Former Hoboken IT Employee Denies Knowledge of Hacked Emails

Jonathan Cummins, the city’s former Information Technology official who was fired last year, denied all allegations that he forwarded any hacked emails to third parties—namely fire chief Richard Blohm and former Public safety Director Angel Alicea—during his testimony in administrative hearing in Newark Wednesday.

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

Cummins’ testimony concluded his three-day hearing, in which he appealed his termination from the city by claiming he was denied union representation during questioning in May 2011 by former city officials about his role in the matter.

Last year’s Federal Bureau of Investigation’s complaint against Ricciardi states that “Cummins, confessed to a Mayor's Employee that he had used the Archive File to download Intercepted E-Mails from the Mayor's e-mail account to the Archive File and then to forward those Intercepted E-Mails to several external e-mail accounts.”

On Wednesday, however, Cummins said he never confessed to anything.

“I did not confess falsely, I didn’t confess to anything,” Cummins testified. “I never told [the FBI] that I falsely confessed.”

Cummins’ testimony is at odds with the city’s position and testimonies from former city officials.

Both former Corporation Counsel Mark Tabakin and former Business Administrator Arch Liston said on the stand that Cummins confessed to leaking information to Alicea and Blohm.

While Cummins said he did have a friendly relationship with Alicea, he said he never forwarded him any confidential information.

“I’d forward anything I thought was funny,” Cummins said. To Blohm, he said, he’d forward “anti virus” emails.

On the stand, Cummins said he didn’t know what the initial questioning was about, and indicated it may involve “inappropriate” emails, such as jokes or party invitations.

Cummins worked for the city of Hoboken for approximately six years, he said, five of which Ricciardi was his boss. He and Ricciardi shared a small office on the third floor of city hall and helped all city employees with setting up their email accounts and providing them with passwords.

“I thought they were asking if I forwarded anything inappropriate,” Cummins said. “I didn’t know exactly what they were talking about.” Cummins indicated on the stand that Liston’s and Tabakin’s accounts of that May 17 meeting were false.

During the cross examination by the city’s attorney, Melissa Longo, Cummins repeatedly answered “no” to her questions, which included if he had any knowledge of the “archive file” on Ricciardi’s computer. 

“Did I know about the files? Absolutely not,” Cummins said.

While Cummins said that he and Ricciardi are friends—“we attend the same church”—Cummins said he hadn’t discussed the issue with Ricciardi and only sees him about once a week.

Ricciardi was supposed to appear in court as a witness on Wednesday but didn’t attend. Cummins’ defense attorney Marcia Tapia said that she wasn’t aware that Ricciardi’s criminal case was still under investigation. A testimony could jeopardize that, she said after the hearing.

Cummins said that Tabakin and Liston only asked him “general questions” on May 17, 2011 and that he didn’t immediately understand the severity of the situation.

The city’s witnesses disagree. 

“This,” Liston testified on Wednesday, “is the farthest thing from a misunderstanding.”