Assistant Commissioner Lydell Sherrer was arrested on bribery charges
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Department of Corrections Assistant Commissioner Lydell Sherrer in this 2009 file photo. Sherrer was arrested on bribery charges.TRENTON — Lydell Sherrer has spent 29 years locking up people who broke the law, climbing the ranks of the Department of Corrections from officer recruit to assistant commissioner.
But today, Sherrer was in handcuffs and leg irons in U.S. District Court in Trenton hours after federal authorities arrested him on bribery charges.
Sherrer, officials said, had driven his state-issued car to a Princeton hotel in the morning to collect a $2,000 bribe he solicited from another Corrections employee.
The employee was also an informant, and the FBI was waiting.
Federal authorities said over several months this year, Sherrer solicited $18,500 in bribes from two Corrections employees, offering to use his influence within the department to help them land jobs or pursue a lawsuit.
"Sherrer brazenly asked for money to help a laid off DOC employee get another job and to assist another employee in suing Sherrer’s own agency," U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said. "There is no place in government for shake downs, and those who believe bribes are how business is done in New Jersey will learn the consequence of their corruption."
Sherrer, 51, of Neptune, is one of the highest-ranking officials within Corrections, and his arrest on two bribery charges rocked the department.
Corrections spokesman Matt Schuman declined to comment on the charges, saying only that "regardless of whether it is an inmate, a staff member or an assistant commissioner, if someone chooses to behave in a corrupt manner, that person will be held accountable." He said Sherrer, who makes $129,119 at Corrections and also works as an adjunct criminal justice professor at Brookdale Community College, will be suspended with pay pending an internal hearing. After the hearing he can be suspended without pay.
Sherrer, who posted a $100,000 bond and was released today, said only that he was "very surprised" to be under arrest. A public defender assigned to him declined to comment on the charges.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Ward said two cooperating witness — neither of whom was identified in the criminal complaint — approached the FBI separately to say Sherrer was soliciting them for bribes. Incriminating phone calls and meetings in diners were all recorded or observed by law enforcement over the course of several months, according to the criminal complaint.
The first witness was facing a layoff in June, but Sherrer said he could help find the witness a new job at a state contractor in return for $10,000, the complaint said. At a Lawrenceville diner in May the witness allegedly slipped Sherrer $5,000 in cash, described in the complaint as a down payment for a new job.
By September, the witness said he still had not received a job from a state contractor.
"We discussed me getting a position based on quid pro quo, right?" the witness said.
Sherrer responded "yes," the criminal complaint said.
The second cooperating witness had been demoted and was considering a discrimination lawsuit against the department, according to the complaint. Sherrer approached the witness and offered to provide internal documents helping with a lawsuit in return for $6,500, the complaint said.
In addition, Sherrer said he would use his influence to convince the department to settle a discrimination claim for $750,000, the complaint said. The witness gave Sherrer three payments totaling $4,000, the last today in the restaurant of a Princeton hotel, federal authorities said.
Gov. Chris Christie commended federal authorities involved in the investigation.
"It is my hope and expectation that the FBI and our own state criminal investigative authorities will follow all available leads and evidence to be certain that anyone involved in this or any other corruption in state government is detected and prosecuted," he said.