If Leonard Scalzo had to do it all over again, he would.

“It was the right thing to do,” he said. “It’s ruined my life, but it was the right thing to do.”

That right thing was testifying in court against Jahmell Crockham, who fatally shot Lakewood police officer Christopher Matlosz while he sat in his patrol car on Jan. 14, 2011. Crockham was convicted first-degree murder a year later and is serving a life sentence. He subsequently pleaded guilty to the earlier murder of Justin Williams, a 20-year-old gunned down in 2010.

“I knew the way he shot Chris, he had killed before,” Scalzo said. “He was so nonchalant. He just walked up and shot him. He had a smile on his face, like he was making history.”

Leonard and Denise Scalzo both witnessed the shooting; Denise from the front porch of their home and Leonard from nearly point-blank range.

“I was right there,” he said. “I could see the sparks flying and everything. After he shot Chris once, he pointed the gun right at me, right in my face. But Chris was flailing around, so he turned back and – boom! boom! – he shot him twice more, just like that.”

Scalzo screamed to his wife to get in the house and lock the door, as he ran through high snow banks and dove over his backyard fence.

“I didn’t know if he was coming after me or what. But I guess he took off. I’ll tell you what though, I’ll never forget that guy’s face and that’s what I told the cops.”

Since the night of the shooting, the Scalzos have been serving a sentence of their own. Not in jail, but in a constant state of flight and financial freefall. The couple has moved three times and they still fear retaliation. They did not want their pictures taken for this column and asked that the town they live in not be disclosed.

“We were told, ‘This is gang-related and we can’t protect you in your house,’ ” Denise Scalzo said. “We had one night to get our personal belongings. That was it. We were put in witness protection.”

They say that while in witness protection, their house fell into disrepair and, when it finally sold, they lost all of their equity.

“At one point, the house was valued at $385,000,” Denise Scalzo said. “We ended up selling it for $200,000. We lost everything.”

They also have incurred medical expenses, including psychological counseling.

“To see a man just murdered like that,” she said. “And it turns out we knew him. He was friends with our daughter. A group of them had just returned from vacation.”

Add in the Lakewood taxes they paid on their vacant home while in hiding – “I called city hall, they wouldn’t talk to me,” Leonard Scalzo said – and rent they had to cover beyond the witness protection allotment – “Where are you going to go on $1,500 (a month)?” Denise Scalzo said – and their civic duty has cost them about $300,000.

To top it off, the Scalzos have only been offered $2,500 of the $144,000 reward posted for information leading to Crockham’s arrest and conviction.

“I didn’t care about the reward,” Leonard said. “I didn’t even know about it. But when I found out the money was out there … hey, we could use some help here.”

So why aren’t they getting any? Good question. They met the criteria of “arrest and conviction,” the boiler plate language used for such rewards.

In a memo from Lakewood Det. Lt. Steve Allaire to Chief Robert Lawson, Allaire writes “Mr. Scalzo was instrumental in this case which resulted in the arrest and conviction” of Crockham.

A letter from Ocean County Chief Assistant Prosecutor William J. Heisler to the Scalzos’ first attorney, Robert Honecker, said the Scalzos “were instrumental in the investigation and prosecution of this case.”

Denise Scalzo said paid a lawyer $7,500 to help them navigate the reward system but only ended up with a promise of $2,500 from the National Police Defense Foundation.

Their case is now in the hands of Nicholas Pompelio, who is in practice with his father, Richard Pompelio, the former chairman of the state’s crime victim’s compensation board.

Nicholas Pompelio filed suit against the state’s Policemen’s Benevolent Association in August, saying the PBA reneged on its promise of the reward.

“We want to know where all the money went,” Richard Pompelio said. “The PBA said, in several news reports, that donations were pouring in from all these agencies. Where did the money go? If the Scalzos didn’t get it, who did?”

A Star-Ledger report in the days after the shooting quoted PBA officials saying the reward had grown to $144,300, with contributions coming in from the FBI ($50,000), the National Police Defense Foundation ($10,000), the State Police Chiefs Association ($10,000) and local PBA chapters.

Last week, Doreen Holder, a spokesperson for the FBI in Newark said the agency had no record of offering a reward of any kind for Matlosz's killer.

In the article, former PBA president Anthony Wieners says, “Let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind that police across New Jersey will generate the financial and manpower resources to track down this cold-blooded killer … He has no idea what family member, friend or enemy will give him up for that kind of money.”

Scalzo that said when he called Wieners after the Crockham’s conviction, he was dismissive.

“You know what he said to me? He said, ‘What are you calling me for?’ ’’ Scalzo said.

Calls to Wieners were not returned, but current PBA president Patrick Colligan said his organization’s portion of the total reward was $10,000 and the PBA is willing to make good on it.

“If they want to come in tomorrow, they can pick up the check,” he said. “That’s the proudest check I’ll ever write.”

But Colligan said the Scalzos, or anyone else seeking rewards, must go to the individual agencies pledging the money.

“I don’t know what else to say, that’s the way it works,” he said. “We have the money we pledged ready for them; the integrity of our program is important to us. We make good on our promises.”

Richard Pompelio said it shouldn’t be up to a witness or tipster to track down all the money.

“We want to find out what goes on with these rewards,” he said. “The PBA essentially says they collect the money from these other agencies,” Is it reasonable to ask people who have risked their lives to bring criminals to justice to chase down $500 here and $1,000 there? I don’t think it is.”

Or as Denise Scalzo put it: “We witnessed a crime and now, I feel like we’re the victims.”

Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.