IAPE Evidence Blog

The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jer­sey)
BYLINE: RALPH R. ORTEGA, STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Franklin Town­ship, NJ

A Franklin Town­ship police detective’s sui­cide ear­lier this year came after debt col­lec­tors, banks and credit card com­pa­nies demanded he pay thou­sands of dol­lars in debts that are detailed in judg­ments filed at the Som­er­set County Courthouse.

Author­i­ties who dis­cov­ered Detec­tive Peter William Fur­mick had taken almost $51,500 from an evi­dence room before he shot him­self March 13 said they were sad­dened to learn the vet­eran cop was in “des­per­ate finan­cial trouble.”

A police inves­ti­ga­tion found Fur­mick had 12 judg­ments total­ing $100,000 against him. At least 10 judg­ments, found by The Star-Ledger at the cour­t­house in Somerville this week, showed his trou­bles with money dat­ing back to 2004. The detec­tive paid one judg­ment demand­ing almost $9,300 he owed on a Dis­cover credit card, and had another judg­ment for almost $12,000 he owed to Citibank dismissed.

But the remain­der of his debts to other cred­i­tors, banks and even two debt col­lec­tion agen­cies totaled almost $76,000 when he died, accord­ing to com­put­er­ized records at the cour­t­house. Eight of the judg­ments remain out­stand­ing yesterday.

Fur­mick, 62, was a dec­o­rated offi­cer who served more than three decades on the Franklin force. He was remem-bered at his funeral for his devo­tion to police work, his love for his wife and four chil­dren, and a zest for life. The detec-tive had trav­eled to Europe and Africa, gone sky­div­ing, and was an avid sports­man. But inves­ti­ga­tors said they sus­pect his mount­ing debts were eat­ing away at Fur­mick, who tried to stall an attor­ney from col­lect­ing $16,300 from the evi­dence room after a munic­i­pal judge issued an order for the money March 12.

The attor­ney made sev­eral calls up to when Fur­mick shot him­self the fol­low­ing day, police said. “Obvi­ously Detec­tive Fur­mick knew he inevitably would have been caught,” said Lt. Robert Vorn­locker, who worked with the detec­tive for 23 years.

Inves­ti­ga­tors said they found two empty evi­dence envelopes for $2,690 and $880 among Furmick’s per­sonal belong­ings at his home in south­ern Franklin. They also said Fur­mick had been in charge of stand­ing in the evi­dence room vault for its annual audit in 2007, and had insisted on hold­ing on to the job for this year’s audit.

Secu­rity has since been beefed up. How­ever, the evi­dence room was already up to stan­dards set by the state Attor­ney General’s Office when Fur­mick was believed to have taken the cash, police said. “The sys­tem in place worked,” said Vorn­locker with dis­ap­point­ment over Furmick’s behavior.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment“
www.IAPE.org

Home News Tri­bune (East Brunswick, New Jersey)

Franklin Town­ship, NJ

The town­ship has set­tled a law­suit it filed against the estate of Detec­tive William Fur­mick, who com­mit­ted sui­cide in his office nearly a year ago.

The law­suit claimed that Furmick’s wife, Carol, was cov­ered under the officer’s med­ical insur­ance after the cou­ple divorced. An inves­ti­ga­tion con­ducted by Hori­zon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jer­sey, which pro­vided Furmick’s health insur­ance, deter­mined that Fur­mick and his wife had divorced in March 1993.

The offi­cer never noti­fied the town­ship of the change in his mar­i­tal sta­tus.  Between the time of the divorce and Furmick’s sui­cide on March 13, 2008, the town­ship paid $88,008 in insur­ance pre­mi­ums for Fur­mick, his ex-wife and chil­dren. Had Fur­mick dis­closed that he was no longer mar­ried, the town­ship would have been required to pay $47,309. There­fore, the town­ship paid in pre­mi­ums $40,698 more than it should have, accord­ing to a civil action filed in state Supe­rior Court, Somerville.

The law­suit alleged that Fur­mick and his ex-wife “fraud­u­lently and inten­tion­ally deceived the town­ship as to their mar­i­tal sta­tus for a period of 15 years.” Franklin Town­ship ini­tially sought to recover the $40,698 plus attorney’s fees, but has autho­rized a set­tle­ment of $20,000 with the estate. Town­ship offi­cials declined to com­ment on the law­suit or the settlement.

Fur­mick, 62, shot him­self in the head after inves­ti­ga­tors found that the dec­o­rated 33-year offi­cer had stolen more than $51,000 from the police department’s evi­dence room. After his sui­cide, police dis­cov­ered that Fur­mick was in des­per­ate finan­cial trou­ble, with 12 civil judg­ments against him, total­ing more than $100,000. His wages also were being gar­nisheed, leav­ing lit­tle money for liv­ing expenses.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment“
www.IAPE.org