UPDATED: Hayden urged to leave office

The Sussex County Republican Committee is urging county Commissioner William Hayden to resign his office after he was accused of lying about serving in the military.

“Our shared evaluation indicates that Commissioner Hayden has not been forthright regarding his military service and has demonstrated a lack of integrity in dealings with his supporters and colleagues since his election,” the committee said in a statement late Thursday afternoon, Feb. 29.

“After confirming various accounts from individuals who have known him for years, family relations through marriage and our own direct experiences where he informed Sussex County Republican leaders, numerous volunteers and elected officials and claimed in public meetings to have combat experience, we found Freedom of Information Act requests showing he was never a Navy SEAL or served in the Naval Service. We conclude that he has disrespected all veterans and misrepresented himself to our party and the public.”

A separate statement from state Sen. Parker Space and Assembly members Dawn Fantasia and Mike Inganamort, all R-24, echoed the Republican Committee’s position.

“We ... call upon Commissioner William Hayden to do the honorable thing and resign from the Sussex County Board of County Commissioners. Unfortunately, Commissioner Hayden has disgraced himself by his actions and words and as such has lost the public’s trust.

“He needs to do right by our veterans and those currently serving in the armed forces, the voters who supported him, Sussex County government and the Sussex County Republican Committee and leave office immediately.”

Tax exemptions

Copies of Hayden’s tax returns show that he claimed a veteran exemption in 2018 and 2019.

Gail Just-Cornelius, a retired New Jersey State Police detective, contacted the state’s tax fraud division last week to formally request an investigation of Hayden’s state income tax filings.

“I have known Bill for years through our involvement in the Skylands Tea Party and local Sussex County Republican politics in general,” said Just-Cornelius, who in 1975 became the first female state trooper in New Jersey history. “I went to the New Jersey State Tax Fraud Division last week because while he has repeatedly claimed exemptions due to veteran status on his tax returns, he has been unable to produce a DD-214 form, which is proof of military service,”

During an election night event for Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli in 2021, Hayden described his time serving on SEAL Team Six, she said.

“Knowing he had served as a Navy SEAL, I told him that my son had served in Afghanistan and Iraq as a member of the National Guard. Then Bill told me about his time in SEAL Team Six. He said he served in Mogadishu (Somalia) and as security at our embassy in Colombia, during which time he helped take down Pablo Escobar. He said he had been injured and shot while taking part in numerous secret missions and that he had even received the Medal of Valor after saving half of his unit. I was impressed and even cut him a check during his race.”

Just-Cornelius said she and countless others active in Sussex County politicz had little reason to doubt Hayden’s stories.

According to other sources who have known Hayden for many years, including Fantasia and Sussex County Republican Committee Vice Chairwoman Barbara Holstein, he was viewed favorably by just about everyone, in large part because of his claims of serving on SEAL Team Six in the Navy.

However, as the years went by, his stories of service started to seem exaggerated or untrue, they said.

Fantasia recalled being on stage with Hayden and others at the county’s Salute to Veterans event Nov. 5 at the county fairgrounds to read a resolution honoring the 300 veterans and their family members there.

“On stage with me was Sussex County Commissioner Jill Space and Commissioner Hayden, and Jill had asked me to read the resolution. But as I thought about it, I thought Bill should read it because he was an actual veteran or so we thought. He was always alluding to his time in the military. As a result, I told him he should be the one to read it, but he declined,” she said.

“So I decided I should personally recognize him in front of everyone. I asked him which branch he served in, and he said Navy. Prior to reading the resolution, I personally thanked the veterans in the crowd, and I also recognized Commissioner Bill Hayden, who was right next to me on the stage, for his service in the United States Navy. As the crowd cheered Bill for his service, he just stood there and accepted it.”

Fantasia said that as Hayden’s stories seemed to get wilder, some began doubting them.

“People began asking questions, especially when he began telling us he was part of the mission that took out Pablo Escobar,” she said. “Then, one day, his (soon-to-be) ex-wife told me he had never served in the military, and I suddenly realized why he never touted the fact he was a veteran while running for office.”

Wife grows suspicious

Hayden’s estranged wife, Jocelyn, said her suspicions grew and eventually she contacted Donald Shipley, a retired Navy SEAL who makes a living exposing cases of stolen valor, when people falsely claiming military awards or medals they did not earn or service they did not perform.

“I was stunned to find out he had been lying to me for so long,” she said. “He even had scars on his body he told me were bullet wounds. For years, he told me had served in SEAL Team Six. It was always SEAL Team Six.”

Paul Breslin, who has been working on tax returns for three decades in his Montague office, said anyone claiming veteran status, as Hayden did on more than one return, is making it clear that they served in the military.

“Anyone who claims veterans exemption is telling the state of New Jersey that they are a veteran and their taxable income should be reduced by that veterans exemption as far as calculating the taxable income,” he said.

In response to inquiries about his client’s service and income tax returns, Hayden’s attorney, Robert Kovic, said Hayden never claimed to have served in the Navy and that “he doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone.”

At the Feb. 14 meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, the other four members voted to censure Hayden after board director Jill Space, who is married to Parker Space, said he had failed to disclose to law enforcement and others threats of physical violence against other elected officials, including her and her family.

Kovic, who was replaced as executive director of the Sussex County Republican Committee on Sunday, March 3, had disputed the charges in Space’s resolution.

At the board’s meeting Wednesday, Feb. 28, Hayden said that since he raised questions about the finances of the county Division of Social Services’ food pantry at the Dec. 13 meeting, “I have been on the receiving end of a highly organized campaign of official, political and personal attacks and harassment.

”I have been threatened by my party, which told me to stop asking questions about the food pantry. ... My colleagues attacked and censured me. ... And a whisper campaign was organized for the express purpose not only of forcing me out of office but driving me out of the county.”