PAINTBALL, PAMPHLETS MAY DRIVE TOLL COLLECTOR OUT OF PARKWAY JOB / CONTROVERSY IS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED, HIS FATHER CLAIMS - Press of Atlantic City (December 19, 2003)

December 19, 2003

Section: Region

Edition: All

Page: A1

PAINTBALL, PAMPHLETS MAY DRIVE TOLL COLLECTOR OUT OF PARKWAY JOB / CONTROVERSY IS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED, HIS FATHER CLAIMS

DAN P. LEE Staff Writer, (609) 272-7209

A toll collector on a Cape May County stretch of the Garden State Parkway is accused of passing motorists parkway pamphlets he altered to mock Gov. James E. McGreevey and a state highway executive.

The pamphlets, which featured photos of the two officials marked up with black eyes and expletives, were discovered in an internal investigation opened after the toll collector, Egg Harbor Township resident Jason Glassey, allegedly shot a vehicle with a paintball gun in an off-duty road-rage incident on the parkway last month. As a result of that alleged incident, Glassey, 31, son of Stanley R. Glassey - vice chairman of the South Jersey Transportation Authority and an Egg Harbor Township committeeman - was immediately suspended without pay from his $44,452-a-year-job at the Cape May toll plaza in Upper Township, state highway authority spokesman Joe Orlando said.

Jason Glassey, who has worked as a parkway toll collector since 1998, faces a disciplinary hearing today before officials from the highway authority regarding the road-rage incident, Orlando said. He said that the offense, if true, is grounds for dismissal, as is the distribution of the defaced pamphlets.

According to Orlando, Glassey was heading north on the parkway on his way home from work Nov. 21 when he apparently was cut off by a passing van. Glassey, who was wearing his parkway uniform at the time, allegedly pulled out a paintball gun and fired repeatedly at the vehicle, hitting it with blue paint pellets that exploded on its side.

The driver of the van continued driving and approached a police officer patrolling the roadway, telling him what happened and providing him with a description of Glassey's vehicle, Orlando said. A few minutes later, an officer pulled Glassey over and arrested him, charging him with possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and interfering with a vehicle in transit, Orlando said.

Orlando called the incident "alarming."

"I mean you're in a toll collector's uniform and you shoot at a vehicle because it cuts you off?" he said. "That's got to get someone's attention."

Orlando said that after learning about the charges, officials from the highway authority opened an internal investigation into Glassey. He said the investigation led to the discovery that Glassey had been distributing to those passing through his tollbooth parkway pamphlets he had altered, some of which officials found in his tollbooth and some at other tollbooths, where confused motorists apparently turned them in.

"It was extremely juvenile," Orlando said of the graffiti on the pamphlets. He said the pamphlets, which included parkway maps and other guides, featured photos of the governor and Timothy McDonough, head of the highway authority's parkway division, with black eyes, glasses and mustaches drawn onto them, as well as expletives such as "ass" written beside them.

"This person is 31 years old," Orlando said, "I mean, come on."

Glassey could not be reached for comment Thursday because, his father said in a telephone interview, he had just gotten married and had just returned from the Philippines.

But enraged, the elder Glassey, a Republican, said the matter did not constitute news and was being blown out of proportion for political reasons.

"The only thing he's guilty of is the road-rage thing, and it wasn't a big deal," he said. "One guy cut one guy off. It happens all the time. It was no big deal."

Glassey said the controversy over the pamphlets has nothing to do with the road-rage charges, and he said that the pamphlets represent a "minor" personnel matter that should have been kept private.

"I'm not upset because he's my son, I'm upset because it's an employee whose rights are being violated," said Glassey, who in 1997 said publicly that he wanted to get his son a summer job at the Atlantic City Expressway, which is operated by the South Jersey Transportation Authority, but ultimately heeded warnings that he would be criticized for nepotism.

Orlando rejected Glassey's allegations and said the pamphlet issue is secondary to the road-rage charges, one of which - the weapons offense - is a felony. The case has been forwarded to the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office, which is currently reviewing it.

"All the problems stem from one issue and that is the allegation that somebody fired a weapon at a moving vehicle," Orlando said. "It was not minor. On a regular basis there are road-rage incidents that do not escalate into the use of weapons. People may want to choose to call it political right now, but we're just going to call it extremely bad judgment and inappropriate conduct."

To e-mail Dan P. Lee at The Press: DLee@pressofac.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------