Archive for the ‘Seaside Park New Jersey’ Category

With Excessive Force Lawsuits Raining Down On Town, Seaside Park New Jersey Told To Cool It

July 2nd, 2007

SEASIDE PARK, NEW JERSEY - The borough’s acting police chief has told officers to use better judgment when making arrests following more than a dozen excessive-force lawsuits against the borough.

Police Chief Edward H. Dickson, who was sworn in last month, said he has cautioned officers not to make arrests right away unless they feel they have to.

In addition, the police department plans to put video cameras in patrol cars.

A series of reports last month in the Asbury Park Press of Neptune showed that the borough has paid $1.5 million in the last two years to settle excessive-force lawsuits filed against the police department.

The suits claimed that police often made arrests upon arriving at a scene and before they asked questions; and that some of the suspects said they were beaten while in handcuffs.

Feds Needed In Seaside Park New Jersey As 13th Police Beating Lawsuit Is Filed Against Department With Only 15 Full-Time Officers - Nearly $900K In Settlements In Just The Last Three Months

June 17th, 2007

SEASIDE PARK, NEW JERSEY – More than 15 people in 13 separate incidents have alleged police in Seaside Park used excessive force against them — including beating them while they were in handcuffs — over the past four years, a Press investigation has found.

The borough’s insurance carrier has paid out $1.5 million in lawsuit settlements involving eight defendants. Two settlements in the past three months alone totalled $875,000. And at least eight more civil rights lawsuits — two of which were filed during the past week — are pending.

In addition to those who have filed suit, several residents and visitors allege that they have been harassed and, in some cases, falsely arrested by police. Since the investigative series by staff writers Jean Mikle and Lauren O. Kidd ran over three days last week, at least five more people have contacted the Press, alleging abuse at the hands of Seaside Park police officers.

Two More Lawsuits Filed Against Seaside Park New Jersey Police, Bringing Total To 13 Against A Department With Only 15 Full Time Officers…

June 17th, 2007

SEASIDE PARK, NEW JERSEY – Two more people claiming they were beaten by Seaside Park police filed lawsuits against the town last week as half of the Borough Council called for an outside review of the police force.

Michael J. Jennings, one of the two new plaintiffs, said that police punched and kicked him and squirted pepper spray so close to him that it got into his mouth as he was being arrested outside the Sawmill Tavern and Restaurant on June 11, 2005.

“I was real scared,” said Jennings, 27, of Shrewsbury Township. “I have never been that scared in my life.”

Jennings and Alexander J. Casey, 21, of New Vernon, filed excessive force lawsuits last week in U.S. District Court, Trenton, against Seaside Park, its Police Department and several officers.

Lawsuit Settled For $600,000 After Handcuffed Man Was Beaten By Seaside Park New Jersey Police Officers James C. Citta And James F. Boag Jr

June 11th, 2007

SEASIDE PARK, NEW JERSEY – Jose Roman Jr. has a vivid memory of Seaside Park Sgt. James C. Citta’s foot.

While handcuffed and inside police headquarters, Roman saw Citta’s “boot coming towards my face,” Roman told lawyers in a federal court deposition.

That was not the only incident that night, Roman said. Citta threw him against a metal filing cabinet, where he hit his head. Citta and Sgt. James F. Boag Jr. then slammed his head against the cell door, Roman said in his sworn testimony.

The beating caused him to drift in and out of consciousness.

“I was repeatedly kicked, punched a couple times, and I remember he (Citta) kicked me in my head, and I was knocked out again,” Roman said in his deposition.

In depositions, Citta and Boag have denied using excessive force on Roman or any other detainee.

Business Owner Beaten By Camera-Shy Seaside Park New Jersey Police Officers While Videotaping Police

June 11th, 2007

SEASIDE PARK, NEW JERSEY – One minute, Kevin J. Kopacko was standing outside the Sawmill Tavern and Restaurant, videotaping the Seaside Park police about 2:30 a.m. on June 6, 2004.

The next minute, Kopacko says, he was on the ground, his face slammed against the concrete sidewalk, his forehead bleeding from a long cut over his right eye. The video camera went flying. He was handcuffed, and pepper spray was squirted into his eyes and on his face, he said.

