A no-no for Jo-Jo Joseph Merla charged in connection with missing trash bins BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer KEYPORT - Richard Jones was simply cleaning out his property and piling the waste into trash bins when the cleanup got complicated by a trash hauler who refused to retrieve the refuse the hauler said contained hazardous materials. Now Jones, along with his friend Joseph "Jo Jo" Merla and a third unnamed man, are being charged with theft and conspiracy to commit theft for allegedly stealing the trash receptacles from Colts Neck-based Sakoutis Bros. Disposal According to Keyport Detective Sgt. Kevin J. Cassidy, who was writing the report on the case as he was being interviewed, the incident began on Jan. 26 when Jones first rented the trash Dumpsters from Sakoutis Bros. Disposal to hold refuse cleared from his property. Fast-forward to when a Sakoutis truck arrived to pick up the bins and the driver said that because there was hazardous waste mixed in with the refuse, he could not retrieve the Dumpsters. "When it came time to pick the garbage up, the driver said there was asbestos in there and he could not take it," Cassidy said. "It was mixed in with the other stuff, which made it hazardous material." According to Cassidy, Jones called his friend Merla to help him dispose of the waste in the Dumpsters and then help him bring the trash receptacles back to his property. "Joe said, 'Yeah, no problem' and in turn calls a second hauler," Cassidy said. "So that gentleman gets his truck, picks up the Dumpsters, drops the load wherever and takes the Dumpsters back to Merla's house, then back to Jones." Meanwhile, Cassidy said, a representative from Sakoutis Bros. Disposal came to Jones' house on Feb. 28 looking for the Dumpsters that had been taken two days earlier. When he saw that there were no Dumpsters on the premises, he called police who in turn calledMerla asking where the bins were, to which, according to Cassidy, Merla responded that he had the Dumpsters. "He wasn't trying to hide it," Cassidy said. "He just didn't take the proper action." Cassidy said that when the bins were returned, the "identifiers" on the containers had been painted over so that it could not be identified when the contents were being disposed of. The owner of Sakoutis Bros. Disposal came to Keyport police headquarters and wanted to press charges after giving a statement, he said. Keyport police interviewed both Merla and Jones, who Cassidy said were cooperative in giving their statements. "It pretty much borne out, cut and dry," Cassidy said. "The Dumpsters were supposed to be in one place and were in another place." Police are not releasing the name of the third person who helped to haul the Dumpsters at this time. According to Cassidy, that hauler also will be charged with conspiracy, theft and criminal mischief. Cassidy said that the police still do not know where the contents of the bins were dumped. Merla and Jones, who both once worked for Bulkhead Construction, could be sentenced to up to three years in prison and fined if convicted, according to Cassidy. The Dumpster incident occurred two weeks before Merla was due in federal court for sentencing on corruption charges. In September he pleaded guilty to laundering $65,000 during the FBI's Operation Bid Rig investigation. According to court records, Merla was to be sentenced on March 14, but sentencing was postponed two months to allow him to continue his cooperation with federal authorities. For those charges, Merla faces a possible penalty of 12 to 18 months in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. Joseph Merla is the brother of former Keyport Mayor John Merla, who is currently serving a 22-month sentence in a federal penitentiary John Merla was sentenced on Oct. 23, 2007, three years after his arrest for accepting $23,000 in bribes from undercover FBI informants during Operation Bid Rig. He began serving his sentence Jan. 8.