By Joseph L. Kuchie

PERTH AMBOY – Perth Amboy Superintendent of Schools Janine Walker Caffrey addressed the recent court ruling on Dr. Herbert N. Richardson 21st Century Elementary School secretary, Hector Muniz, in an interview last Friday.

Old Bridge Municipal Court found Muniz guilty on Aug. 7 of possessing and selling alcoholic beverages on school property. He was fined $664 and now the future of his employment in Perth Amboy is in the hands of the Board of Education.

The accusations against Muniz began back in 2012 right before the board placed Dr. Caffrey on paid administrative leave. Unable to complete her investigation, the decision was made by interim Superintendent Vivian Rodriguez to place Muniz and four other Richardson School employees on paid leave.

When she returned to work, Caffrey overturned the decision made by Rodriguez and reinstated the five employees. She said a full police report was completed and it was confirmed that nothing was found.

“Serious errors were made in my absence,” Caffrey explained. “A principal, vice principal, two secretaries, and a liaison were all put on leave and it was a huge disruption to the operations of that school…we had children to care for.”

Caffrey went on to say that neither she nor the board of education knew anything about Muniz’s activities before the summons was served by the police department.

She explained that statute 2C:33-16, the main statute in the decision against Muniz, proved nobody in the school district had knowledge of his actions. The statute reads as follows:

Any person of legal age to purchase alcoholic beverages, who knowingly and without the express written permission of the school board, its delegated authority, or any school principal, brings or possesses any alcoholic beverages on any property used for school purposes which is owned by any school or school board, is guilty of a disorderly persons offense.

“In order for Mr. Muniz to be guilty, the judge had to determine that neither the administrators, including me, nor the board knew anything about this,” Caffrey said. “This was part of the ‘finding of fact’ that the judge read when he issued the verdict.”

Susan Nieves, another secretary at Richardson School, filed a whistleblower lawsuit last year regarding the Muniz case. Nieves claimed that Muniz was selling alcohol to administrators and staff but that her supervisors “retaliated against her.”

Caffrey said she cannot legally comment on the details of what Nieves has said while there is an investigation, but she did say that anyone could file a lawsuit against anyone. Her biggest concern was that many of the accusations in the case are hearsay and haven’t been proven true in court, such as Nieves’ claim that administrators turned a blind eye to what was going on.

Caffrey also commented on the scrutiny of her conduct and recent allegations made by board member Israel Varela.

She explained that multiple people have told her that Varela has been sending emails and making public comments making allegations about her that were “nasty and untrue”.

“His public statements included things like ‘she has been convicted of coquito’ and he told people I was going to jail,” Caffrey explained. “He emailed others telling them I had somehow conducted ‘an illegal investigation’ and some kind of ‘administrative cover up’”.

She found it fascinating that the last name Varela was mentioned in Muniz’s court case and Israel Varela seemed to be the only one that has an issue with her conduct. She believed Varela was using the case as a way to attack her.

Varela, who has publicly taken on Caffrey on numerous occasions dating back to the beginning of her term, denied any involvement of himself or his family with Muniz.

He also said he would resign if he or anyone related to him were associated with the case, but also called for Dr. Caffrey’s resignation if nobody in his family was involved.

“If it’s found that I or someone in my family purchased alcohol [from Muniz], I will resign immediately,” Varela said in a phone interview. “But if [Muniz] didn’t mention my name, I want [Dr. Caffrey] to pack her bags and resign.”

Varela also questioned the emails that Caffrey reportedly received from “multiple people”, saying that he only exchanged messages with board members. He explained that if board members were sharing his business emails with Caffrey, they were breaking the law.

“This is confidential information that was put out to board members only,” Varela said. “I don’t know which board member has given that information out but that’s illegal. The only way she could say that is if a board member gave her confidential information and broke the law.”

As for the comments, Varela was unsure where the information was coming from but was concerned about the information getting out.

“Sensitive materials are being leaked out by these administrators and they continue to break the law,” he said. “I would like to know why these materials are getting put out there. They should not be released to general public until an investigation is done and a special meeting is heard.”

Varela said he would be speaking with the board attorney regarding the released information. The fate of Muniz could be determined later this month at the next board meeting on Aug. 29 at 6 p.m.