Kopacko made the video because his boss, Sawmill owner Stephen D’Onofrio, and D’Onofrio’s former lawyer, George R. Gilmore of Toms River, had instructed him to visually document the activities of the police officers who routinely gathered outside the Sawmill at closing time.

Kopacko said in court papers that he was tackled from behind by Seaside Park Sgt. James C. Citta. Kopacko said neither Citta nor any of the other officers at the scene told him he was under arrest before he was knocked to the ground.

Victims Lining Up With Police Brutality Lawsuits Prove Costly To Seaside Park New Jersey

June 10th, 2007

SEASIDE PARK, NEW JERSEY - The shore town of Seaside Park has paid out more than $1.5 million in the last two years to settle excessive-force lawsuits filed against its police department, according to a review conducted by a newspaper.

One of the plaintiffs, a man who said he was handcuffed and beaten by police, was paid $275,000 by the borough’s insurance carrier last month to settle his claims, the Asbury Park Press of Neptune reported in Sunday’s editions. Officials in the Ocean County community did not acknowledge any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

The plaintiff, Dean Hughes, 39, of Brick, claimed the brutality occurred after he was thrown out of a tavern by bouncers. He provided the newspaper with photographs of bruises to his face and neck.

Seaside Park New Jersey Pays Up For Police Officer James Citta And Sgt. James Boag’s Brutality, Bogus Police Report - Lawsuit Settled For $600,000

March 1st, 2007

SEASIDE PARK, NEW JERSEY – A lawsuit alleging that Seaside Park police officers [ James Citta And Sgt. James Boag ] abused three people arrested in 2004 has been settled out of court.

A $600,000 settlement which settles all three claims, was reached this afternoon.

The civil trial before U.S. District Judge Garrett Brown in Federal Court in Trenton was in its second phase.

Last month, the jury rejected two allegations of excessive force, but found that other allegations of excessive force and falsifying a police record were justified.

Jose Roman of Seaside Park and sisters Melanie Bruno of Manchester and Melissa Bruno of Waretown will split the settlement money, their lawyer Kevin McCann said.

The three were arrested Nov. 22, 2004 at the Saw Mill Tavern, a bar and restaurant near the south end of the boardwalk entertainment district.

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Federal Jury Rules Seaside Park New Jersey Police Officers James Citta And Sgt. James Boag Used Excessive Force Against Man And Two Sisters, Faked Police Report In Cover-Up

February 22nd, 2007

SEASIDE PARK, NEW JERSEY – A federal jury has decided that Seaside Park police officers violated the civil rights of three people arrested in 2004, clearing the way for the next phase of the civil trial — determining whether borough officials are liable for failing to rein in abuses by officers.

The jury, sitting in Trenton, on Wednesday found police used excessive force and falsified a police report in the arrests of Jose Roman of Seaside Park and sisters Melanie Bruno of Manchester and Melissa Bruno of Waretown, their lawyer, Kevin McCann, said.

“They roughed them up, and the testimony was very graphic,” McCann said. The falsification finding came after testimony from police who claimed no one could remember who signed the arrest report, he said.

The next phase of the trial is a process to establish whether “this pattern of behavior on the part of the police was tolerated by the municipality,” he said.

Federal Jury Finds Two Seaside Park New Jersey Police Officers, James Boag And James Citta, Violated Civil Rights Of Two Men And A Woman With Excessive Force And Falsified Police Report

February 21st, 2007

SEASIDE, NEW JERSEY – A federal District Court jury today found two Seaside Park police officers violated the civil rights of a man and two women arrested after a barroom disturbance in November 2003.

The jury in Trenton found excessive force was used and a police report falsified in the case of Jose Roman and sisters Melissa and Melanie Bruno, who alleged they were abused by police Sgt. James Boag and patrolman James Citta, said Kevin McCann, the lawyer for the plaintiffs.

The verdict concludes the first phase of a civil lawsuit, and jurors will next consider whether Seaside Park municipal officials tolerated “a pattern of behavoir on the part of police officers” and failed to stop abuses, McCann said. That part of the trial before U.S. District Court Judge Garrett Brown is scheduled to commence March 1, he said.
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Federal Lawsuit Against Seaside Park New Jersey Police Stirs Up Mystery After Phantom Signature Turns Up On Official Document, Why Officers Left Handcuffed Woman’s Breast Exposed At Police Station - Two Accused Officers, Sgt. James Boag and James Citta, Were Involved In Prior Case With $450K Payout

February 10th, 2007

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY — The evidence phase ended Friday, with a mystery still looming, in a lawsuit against Seaside Park police officers accused of mistreating a man and two sisters, allegedly leaving one woman’s breast exposed while she was handcuffed in the station house.

