Edison cop sentenced to probation for shoplifting

David Yanvary (File Photo / MyCentralJersey)

By KEN SERRANO
STAFF WRITER

EDISON — A disgraced Edison detective, on the force for 29 years before being sentenced to a year of probation for shoplifting while in uniform, was penalized in being granted his pension — by less than $200 a month.

The Police and Fire Retirement System board approved David Yanvary's pension of $6,337 a month. He otherwise would have received $6,535 a month, said Tom Bell, a spokesman for the state Department of Treasury.

The "honorable service review'' was held on Jan. 11.

The board ruled that Yanvary's forfeiture of service — the pension time he was penalized — would extend from August 2008 to his effective retirement date of Sept. 1, 2009, Bell said.

Yanvary did not return calls left at his home.

Yanvary, 55, was working an off-duty security detail arranged through the Edison Police Department on March 17, 2009 when he walked out of the Route 1 store with $42 worth of items he failed to pay for, mixed in with merchandise he purchased, authorities said. He was in his Edison police uniform at the time.

Prosecutors said he stole a bottle of ShopRite canola oil, a fragrant candle, a container of Golden Blossom honey and the DVD "Role Models,' a comedy about energy drink salesmen who perform community service working with teen-agers instead of doing prison time after a brush with the law.

Surveillance video recorded Yanvary taking the items. A security manager confronted him outside the store, prosecutors said.

Yanvary technically forfeited his $113,000-a-year job as an Edison police officer and cannot hold public employment in New Jersey again. He pleaded guilty to the disorderly persons offense on Aug. 10, 2009, and was sentenced by Judge Frederick DeVesa in Superior Court, New Brunswick on Oct. 20.