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. The other two were sexual assault and criminal sexual contact, Herbst’s lawyer Jim Wronko confirmed to NJ Advance Media.
Wronko said he plans to appeal the case, noting that some allegations date to 2008, 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.
The state Attorney General’s office prosecuted Herbst, and Attorney General Matthew Platkin, in a statement on X, said after the verdicts: “For years Herbst abused his power and tormented his victims. Today’s conviction shows no one is above the law.”
“At a time when corruption prosecutions and protections are being eroded nationally, in New Jersey my office will continue to hold corrupt officials to account,” Platkin said.
The AG’s office obtained an eight-count indictment against the chief in June 2023 for allegations that went back to 2008 when he was a lieutenant.
One of the charges – sexual assault - was dismissed ahead of trial, which began Jan. 27 in Somerset County Superior Court, Wronko said. 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 – one he should have surrendered.
Manville Borough suspended Herbst more than a year before the criminal charges, in February 2022, when one of the victims – 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.
Herbst countersued the woman who sued him civilly and both suits were placed on hold while the criminal case proceeded, records show.
The criminal indictments alleged Herbst targeted three women, starting when he was a lieutenant.
They included the woman he regularly groped, sexually harassed and eventually sexually assaulted for years, including an instance of ejaculating onto her hair. The sex assaults eventually escalated to acts of assault by penetration, the charges alleged.
The woman said in her civil suit she was a single mother and didn’t speak up because she feared losing her job and not being believed if she had reported the misconduct.
Stories by Kevin Shea
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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com.