Former Wildwood mayor accused of abusing his position and tax evasion in new round of charges

The former mayor of Wildwood faces new criminal charges for allegedly abusing his official position while serving as a commissioner in the Shore town and for failing to pay state taxes.

The indictment, delivered by a New Jersey grand jury last week, is the latest in a series of criminal filings against Peter J. Byron, who resigned in September after he was sentenced for pleading guilty to tax fraud in federal court.

The seven-count indictment issued last Tuesday, accuses the 68-year-old of official misconduct, tampering with public records, falsifying or tampering with records, failure to pay tax, and filing a fraudulent return, according to a statement from the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General.

The most serious of those offenses, a second-degree official misconduct charge, carries a sentence of up to 10 years in state prison and a $150,000 fine.

Byron did not immediately return a request for comment.

The indictment was handed up on April 16, the day after Atlantic County prosecutors accused Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife of having physically and emotionally abused their teenage daughter on multiple occasions this winter.

For Byron, it’s the second case pursued by the office of New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin since the beginning of 2023. That includes another grand jury indictment, delivered last fall, over Byron’s alleged fraudulent participation in a state benefits program that cost taxpayers over $600,000.

“As alleged, the former mayor inappropriately used his power and influence for unlawful personal financial gain, betraying the public’s trust,” Platkin said Monday. “Elected officeholders are expected to serve the public, not use their authority to line their own pockets.”

For those who followed Byron’s federal case, some of the allegations raised in New Jersey’s latest indictment will be familiar.

State prosecutors allege that in 2017, Byron abused his position as Wildwood’s commissioner by requesting an unspecified job from a city attorney, and then failed to report the earnings from that New Jersey-based job to the state that year and in 2018.

Those allegations mirrored federal prosecutors’ accusations, which included Byron’s omission of over $40,000 in income from the consulting job he’d solicited. An unidentified Gloucester City lawyer, according to prosecutors, procured the job for Byron by establishing a new business with the state Department of Treasury and offering the then-commissioner a position, complete with a forged signature from the lawyer’s firm.

Byron pleaded guilty to those charges in March 2023. In August, a federal judge sentenced Byron to three years’ probation and ordered him to pay over $21,000 in fines.

After telling the federal judge in Camden that he was “humbled” by his courtroom experience, Byron had vowed to stay on as Wildwood’s mayor — and was met with fervent support from locals and allies despite his legal woes.

But the next month, Byron resigned with little explanation beyond what he wrote to an Inquirer reporter via text message:

“Politics sucks !! I was between a rock and a hard place. People who know me still believe in me.”

Meanwhile, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office announced in the fall that a Trenton jury had again indicted Byron and two others for allegedly fraudulently participating in the State Health Benefits Program by lying about working a full-time, 35-hour week.

For Byron, who had served on the three-member Wildwood commissioners board since 2011, that added up to $608,900 in premiums and claims, according to the Attorney General’s Office. He also was charged with official misconduct, theft by unlawful taking, tampering with public records and falsifying or tampering with records, in a case that remains pending.

A Superior Court judge had previously dismissed a similar indictment on what prosecutors said was a technicality. Platkin’s office later said the reindictment “demonstrates the sufficiency of the evidence supporting these charges and the validity of this case.”