Jersey City school security guard charged with identity theft

Thursday, March 27, 2008

The price was wrong for a Jersey City school security guard who tried to make a purchase with an alleged fake credit card, authorities said.

Bryan Price, 40, a security officer at School 33 on Union Street, has been held in the DeKalb County Jail in Georgia, charged with identity theft for allegedly distributing counterfeit credit cards, since he was arrested in Georgia on March 1, according to Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio.

Price and his associates are suspected of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent activity, including buying electronic equipment and cashing phony credit card checks, DeFazio said.

Price was previously arrested early last year in Cortland County, N.Y., and pleaded guilty to possessing 28 counterfeit credit cards, authorities said.

Once Price's charges in Georgia are resolved, he will be brought to Hudson County and held on $200,000 bail, DeFazio said. He could face up to 10 years in state prison.

"He was alleged to be the leader of this conspiracy," said DeFazio, adding that Price has an extensive criminal record.

School district spokesman Gerard Crisonino said that if Price, a "longtime employee," is released, he would be transferred to a central office pending an investigation by the district's human resources department.

The district only performs background checks when an employee is first hired, and relies on law enforcement officials to learn about any subsequent criminal convictions, Crisonino said.

PAUL KOEPP

Is it true that they teach Identity Theft as a vocation in the Hudson County Vo-Tech School?