News of former Mayor Joseph Trudden's arrest spread quickly throughout the Farmingdale community.

Trudden turned himself in to the Nassau County District Attorney's office on Wednesday, Jan. 12 and pleaded not guilty in Nassau County District Court to felony charges of tampering with public records, offering a false instrument for filing, grand larceny, falsifying business records and defrauding the government.

According to his attorney, Joseph R. Conway of LaRusso & Conway, Trudden "looks forward to addressing these charges in court." Conway's written statement said, "Joseph Trudden is and has been a lifelong public servant, serving both his country and his community with honor and distinction."

Trudden was a former Marine and Suffolk County police officer who had served over 20 years on the force. He is currently a member of the Farmingdale Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs as well as a volunteer for the Farmingdale Fire Department, where he was recently honored with a citation for 25 years of service. Trudden served as mayor for the Village of Farmingdale for 12 years until he was defeated in a election last March.

The new village board, led by Mayor George Graf, has since put a corrective action plan into place and has been combating accusations that they somehow tipped off the state comptroller's office.

"The new administration only learned of this when the state auditors requested a meeting to inform the village of their findings," Graf said.

The state comptroller's findings cover a period from June 1, 2001-May 31, 2003 and are published in a report entitled Village of Farmingdale Legal Services/Use of Assets. The full report can be viewed by visiting www.farmingdalevillage.org and clicking on the Village Newsletters and Press Releases icon. When the report was released, State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi said in a June 2004 press release, "this is a woeful misuse of taxpayer dollars and an egregious violation of public trust". Village officials allowed legal fees to skyrocket and required no accountability for travel and other credit card purchases, which allowed some to abuse the system. It is critical that the newly elected mayor and administration act now to establish policies to monitor spending and eliminate unwarranted perks."

A portion of the report focused on the village's legal costs during that time period. It examined payments for legal services made by four other Long Island villages with budgets and populations comparable in size to the Village of Farmingdale. According to these findings, Farmingdale paid approximately $150,000 more for legal fees annually, with costs increasing significantly in 2002-2003 to $215,000. The average of the villages included in the comparison was approximately $54,000.

A discrepancy in credit card charges was also an investigated. The report states that the village paid credit card bills in excess of $3,770 during a two-year period ending May 31, 2003 for travel expenses incurred by an unauthorized individual. The report states that Trudden informed the state comptroller's office that the individual was the deputy village attorney, however, according to the report, no records of his appointment are in the minutes of the proceedings of the Village Board of Trustees. The report goes on to say that during this two-year period, seven village employee credit cardholders made charges totaling $60,000, however at least $17,000 related to personal expenses was paid back by the cardholders. The report states that the "officials also failed to submit receipts or explanations for much of the remaining $43,000 charged. With little or no documentation, auditors were unable to determine if these charges were business related, including more than $14,000 charged for meals at local restaurants."

Ed Vallarella said he has been following the news about Trudden all along and was concerned that all of the good deeds he did would go unmentioned. Vallarella, a resident of Farmingdale for 47 years, owned a restaurant equipment business on Fulton Street in the village. In addition to Trudden assisting him with this business, Vallarella said he has come to know Trudden in a friendlier manner over the years.

"Other than having to bury a number of my friends through his funeral parlor, I have come to befriend him because my son lived 8-10 houses down from him, Vallarella said. "We would always meet and bump into each other."

Vallarella said he spoke to Trudden recently and was told that he "would certainly fight those items."

"There has been a plight against him and this thing has really gotten started in the wrong direction," Vallarella said. "I want to see it stop before it gets any further and let the courts decide."

Bill Meunier has been a resident of the Village of Farmingdale for over 40 years. He claims to have no ties to Trudden other than having had used his funeral home [McCourt & Trudden] in the past.

"In the 12 years that he's been mayor I have seen so many improvements in the town," Meunier said. "He was such an active mayor; doing so much for so many people. I can understand how these things could have gotten away from him and I cannot excuse him for that."

At the first Village Board meeting since Trudden's arrest, a few questions were raised by one resident. They were directed toward current board trustee Dr. Benjamin Giminaro.

"Were you aware of board meetings being held at restaurants by the previous administration?" the resident inquired at the Jan. 18 meeting. "And were these meetings posted for public knowledge?"

Dr. Giminaro responded that most of the meetings were executive sessions.

Mayor Graf said that the new administration was asked to refrain from discussing matters not published in the auditors report.

"This is a matter that is still with the Nassau County District Attorney's office and it hasn't been resolved yet," Village Mayor George Graf said. "This was brought about by the state comptroller's office. The state comptroller identified irregularies that warranted a referral to the DA's office. The DA, over the past year, has been investigating these findings and made a decision to charge Joe Trudden."