New Jersey Department of Corrections recruits practice at a gun range where they receive firearms defensive tactics training. (Photo by N.J. Department of Corrections)
The lieutenant in charge of the state Department of Corrections’ gun ranges has been arrested and accused of stealing and selling millions of rounds of state-owned ammunition worth almost a half-million dollars.
Timothy John Morris, 56, of Bayville, was charged Tuesday with official misconduct, theft by unlawful taking, and structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements.
Morris, the agency’s range master since 2008, was responsible for managing its firing ranges, ordering ammunition, and maintaining an ammunition inventory, according to a criminal complaint.
Investigators found that since at least January 2019, he ordered excess ammunition to sell on the secondary market in exchange for cash and checks made directly to himself from a gun supply store, profiting more than $475,000 in the scheme, the complaint says. Case paperwork does not name the gun supply store, and it’s unclear if that store’s staff faces any penalties.
Authorities allege Morris hid his activity by reporting the payments as sales of taxpayer-funded ammunition and cashed checks at banks in separate transactions of under $10,000, which helped him dodge bank reporting requirements that might have flagged the deposits as suspicious, according to the complaint.
The arrest came after an investigation by the attorney general’s public integrity and accountability office, state police, and the Department of Corrections’ special investigations division.
“As the allegations in this case show, corruption is an expensive drain on public resources and victimizes taxpayers. My office refuses to accept that as business as usual,” Attorney General Matt Platkin said in a statement. “The defendant allegedly abused his law enforcement position to steal from the public and he tried to conceal it with financial transactions designed to fly under the radar.”
Morris, a former instructor in the department’s training academy, was suspended pending the outcome of the case. He was booked but released from the Ocean County Jail. He faces up to 25 years in prison and fines of up to $315,000 if convicted.
“Correctional police officers are sworn to uphold the law, and when they violate their oath it erodes public trust,” Department of Corrections Commissioner Victoria Kuhn said in a statement.
Morris has been a lieutenant since 2019, according to payroll records. His annual salary last year was almost $139,000, but overtime and other payments boosted his 2024 pay to $178,000, payroll records show.
The gun ranges he managed were Annandale in Hunterdon County, Browns Mills in Burlington County, Maurice River in Cumberland County, and the Corrections Staff Training Academy in Sea Girt — as well as at the Special Operations Group headquarters in Trenton, according to the criminal complaint.
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