Matthew Scannapieco, 71, was ordered on Friday, Sept. 4, 2015, to register as a sex offender and to have no contact with the victim after pleading guilty in May of that year to continuous sexual abuse of a child, rape and unlawful sexual contact, according to court records.
At that time, Kean Jr. was the Minority Leader of the New Jersey State Senate. Scannapieco admitted that he had sexual contact with a female child relative 50 to 60 times between 2006 and 2008, in a pattern of abuse that began when the girl was six.
He pleaded guilty to the repeated sexual abuse of the child, first-degree rape and unlawful sexual contact in the first degree.
Former Marlboro Township Mayor Matthew Scannapieco is a Republican whose career ended in severe legal and criminal disgrace because he took bribes and raped a child
Kean Jr. was the Minority Leader of the New Jersey State Senate, but on the Friday immediately before the Labor Day holiday weekend, the New Jersey Legislature was not in session, and no legislative hearings or votes were held that day.
Kean Jr. refused to sign the bipartisan discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the documents about Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased serial sex abuser and trafficker, but after President Donald Trump reversed his opposition, he joined 427 House members passing legislation requiring their public release.
Kean has not spoken out about the FBI’s failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, although victims of Epstein’s serial sex abuse and trafficking have reprimanded the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for releasing documents with massive redactions, leaving millions of pages unreviewed, and prematurely declaring their legal obligations fulfilled.
Kean has also not joined as a sponsor of legislation that gives standing to state attorneys general, the victims of Epstein and his co-conspirators, and members of Congress to challenge the DOJ in court for it’s failure to comply with the disclosure of materials required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Scannapieco, who served as mayor of Marlboro Township from 1992 until 2003, was arrested in August 2014 and charged with sexually abusing the girl over three years beginning in 2005.
Authorities said Scannapieco abused the girl while awaiting sentencing in federal court after pleading guilty in 2005 to charges of tax evasion and accepting bribes. In the case of United States of America v. Matthew V. Scannapieco, he admitted accepting $245,000 in bribes from several land developers and pleaded guilty to failing to pay federal taxes on that money.
During his career in public service, Scannapieco, a Republican, also served on the Township Council, the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Adjustment. During his tenure as mayor, he sat on the planning board and appointed all but one of the other members, a period in which Marlboro experienced a 40 percent increase in housing units — nearly 3,500 new units.
Kean Jr.’s campaign did not respond to questions about whether his attacks on Bennett were intended to change the subject from the Scannapieco case or the Epstein files.
“Since the Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed into law on November 19, 2025, the Department of Justice has flagrantly and consistently ignored EFTA’s disclosure requirements,” said Republican Congressman Thomas Massie. “The Department of Justice continues to unlawfully withhold over 3 million Epstein files that should be released to the public.”
Bennett, a former Texas Republican who changed parties after serving as a U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, has described her break with the GOP as a reaction to the rise of Donald Trump.
Kean Jr.’s campaign has assailed her over the switch, attacks that supporters of Bennett describe as bizarre and unconnected to the issues facing voters.
The Kean name carries particular weight in this part of Monmouth County. Former Gov. Tom Kean Sr. campaigned heavily in suburban strongholds like Marlboro during his narrow 1,797-vote victory over Democrat Jim Florio in 1981, and returned to towns like Marlboro during his 1985 reelection bid, riding his “New Jersey and You: Perfect Together” tourism campaign to a 70 percent landslide.
Kean Jr. has maintained the family tradition of campaigning in the area. While Marlboro Township now lies outside his legislative boundary — he represents New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, which covers Hunterdon, Warren and parts of Somerset, Morris, Sussex and Union counties — he has appeared at Monmouth County GOP events, regional fundraisers and rallies supporting local candidates during his statewide run for U.S. Senate in 2006 and his various legislative races.
Marlboro, settled by the Dutch in the late 1600s, took its name from marl, a mixture of clay and shells discovered on a farm shortly before the Revolutionary War. The material, used primarily as fertilizer, was shipped throughout the state and by boat to New York. During the war, the Pleasant Valley section was often raided by the British for food supplies and livestock.
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