Milford woman charged in

N.J. township scandal By Rosa Kasper Vernon, N.J. — A Milford woman has been charged by Sussex County, N.J. authorities, in connection with the arrest of her boss, former Vernon Township Manager, Donald Teolis. In court papers Teolis is charged with multiple counts of falsifying records and misconduct in using some $20,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund private pleasure trips with Annette Yankalunas, 43, his alleged paramour. In addition, Teolis was charged with claiming reimbursements for college courses he never attended. Yankalunas, who was Teolis’ assistant, has been suspended from her township position. She is said to have accompanied him on trips to Texas, Florida, California, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, New York, and other locations. She was charged with falsifying records in connection with those junkets. Teolis, 51, left his township position last March. He disappeared following the December indictment and became a fugitive from justice. U.S. Customs officials and Port Authority police arrested Teolis at JFK Airport on Jan. 18, shortly after he disembarked from an American Airlines flight from Brussels, Belgium. He was held by New York City authorities under the Sussex County fugitive-from-justice warrant, county Prosecutor David Weaver said. If Teolis waives extradition from New York, he could be back in the county by the end of the week, Weaver said. His status as a fugitive from justice could affect the amount of bail the judge sets. Yankalunas’ attorney did not respond to telephone interview request at deadline. His client reportedly is now cooperating with prosecutors in the investigation. Teolis’ lawyer, Gerald E. Hanlon of Morristown, did not return calls. Hanlon reportedly had been trying unsuccessfully to negotiate terms of surrender for his client for the past several weeks. The investigation that led to Teolis’ arrest was a cooperative effort between the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service, Weaver explained. The prosecutor declined to say how long Teolis had been out of the county or what he had been doing in Belgium. Teolis apparently was unaware that he would be arrested after his flight landed. Saying he was relieved to learn of Teolis’s arrest, Vernon Mayor Austin Carew noted that neither he nor his fellow councilmen have inside information on the arrest. “We know just what everybody else knows,” Carew said. At a township meeting on Jan. 10, Councilman James Oroho called for an in-depth investigation to clear the “cloud of suspicion” hanging over town hall since Teolis was charged in December. The investigation into Teolis’ alleged misconduct began on Dec. 8, 2006, after then-newly appointed Councilman Oroho notified auditor Charles Ferraioli that in trying to understand how the township was spending its money, he had come across some dubious invoices. Teolis resigned from his $112,000 position on March 1, 2007 after working for six years as a township employee, the last two years as manager. His resignation came after Vernon police charged Teolis with beating his wife. She had filed a complaint against him. At the time, Teolis said that he was resigning “under duress” because he felt he couldn’t satisfy the requirements demanded by the new direction the council seemed to be going.