Ventnor code enforcement officer charged with official misconduct
Authorities alleged Michelle Calderon, 37, took more than $91,000 in cash for permit fees from residents and kept it for herself.
VENTNOR, N.J. — A Ventnor code enforcement officer was arrested Tuesday and charged with taking $91,199 in cash transactions for permit fees from businesses and residents and keeping the money for herself, the county prosecutor’s office said.
She then fixed the balance sheets “to cover up the discrepancies,” prosecutors said.
The Atlantic County prosecutor said in a news release that Michelle Calderon, 37, of Egg Harbor Township, was charged with a pattern of official misconduct, official misconduct, altering computer software to commit theft, and misapplication of entrusted property. All were second-degree offenses.
In an affidavit of probable cause obtained by The Inquirer, law enforcement officials say the offenses were recorded on surveillance camera. The cash payments were embezzled from payments for “building, housing, parking, zoning, fooding and dumpster permits,” the affidavit said.
Calderon was observed on surveillance footage bringing documentation from the building and housing department to the finance office at the end of her shifts, the affidavit said.
“After comparing the paper copy of the Excel sheets and the original Excel computer copy it shows that the cash revenue was removed from the paper copy,” the affidavit said.
Calderon could not be reached for comment. She has a hearing scheduled for Sept. 18 before Superior Court Judge Pamela D’Arcy in Atlantic County.
The release said the investigation began when city officials “observed a discrepancy within its financial ledgers,” leading to a one-day shutdown of the code enforcement office in June.
Prosecutors alleged that between 2021 and 2023, Calderon took cash transactions intended as payments for various city permits and “kept the cash for herself.”
“She would then alter the balance sheets using a city-owned computer to cover up the discrepancies,” the release said. The total amount of cash, the release said, “exceeds $75,000.”
The investigation was conducted jointly by the county prosecutor’s office of Professional Standards & Accountability Unit and the Ventnor City Police Department.
Mayor Lance Landgraf did not immediately return a request for comment.