New Jersey state police worker charged with theft of generator amid Sandy

In a power play amid the widespread power failure left by Hurricane Sandy, a civilian employee of the New Jersey state police forced two vendors in Burlington County to hand over free a generator, authorities said Tuesday.

Marcella Friedman, 49, of Oaklyn, threatened the two men with fines and confiscation if they did not give her a free generator, state Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa said in a news release.

Friedman was charged Tuesday with theft by deception.

The men, from South Carolina, were selling generators at Routes 206 and 537 in Springfield Township, when Friedman came up to them on Oct. 31, according to the news release. She claimed to have the authority to shut them down and seize merchandise, said Chiesa's spokesman, Peter Aseltine.

"They were legitimately selling these things, so it wasn't as if they were breaking the law," Aseltine said.

Friedman intimidated the men into giving her a 8,500-watt generator free, according to the complaint filed by prosecutors. Friedman, who works as a communications systems technician for the police, then gave the generator to a relative. That relative sold the generator to a third party, prosecutors said.

Friedman and a lawyer listed for her could not be reached for comment.