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Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ) December 20, 2003 Section: Region Edition: Atlantic, Cape May & Ocean Page: B1 JOB STATUS UNCLEAR FOR HIGHWAY WORKER IN PAINTBALL INCIDENT DAN P. LEE Staff Writer, (609) 272-7209 Jason Glassey met with highway authority officials in a closed-door disciplinary hearing Friday. He is suspended after being arrested in connection with a road-rage incident. A Garden State Parkway toll collector who faces a criminal charge stemming from an off-duty road-rage incident will have to wait to find out whether he will keep his $44,452-a-year job. Egg Harbor Township resident Jason Glassey, who state highway officials also allege acted improperly while on the job in handing motorists parkway pamphlets he marked up to mock the governor and a highway executive, met with officials Friday in a closed-door disciplinary hearing. Joe Orlando, a spokesman for the state highway authority, said the hearing was a preliminary one provided for in union contracts and said that no decision about whether Glassey will lose his job has been made. He declined to discuss details of the hearing - which involved Glassey, 31, a union representative and an authority hearing officer - citing confidentiality rules that protect personnel matters. Glassey, son of Stanley R. Glassey - vice chairman of the South Jersey Transportation Authority and a Republican Egg Harbor Township committeeman - was arrested on the parkway in November on his way home from work at the Cape May toll plaza after allegedly pulling out a paintball gun and shooting the side of a van that he said cut him off. He was charged with a traffic violation and with possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, a felony. A representative of the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office said the case against Glassey is being reviewed for possible presentation to a grand jury. Glassey was immediately suspended without pay from his job as a result of the road-rage incident. At the same time, highway authority officials opened an internal investigation that uncovered the defaced pamphlets, which the officials allege Glassey had been distributing to motorists from his tollbooth. The pamphlets - which included parkway maps - featured pictures of Gov. James E. McGreevey and parkway executive Timothy McDonough that Glassey allegedly marked up with black eyes, glasses, mustaches and the like, and also sprinkled with expletives. Orlando said both the road-rage charges and the distribution of the pamphlets, if true, are grounds for dismissal, although he said Friday's hearing focused on the road-rage charges. To e-mail Dan P. Lee at The Press: DLee@pressofac.com Copyright, 2003, South Jersey Publishing Company t/a The Press of Atlantic City |