Ex-state worker guilty of stealing gas

A former employee of the New Jersey Department of Children and Families in Camden has pleaded guilty to fueling her car for personal use at state filling stations, authorities said yesterday.

Montrice Wright, who was a transportation aide, faces a prison term of three years, according to a plea agreement.

Wright, 29, of Camden, has been barred from public employment in New Jersey. She also will lose her pension, and must pay restitution and continue to cooperate in the investigation.

Wright was scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 6 after pleading guilty Friday to second-degree official misconduct before Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson in Gloucester County.

Wright repeatedly used a state-issued fuel card to pump gas for her car and friends' vehicles at state pumps in Berlin, Deptford, West Deptford and Cherry Hill, authorities said.

The Division of Criminal Justice obtained 10 state grand-jury indictments on June 11 and charged 13 defendants with stealing government gas. Six, including Wright, worked at the Department of Children and Families; two were employees of the City of Camden; four were employees of the Camden City Board of Education; and one was not a state employee.

Six of the 13 have pleaded guilty, including two from the Camden office of Children and Families and one who worked at the Board of Education.