Former NJ corrections officer sentenced for killing pedestrian
The 2022 crash killed 69-year-old Old Bridge resident Harvey Berse on Route 9 near Ferry Road.
A former state corrections officer who ran down an Old Bridge man on Route 9 more than four years ago has been sentenced to five years in prison, according to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
John DeTulio, 41, of Freehold, pleaded guilty Sept. 3, 2025, to second-degree vehicular manslaughter for the January 2022 crash, Middlesex County Prosecutor Linda Estremera said in a statement.
DeTulio, then a senior correctional officer at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, had been driving on Route 9 “at a high rate of speed and under the influence of alcohol” at about 1:30 a.m. that day when he struck and killed pedestrian Harvey Berse, 69, of Old Bridge, near Ferry Road.
Several other vehicles reportedly hit Berse, who died at the scene, according to news accounts. Police arrested DeTulio the following month.
He later pleaded guilty, and Judge James Hoebich of Middlesex County Superior Court sentenced DeTulio to prison Aug. 28.
DeTulio must serve 85% of his sentence before being eligible for parole, Estremera said. The judge also suspended his license for nine years.
The state Department of Corrections fired DeTulio in 2022 for the crime, according to the New Jersey attorney general’s Major Discipline Report from that year.
Steve Janoski is an award-winning investigative journalist with nearly two decades of experience covering criminal justice, policing, courts, government, and politics. His reporting has exposed corruption, government malfeasance, and police misconduct. His work has appeared in the New York Post, USA Today, The Associated Press, The Record, and the Asbury Park Press. At The Jersey Vindicator, he covers criminal justice. Reach Steve at steve AT jerseyvindicator.org.