Tax assessor sentenced in child porn case
Former employee gets 5 years probation, can never hold public job
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer

NEW BRUNSWICK - A former Metuchen tax assessor who watched child pornography at work has been barred from ever holding a public job again.

State Superior Court Judge Frederick P. DeVesa also sentenced Walker J. Matlack, 53, Long Branch to five years probation. Matlack is to have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16 as a condition of probation, according to the Oct. 20 sentencing.

Matlack pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of children and official misconduct on Sept. 11.

He served as Metuchen tax assessor from January 2005 until his resignation.

Mayor Edmund O'Brien said he felt the sentence was appropriate and that Matlack should never hold a public job again.

"That's the most important part of the sentence, that he is excluded from people's homes," the mayor said. "Tax assessors go into people's homes."

Matlack became the subject of a probe by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office in May 2005 following an investigation by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement into fee-based subscriptions to child pornography Web sites.

Monmouth investigators determined that Matlack had accessed and viewed child pornography Web sites on his home computer, authorities said.

Matlack pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, a fourth degree crime, in Superior Court in Freehold on June 28. He was sentenced to two years probation for the Monmouth offenses, just hours before he was sentenced to the Middlesex County charges.

Metuchen officials were notified about Matlack's Monmouth County arrest and guilty plea in July.

O'Brien said he received a call from the police department at 4 p.m. on a Monday, several hours before a Borough Council meeting.

"We were going to suspend him the very next day, and he resigned before we could do anything," he said.

Child pornography was found on Matlack's computer in borough hall after his resignation, while his office was being prepared for his successor.

O'Brien said his first reaction was "shock" when he heard the news.

But the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office should have notified Metuchen and the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office sooner, the mayor said.

"That was the thing that most concerned me," O'Brien said. "He was in our employ all the time while the Monmouth prosecutor knew he had pleaded guilty to these offenses. I know the Middlesex County prosecutor was not a very happy camper about this and certainly conveyed our feelings."

Matlack wasn't in Metuchen long enough to "get a real handle on him," the mayor said.

"He came from Clark with a recommendation," he said. "That's the only thing you can base your judgment on."

Matlack's attorney, Richard M. Keil, declined to comment on the matter.