Kirk Eady
KEARNY –
The deputy director of the Hudson County Correctional Facility — a/k/a the Hudson County Jail in South Kearny — has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for illegally wiretapping his co-workers over a four-month period in 2012.
Kirk Eady, 47, of East Brunswick, was convicted in March by a federal jury sitting in U.S. District Court, Newark. The trial lasted four days; the jurors delibrated only three hours before announcing their guilty verdict.
Last Thursday, Judge Jose L. Linares, who had presided at Eady’s trial, handed down the prison sentence, U. S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
At the time of Eady’s conviction, Fishman’s office had reported that the defendant faced a term of up to five years and a $250,000 fine. Instead, he is to spend slightly less than two years behind bars, followed by three years of supervised release.
According to the case documents and the evidence at trial, Eady, while serving as deputy director of the county jail, used the services of a website to intercept telephone calls of other correctional facility employees and another individual who were critical of his work performance.
The wiretapping occurred on more than 10 occasions from March 8 to July 8, 2012.
Authorities said Eady, who was able to conceal the telephone number from which the call originated, would contact two jail employees at the same time and make it appear that one of them had initiated the call. He would also record the private phone conversations without the knowledge of those who were being monitored.
Fishman credited the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent Richard M. Frankel in Newark, with the investigation leading to the sentencing.
It is not known where Eady will serve his term, but since his is a federal crime, he will not likely be incarcerated in his former place of employment.
– Karen Zautyk
