kirkeady

Kirk Eady

(unknown)

The deputy director of the Hudson County jail was indicted by a grand jury yesterday on charges that he illegally wiretapped fellow employees at the jail, authorities said yesterday.

In January, Kirk Eady, 46, was charged with using a website between March and July 2012 to place telephone calls to four Hudson County jail employees. The website allowed Eady to conceal the telephone numbers from where the calls originated and also call and record two people simultaneously.

The site also made it appear that those people, and not Eady, originated the call.

Eady, who has worked at the jail for more than 24 years, recorded these telephone conversations and did not inform the Hudson County Correctional Center employees that he was recording them, federal prosecutors said.

They also claim Eady, of East Brunswick, admitted to a cooperating witness that he had recorded conversations with three employees. According to court documents, Eady, a former Hudson County high school basketball star, recorded the employees without their permission.

Eady, who was earning $120,000 a year before he was suspended, told the cooperating witness that one of the jail employees he recorded had been operating a website on which derogatory comments about Eady were made.

The illegal interception offense with which Eady is charged is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In late February Eady filed retirement papers.

In March 2013, federal authorities seized two computers, an external hard drive, and bank account statements from Eady's office and also went to his home, The Jersey Journal reported at the time.