Former IT Official Wins Job Back After Hacking Allegations Dismissed

All charges against Jonathan Cummins — the city's former IT official who was fired in May 2011 and accused of forwarding hacked emails to third parties — have been dismissed by Administrative Judge Evelyn Marose.

"She could not find him guilty," said Marcia Tapia, Cummins' attorney, in a phone interview on Thursday morning.

Marose ruled that Cummins is entitled to get his job as an agency aide back,  effective immediately, and that he will receive back pay for the two years he hasn't worked for the city as well as attorney fees, Tapia said. 

The judge's ruling will now come in front of the Civil Service Comission — which has the power to approve, modify or reject it — for a final decision. 

Tapia said it's still unclear how much money Cummins would receive.

City Spokesman Juan Melli said that the city "doesn't comment on personnel matters."

Cummins was the assistant to former IT director Patrick Ricciardi, who was arrested in November 2011 for breaching the city’s email system and forwarding confidential emails between Mayor Dawn Zimmer and her closest aides to third parties.

Former city administrators Mark Tabakin and Arch Liston testified during hearings in October of last year and claimed that Cummins had knowledge of what Ricciardi was doing. Liston and Tabakin both testified that on May 17, 2011, Cummins confessed to forwarding the hacked emails.

On the stand, Liston told the judge that the third parties to whom the emails were distributed were former Public Safety Director Angel Alicea and Fire Chief Richard Blohm.

During the hearings last year, Cummins countered that Tabakin and Liston only asked him “general questions” on that day and that he didn’t immediately understand the severity of the situation. Cummins maintained that he was not involved and never forwarded any hacked emails to third parties.

According to Marose's ruling, the testimonies by Tabakin and Liston "lacked credibility. " 

"Hoboken presented no actual evidence that Cummins was responsible for the email leaks or any writing or recording which corroborates the claim that he confessed to the charged conduct," Marose's decision states.

The judge further concluded that Cummins' testimony about his questioning by Tabakin and Liston was "credible."

"I conclude that Hoboken failed to meet its burden," Marose's decision states, "of demonstrating, by a preponderance of the credible evidence, that Cummins is guilty of any wrongdoing in connection with the alleged email breach."