Teen charged in incident at motor vehicle office
By charles w. kim
Staff Writer

Edmund Luciano

EDISON — A Sayreville teen is facing charges after an altercation with Councilman Edmund Luciano in the Edison DMV office in May.

Edison police arrested the 17-year-old juvenile at 1:20 p.m. on July 1 on simple assault and terroristic threat charges, according to Patrolman Robert Dudash of the Edison police.

Luciano, a South Brunswick councilman, is the manager of that Motor Vehicle Commission (formerly Division of Motor Vehicles) office, located on Kilmer Road in Edison.

According to Dudash, the juvenile went to the office on May 21 to conduct business but did not have the proper forms of identification.

"The documents were not acceptable to DMV standards. They refused them," Dudash said.

The juvenile then raised his voice to the attendant handling the transaction.

"Luciano came to the defense of the attendant, and words were exchanged," Dudash said.

According to police, the verbal altercation continued out into the parking lot.

Police were called to the office at 1:50 p.m., but Dudash could not say who called police to the scene.

According to police, a family member of the juvenile signed a complaint against Luciano for making terroristic threats and simple assault.

Luciano then signed a counter complaint charging the juvenile with the same.

Dudash said that the reports made on the incident were "vague" as to why either party charged simple assault.

Luciano said Tuesday night that he has asked that the charges against the juvenile be dropped several times since the incident.

According to Luciano, the juvenile was cursing at the attendant just before he interceded.

Luciano said the agency employees should not have to tolerate that sort of behavior.

"My staff should not have to put up with that," Luciano said.

Luciano said that the juvenile put his hands on him three times during the incident.

Because of the juvenile’s age, Edison police did not release his name.

Dudash said the complaints will be heard as two separate proceedings in court because of the boy’s age.

"Juvenile [cases are] different," Dudash said.

Luciano said the court cases are still pending.