A jury convicted suspended Manville Police Chief Thomas Herbst of seven crimes Thursday for multiple sexual assaults of a subordinate police employee and the sexual harassment of others in the department.
Four of the crimes were for official misconduct connected to the sexual behavior and one was for committing a pattern of official misconduct. Wronko said he plans to appeal the case, noting that some allegations date to , and the statute of limitations on misconduct charges is five to seven years.
Herbst, 57, of Bridgewater was on pretrial release and the judge continued that status after the guilty verdicts, Wronko said. One of the charges β sexual assault - was dismissed ahead of trial, which began Jan. He said his client turned down a plea offer last year. At trial, Wronko said the jury found Herbst guilty of having nonconsensual sex with one victim for about 10 years, asking a subordinate officer for a sexually explicit picture of his wife, and sexual harassment via texts sent to two other police employees, an officer and a civilian.
The guilty verdicts also found he used a police computer to view pornography and flashed a Manville police badge in public while suspended from the job β one he should have surrendered. Manville Borough suspended Herbst more than a year before the criminal charges, in February , when one of the victims β a police civilian employee - sued Herbst in civil court and detailed a list of shocking allegations, many which were later included in the criminal charges.
The suit said Herbst masturbated in front of the woman at the police department and touched her inappropriately on a regular basis while he was her supervisor. He later sexually assaulted the woman approximately 10 times in the police archive room. He also assaulted her at her home and in a hotel parking lot during her lunch hour, the lawsuit alleged.
