The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • A5

THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2006 NEW JERSEY THE RECORD A-5 Taxation chief disciplined over gifts, report says Casino videotape may help find teen Image might be missing Vt. girl ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS Brianna Maitland of Sheldon, left, disappeared in 2004. A security camera at Caesars in Atlantic City may have spotted her, above. Vincz on Wednesday said he could not comment on personnel matters, but added, "We have taken steps in Treasury's day-to-day operations, pending the outcome of an internal review, to ensure the effective direction of public services." Efforts by The Star-Ledger and The Associated Press to reach the three were not successful. The Commission of Investigation found that senior and midlev-el managers in the taxation and revenue divisions took more than $65,000 in gifts, meals, alcohol and entertainment from Chesterfield, OSI Collection Services Inc.

from February 1999 to March 2005. The commission found that OSI overbilled New Jersey more than $1 million between 2000 and 2004. OSI charged the state for employees whose work should have been considered administrative overhead and should not have been billed to the state, the report said. The company was the main outsourcing vendor for the taxation division, the commission said. Its contract expired Feb.

28 and was not renewed. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TRENTON The state's director of taxation was suspended, along with two top aides, according to a published report Wednesday. The actions follow an investigation into the Treasury Department that found about 20 officials improperly accepted thousands of dollars of gifts from a company hired by the state to collect back taxes. The company padded its bills by more than $1 million since 2000 but was not sanctioned by the Treasury Department, according to a report issued in December by a state watchdog agency, the Commission of Investigation. Suspended with pay were Robert Thompson, director of taxation; Harold Fox, deputy director; and David Gavin, assistant director for compliance, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported Wednesday, citing two unnamed administration officials.

Governor Corzine has ordered an ethics inquiry into those three, and 12 other Treasury employees, the officials told the newspaper. Treasury spokesman Tom By JOHN CURRAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ATLANTIC CITY Missing for nearly two years, a Vermont teenager may have turned up at an Atlantic City casino, police said. On Jan. 17, surveillance cameras at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino captured the image of a woman police say may be Brianna Maitland, 19, gambling next to a man. The video, taken from ceiling-mounted surveillance cameras, shows a dark-haired woman at a table game but her face is only partly visible.

It was obtained from the casino after a man who lives near Mait-land's hometown returned from a trip to Atlantic City and contacted Vermont state police, telling them he saw a woman who looked like Maitland at the casino. That was on Jan. 19. The man, who knew of Mait-land's disappearance and what she looked like from fliers posted in Vermont, didn't alert authorities in Atlantic City. But he told Vermont state police the number of the table where she was playing, the day and the time, and investigators contacted New Jersey state police, said Detective Lt.

Brian Miller of the Vermont state police, the chief investigator in the case. The casino provided videotape containing the footage, which was reviewed by Vermont investigators and Maitland's parents. Her mother, Kellie Maitland, said the movements of the hands and feet of the woman on the videotape remind her of her daughter, said Detective John Donegan, a missing-persons investigator with the New Jersey state police. The woman spent about an hour at the table, he said. "There hasn't been too many leads in Maitland's easel with Mom and Dad saying they believe it's her," said Donegan.

"Whether it's legitimate or not, if Mom and Dad are telling me they're pretty certain it's her, it's incumbent on me to follow through." Bruce and Kellie Maitland, who now live in DeKalb, N.Y., came to Atlantic City to look at original copies of the footage but couldn't say for sure it was their daughter in the pictures, Donegan said. The family, which has offered a $20,000 reward, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. A voice-mail message left at their home was not immediately returned. Unlike some Atlantic City casinos, Caesars' surveillance department does not have facial recognition software, which allows camera operators to capture still images of faces and compare their features digitally with those in thousands of photos contained in law enforcement databases. A still image, taken from the surveillance video and published on a flier released by New Jersey state police, shows the top of the woman's head, her eyes and forehead but doesn't give a clear view.

Maitland, of Sheldon, was 17 when she vanished after working a shift at the Black Lantern Inn in Montgomery, on March 19, 2004. The next day, her 1985 Oldsmobile 88 was found about a mile away, its rear end smashed into an abandoned barn. When last seen, she was about 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed about 110 pounds. N.J. teacher named Liberia police chief Will be first woman to hold position GREAT RUG SALE Spectacular rugs from around the world 2SKSI THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A Trenton middle school teacher has been appointed Liberia's first-ever female national police chief, charged with helping secure order in the volatile West African country.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf appointed Beatrice Munah Sieh to the post last month. Sieh must be confirmed by the Senate before she can take up the post, but she is expected to pass confirmation hearings with no problem. Sieh served as deputy director of police operations in the late 1990s, but fearing for her safety, she fled the country. For the past six years, she's worked as a special education teacher at a Trenton middle school. She told The Times of Trenton that one of her first initiatives will be to issue new police badges and confiscate the old ones held by rebels, who have used the IDs to impersonate police and commit acts of torture and robbery.

"Now that we're coming from war, the job is even harder," Sieh said. "I know that we have to sacrifice for our country if we want peace and stability." Liberia is struggling to recover from years of war and lawlessness that ended in 2003 with warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor's flight into exile in Nigeria. Rebuilding a professional police force is a key step toward helping Liberia escape its violent past. Sirleaf took office in January as Africa's first elected female head of state and has said she would appoint women to other top posts. Body in river identified as missing N.J.

man V'X -t- zFZr THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LAMBERTVILLE Authorities have recovered the body of a Stockton man who fell into the Delaware River in January during a canoe ride with two friends. The body of Anthony Suozzo IV, 26, was found Wednesday near the Route 202 toll bridge in Lambertville, said Trooper Jeanne Hengemuhle, state police spokeswoman. Authorities were able to ten tatively identify the body based on clothing and a tattoo on the wrist, said Hengemuhle. The body was taken to Hunterdon Medical Center where an autopsy is scheduled for this morning. Suozzo and his friends were on the river on Jan.

11 when their canoe tipped over, dumping them into the frigid water. His friends made it to shore, but an extensive search over several days failed to recover Suoz-zo's body. Wouldn't you rather own your dream house than spend the rest of your life watching somebody else living in it? Don't chance it get yourself a iTTTTTuTTl iiriini Real Estate Specialist at NorthJerseyHOMES.com SELL NOW! Gold is $555 oz. GOING ON NOW! 50 off extra 25 off Sale prices all one-of-a-kind rugs Reg. sale final cost 131.

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SOME ORIGINAL PRICES MAY NOT HAVE BEEN IN EFFECT DURING THE LAST 90 DAYS. INTERMEDIATE MARKDOWNS MAY HAVE BEEN TAKEN. RUG EVENT IN EFFECT THROUGH MARCH 26,2006. Sale merchandise is from specially selected groups. Sorry, no phone orders.

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