New Jersey Public Safety Officers Law Blog : New Jersey Public Safety Employee Lawyer & Attorney : Pellettieri, Rabstein & Altman Law Firm : Workers Compensation, Discipline Representation for Police & Firefighters : New Jersey

Illustrating the potential dangers New Jersey Public Safety Officers encounter on a daily basis, gunfire erupted as a police tactical squad executed a no-knock search warrant in Lakewood on September 23, 2009, leaving four officers and a suspect shot. The incident was reported by the Associated Press in an article on September 24, 2009.  

One Lakewood police officer who was shot in the face and another who was shot in the foot were taken to the hospital, Deputy Chief Michael Mohel of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said. Two others sustained minor injuries when they were struck in their bulletproof vests. The suspect, Jamie Gonzalez, 39, was taken to this hospital with multiple gunshot wounds. There was no word on their conditions and the names of the officers have not been released.  

Police had planned to search the home for narcotics and weapons. The shooting comes more than two months after Jersey City Police Detective Marc DiNardo was shot in the face storming an apartment where two armed robbery suspects were holed up. Four other officers were wounded in the gun battle and the suspects were killed. DiNardo was taken off life support and pronounced dead one day before his 38^th birthday.   

To view the article in its entirety, please click on the following link.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

As reported in the Trentonian on September 22, 2009, federal oversight of the New Jersey State Police has come to an end. U.S. District Court Judge Mary L. Cooper has ended federal monitoring of the New Jersey State Police more than 10 years after the shooting of unarmed minority men during a highway traffic stop prompted intervention over racial profiling.

Judge Cooper signed the order dissolving a consent decree, following a joint motion filed in August by the State and U.S. Justice Department. The move followed Governor Jon Corzine’s bill signing in August that established an office within the State Attorney General’s office to oversee the State Police.

State Police agreed to federal oversight after troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike shot at a van containing four minority men during a 1998 traffic stop, wounding three of them. The agency has implemented major changes since then, including training and new supervisory policies to monitor road stops. In addition, trooper vehicles now contain dashboard cameras to videotape traffic stops. 

In a 2007 semiannual report, federal monitor Jim Ginger said that the State Police force is a different organization than when troopers fired on the van. Ginger and a second monitor tracked troopers’ stops of minority motorists for years, issuing reports every six months. The monitors found the State Police consistently in compliance for several years before the judge lifted the order. Corzine confirmed the finding with an independent review.

David Jones, President of the State Police Fraternal Association, commended the troopers but condemned the Attorney General’s office for not having policies and systems in place that would have allowed the State Police to identify and resolve isolated incidents of profiling. Specifically, Jones stated, “Former attorneys general for their own political expediency were willing to throw the state police under the bus…a decade later, we can look back at who the true professionals are and at those people who would sacrifice public safety for their own careers.”

To view the article in its entirety, please click on the following link.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

A previous entry to this blog focused upon the presence of illicit cell phones in prisons. In the entry, it was explained how illicit cell phones remain a major problem inside New Jersey’s prisons, as inmates use the devices to secretly communicate with each other, intimidate witnesses and direct drug deals and other illegal activity.

On September 16, 2009, the Trentonian reported that New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram is now utilizing sniffing dogs and orifice scanners to address the problem. Recently, twenty-five convicts from five different gangs and 10 other New Jersey prison inmates have been indicted for possession of cell phones.

Attorney General Milgram announced the indictments at a press conference in which police dogs demonstrated their ability to sniff out hidden phones and authorities unveiled a new cell detection device called the BOSS, for “Bodily Orifice Security Scanner.” The BOSS is a device for looking into a body like and x-ray machine or airport surveillance equipment that can see hidden items. The scanner is within a chair that inmates sit in to be checked for contraband.

Prison officers and others in New Jersey are concerned that the gangs which overpopulate state prisons are trying to run the prisons at the same time they try to call the shots for other gang members still on the outside. “Safety and security both inside and outside the prison walls are paramount to our mission,” said New Jersey Department of Corrections Commissioner George W. Hayman. “Illegal cell phones potentially provide the offender population with an opportunity to compromise public safety. This cannot and will not be allowed to happen, and we will continue to utilize aggressive, proactive measures in our efforts to protect law-abiding citizens.”

Attorney General Milgram stated that between August 2008 and July 2009, New Jersey Corrections Officers seized 391 cell phones from inmates. She also noted that the gang population in New Jersey prisons keeps escalating because of all the recent arrests of gang members, almost 2,000 in the last 13 months.

To read the article in its entirety, please click on the following link.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

On September 8, 2009, the Appellate Division decided In the Matter of Sergeant Maryelyn Conway, Docket No.: A-6162-07T3. In the case, Sergeant Maryelyn Conway appeals from an administrative determination of the New Jersey Transit Police Department suspending her for a period of four days for two related minor disciplinary infractions.

On the night of December 13, 2004, a car crashed onto an embankment above the New Jersey Transit train tracks in Waldwick. The vehicle was in a precarious position, with only a small tree preventing it from falling onto the tracks. Due to the danger that the vehicle might fall, train traffic in both directions was stopped.

Conway, a sergeant with the New Jersey Transit Police Department, was the supervising officer on duty at the time of these events. She did not go to the scene of the accident, but rather New Jersey Transit Police Officer Victor Migliorino was sent there. He reported to her that the Waldwick fire department, police, and emergency medical personnel were present, and that Waldwick personnel had taken charge of the scene. He did not believe Conway’s presence at the scene was necessary. She later deployed two other officers to the scene, contending that she did so in order that one of the officers could acquire more experience. She received periodic reports of the status of the scene from the officers present. She acknowledged in one radio transmission that it would have been easier if she were present. The New Jersey Transit police officers present did not play an active role in attending to the accident scene since Waldwick personnel were in charge. About an hour and one half after Conway was advised of the incident, the car was removed, and normal train traffic resumed.

Disciplinary charges were filed against Conway on January 10, 2005, due to her failure to go to the accident scene. She was charged with violating a General Order, which requires a police sergeant, as part of her duties and responsibilities, to “direct[ ] and participate[ ] in activities at the scene of emergencies.” Conway was also charged with “unsatisfactory performance” due to her failure to respond to the scene herself. 

The internal disciplinary hearing was conducted on May 20, 2008. In a lengthy written opinion, the hearing officer found the charges to be substantiated. In the final agency decision dated July 1, 2008, New Jersey Transit Police Chief Jospeh C. Bober found Conway guilty of both charges and imposed a two-day suspension for each charge, for a total suspension of four days. This appeal ensued.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link