to reconstruct enough to go to the financial institutions.''

The defendants were to turn themselves in at Superior Court today for arraignment.

The probe began July 3 when Manchester police told the county prosecutor's office they had discovered township files and documents in the Ocean County landfill.

Investigators eventually turned up more than 100 file boxes of evidence and thousands of checks, Holzapfel said.

Holzapfel said the defendants conspired to write themselves checks by drawing on funds from the township, a community of nearly 36,000 with a large elderly population.

Authorities suspect the ringleader was former township administrator Joseph Portash, believed to have taken $900,000 before he died in February 1990. Holzapel said records show Portash lost up to $500,000 in Atlantic City casinos.

Also charged in the indictment are former mayors Ralph Rizzolo, 43, Joseph Murray, 74, and Joseph Lynch, 81; former chief financial officer Janice Gawales, 51; former deputy treasurer Beverly Ramsdell, 61; former auditor Jerry Skinner, 40; and former township clerk Manuela Herring, 73.

All seven face conspiracy and racketeering charges. Each offense is punishable by a prison sentence of five to 10 years and a fine of $100,000. Other charges include official misconduct, theft, and record tampering.

A home telephone listing for Rizzolo could not be obtained. His attorney, William W. Graham, said he had no comment. Ramsdell also said she had no comment.

Messages left for Skinner and Lynch were not immediately returned. A home telephone listing for Gawales or Murray could not be obtained. Herring lives in the Orlando, Fla., area and there was no answer at a listing under his name.