Asbury Park Press
May 4, 2005
KATHY MATHESON, JAMES A. QUIRK
and JAMES W. PRADO ROBERTS
Some excerpts of the most recent interview Anthony Spalliero
gave to the Asbury Park Press:
"There's nothing wrong with going to a go-go bar!"
Spalliero said many local politicians go to his go-go bars.
"But I can't mention names. The wives maybe don't like
that idea. So I can't do that."
So, why do so many politicians like go-go bars?
"I guess for the entertainment and the fun. You got to
relax some time, right? They're not going to a go-go bar to
pick up girls, that's out of the question."
"Those girls make a lot of money. They don't need to
be prostitutes. . . . Most of them go to school, put themselves
through college. I know one who became a doctor. Another is
a lawyer in Staten Island — they put themselves through
school. They're not whores, like everyone thinks."
"Even Broderick — somebody went up to him and said
will you do this to make $5,000? The guy probably said of
course, what do I have to do? I would probably do the same
thing — cash a check, you give me cash? What's wrong
with that?"
About the arrest of Thomas Broderick, a onetime Marlboro councilman
and more recently a supervisor in the county Division of Highways
who was charged with helping to launder more than $10,000.
"I knew his brother real good, Tony Steffer."
Spalliero said the FBI's cooperating witness, Robert "Duke"
Steffer, and his brother "used to own a concrete company.
The father left it to them. Tony Steffer got run over by a
tractor-trailer in Keansburg years ago, maybe 15-18 years
ago."
At Tony Steffer's funeral, Spalliero spoke to the brother
and asked him why he wasn't going to carry on with his father's
business.
"He said everybody was stealing this and that. He said
he got involved in a lot of deals in Florida and then the
FBI came in and now he's working for the FBI. And about seven
or eight years ago, he all of a sudden sprang out of Asbury
Park, bought new equipment, dump trucks, all pink color —
you couldn't believe it, it was like a joke."
