Community Corner

Competency Hearing Delayed Until June 23

Physician unavailable to testify at hearing Thursday.

A competency hearing for the owner of the Top Soil Depot site has been delayed until June 23.

The hearing was scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday. It was pushed back because one of the three doctors slated to testify regarding Rombough’s mental health was not available, said Lee Moore, a spokesman for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.

At a May 18, Superior Court Judge Margaret Mary McVeigh ordered Allan Rombough Sr., to undergo a battery of tests to see if has the mental capacity to remember and understand court orders to stay away from and the remediate the 12-acre property. Rombough testified at the hearing that he has difficulty with his memory.

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A determination on Rombough’s mental capacity could be announced at the hearing June 23. If found to be competent, criminal charges could be brought against him immediately following the hearing. Rombough was to pay a $262,000 bond by yesterday.

The state is alleging that Rombough and his son Allan Rombough Jr. illegally accepted as much as 22,000 yards of fill and waste since 2009 and left it on the property. They violated a court order to remain off the property May 12. A state Department of Environmental Protection said he observed Rombough and his son remove documents from storage bins in the company’s on-site facility and place them into a garbage bin.

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Rombough Jr. was supposed to attend the May 18 hearing but did not because he is enrolled in an alcohol-treatment program. He was arrested on a bench warrant May 19.

David DeClement, the Romboughs' attorney, did not return phone messages seeking comment Thursday afternoon.


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