Ramapo ex-inspector Anthony Mallia gets no jail time, won't pay restitution in plea deal

Anthony Mallia, the former Ramapo building inspector charged with 188 counts of undercharging contractors for permits and shortchanging taxpayers by $150,000 in the process, won't serve jail time and won't have to make restitution, a judge decided Monday.

Mallia, 53, pleaded guilty to first-degree tampering with public records, a felony, and was promised by the judge a sentence of five years probation. He also pleaded guilty to official misconduct and will receive three years probation. The sentences will be be served concurrently when Mallia is sentenced Oct.  31. He waived his right to appeal.

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The former inspector pleaded guilty after Rockland County Court Judge David Zuckerman decided Mallia would not serve time behind bars. The prosecution deferred to Zuckerman's discretion on sentencing.

The details were worked out during a conference with Rockland Executive Assistant District Attorney Richard Kennison Moran and defense attorneys David Goldstein and Stacey Richman. The no-prison sentence was a requirement of Mallia's lawyers. 

Zuckerman called it "a very generous disposition."

"Your lawyers worked very hard for you," Zuckerman told Mallia in court. "Your lawyers convinced me to do something I was not going to do today. I would opine they are very persuasive."

District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said his office got a guilty plea to a felony charge.

"Another public servant has been brought to justice and removed from office," Zugibe said. "Nothing erodes the confidence of the public more than corruption on the part of people in public office. Individuals who abuse their positions will be arrested, convicted and removed from office."

Zugibe said while he remains confident that the majority of public officials in the county are honest and hard-working, "We still have much work to be completed."

Mallia admitted, under questioning from the prosecutor, that he tampered with records from January 2015 to Feb. 26, 2016. 

Standing between his two lawyers, Mallia answered questions from the judge and prosecutor, saying "yes" when asked if he understood the plea offer.

"What am I supposed to say? I'm glad it's over," he said outside the courthouse when asked by The Journal News/lohud to comment on the plea. 

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Mallia will not have to repay the $150,000 the district attorney said was lost to taxpayers.

"There was no evidence Mr. Mallia obtained any financial benefit as a result of these crimes," Moran said.

"Considering the charges that were against him, I feel he received a very favorable disposition from the court," said Robert Romanowski, a Ramapo resident who has been following the case closely. 

He said he hopes the town — which has endured charges against its supervisor, a councilman and Mallia — can recover from this. He said activists in the Preserve Ramapo group have been saying for years that the town is corrupt and Monday's plea feeds that narrative.

"It's very discouraging when you find out that public officials have betrayed the trust of their job," Romanowski said.

Michael Castelluccio, a Preserve Ramapo website editor, said he remained "puzzled" by the no-prison outcome, given the number of counts.

"When you deal, there's usually something given by both sides, isn't there?" Castelluccio asked. "There's something missing here, and I don't mean just the $150k lifted from the residents."

Richman, the defense attorney, said she was "pleased with the outcome for our client and the community."

The felony tampering charged carried a potential prison term of 28 months to seven years; the misdemeanor misconduct charge could have landed him in jail for a year.

The deal was announced just as jury selection was to begin in Mallia's trial Monday.

A grand jury charged him with two felony counts of second-degree grand larceny. He faced 66 counts of first-degree falsifying business records and 40 felony counts each of first-degree tampering with public records and issuing a false certificate, along with 40 counts of official misconduct.

Mallia had denied the charges and had asked Zuckerman to dismiss the indictment. Zuckerman upheld the grand jury charges on Friday.

Following a District Attorney's Office investigation, a Rockland grand jury indicted Mallia in February on 188 counts accusing him of stealing $150,000 from town taxpayers by undercharging contractors for building permits, and falsifying permits and other records.

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Mallia, of Airmont, allegedly undercharged contractors for building permits, denying taxpayers the full revenue due to them. Ramapo determines building-permit fees based on the value of the planned construction, officials said.

The Town Board approved an agreement  in June accepting Mallia's resignation, providing him with four months of pay, benefits and accrued time off.

Under Mallia's tenure as chief building inspector, allegations of a lack of enforcement led the state Division of Building Standards and Codes to assign a monitor to oversee Ramapo's Building Department. The state said it had determined the town and its Building Department had not been enforcing fire and zoning codes, allowing schools to operate without Planning Board approval and buildings to linger with violations.

Mallia's arrest came less than a year after the federal indictment of former town Supervisor Christopger St. Lawrence and former Deputy Town Attorney Aaron Troodler on multiple charges of securities and wire fraud and conspiracy involving the financing of the town's baseball stadium and other projects developed through the Ramapo Local Development Corp.

Acting Supervisor Yitzchok Ullman took the reins of Ramapo government after St. Lawrence was bounced from office in May on his conviction.

Ullman vowed to reform the government after 16 years of St. Lawrence’s leadership.

The Building Department was a top priority since it’s under a state monitor. The town's monitor — and another in Spring Valley — were assigned after the state threatened to take control of those communities' inspections following years of pressure by state Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski, D-New City, and, later, County Executive Ed Day.

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