Former Middletown Committeeman Raymond O’Grady, who purportedly told undercover FBI investigators that he could “smell a cop…a mile away,” was sentenced to 43 years in federal prison today for his role in the wide-ranging corruption probe called Operation Bid Rig.
The Asbury Park Press has details of the sentencing, at which U.S. District Judge William J. Martini said the evidence “showed a public official ready and willing to take bribes in his public capacity.”
O’Grady, Martini said, “had numerous opportunities to say no.”
O’Grady was convicted at trial in June on five counts of bribery and extortion for accepting $8,000 in graft, both in his official capacity in Middletown and in his role as manager of Monmouth County’s vehicle fleet.
His lawyer, Kevin Roe, told the Press that O’Grady continues to maintain his innocence and will appeal both the verdict and the sentence.