Officials in the borough’s police department do not know who signed the initial disorderly conduct complaint against the man who says he was a victim of police brutality, according to Friday’s testimony in federal court.

Thereafter, the department apparently never looked inward to learn why no one knew how the document got signed.

U.S. District Court Judge Garrett Brown sent the 10-person jury of six women and four men home for the weekend, saying they will return Wednesday to hear summations and the judge’s charge.

Former Point Pleasant Beach New Jersey Police Officer Patrick Flynn Sentenced To 5 Years In Prison For Drunken Crash Involving 5 Cars And Many Injuries

January 6th, 2007

MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY – A former Point Pleasant Beach police officer was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for a drunken-driving accident involving five cars in which he and three others were hurt.

Patrick Flynn, who pleaded guilty in September to two counts of aggravated assault and driving while intoxicated, will have to serve more than four years of the prison term before becoming eligible for parole, said Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin said.

Flynn, 35, of Toms River, was speeding in the southbound lanes of Route 35 as he crossed the bridge between Brielle and Point Pleasant Beach when he crashed his 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe into a 1994 Ford Explorer stopped be cause the span was open. The June 25, 2005, crash touched off a chain reaction involving three other cars. Four people, including Flynn, suf fered injuries ranging from minor to very serious.

Seaside Park New Jersey Police Face New Brutality Suit As Another Yet Another Man Beaten By Police Comes Forward

September 28th, 2006

SEASIDE PARK, NEW JERSEY - Having settled a lawsuit last week with a man who said he was beaten by police after he was ejected from a bar, the borough faces a suit from another bar customer making similar allegations.

Dean Hughes, 41, of Arbutus Drive, Brick, contends in a suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Trenton that his civil rights were violated in the 2004 incident. Hughes says in the suit that he was pulled from the back seat of a police cruiser feet first, while handcuffed, and knocked unconscious.

Hughes’ attorney, Thomas J. Mallon, said Hughes still has blurred vision in one eye from a beating inflicted by police officers.

Hughes was charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest after being ejected from the Sawmill Restaurant & Tavern, 1807 Boardwalk, on Dec. 12, 2004. No court date has been set to hear the charges, Mallon said.

$450,000 Award In Brutality Lawsuit Against Seaside Park New Jersey Police And Officers James Citta, James Boag, Joseph Leone and Bryan McKay - Other Brutality Cases Pending Against Seaside Park

September 20th, 2006

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY - A Brick man who alleged he was beaten while in the custody of Seaside Park police in 2004 reached a $450,000 settlement Tuesday with the borough and four officers.

Sean P. Foley, 36, of Wisteria Drive filed a suit in U.S. District Court, Trenton, on July 25, 2004, alleging excessive force, false arrest, malicious prosecution and abuse of process.

The allegations were made in connection with an incident May 23, 2004, outside the Sawmill Tavern and Restaurant on the boardwalk. Police filed criminal charges against Foley, but at a subsequent trial he was found not guilty.

Thomas Mallon, the attorney representing Foley, said the settlement was hammered out in Judge Joel A. Pisano’s chambers.

“I knew I was telling the truth the entire time,” Foley said. “I was ready to go to jail. . . . I wasn’t going to plead guilty to anything I didn’t do.

Whoops! North Bergen New Jersey Veteran Police Officer Andrew Wietecha Suspended - Arrested For Drugs And Drunk Driving After Crashing Into Parked Cars In Seaside Park

August 4th, 2006

NORTH BERGEN, NEW JERSEY — A township police officer was placed on administrative suspension after he was arrested on DWI and drug charges in South Jersey last week, authorities said Thursday.

Police in Seaside Park arrested Andrew Wietecha, 23, a North Bergen patrol officer with 3½ years on the force, about 3 a.m. July 20 after his vehicle slammed into several parked cars, said Seaside Park Officer Steven Shadiack.

Police also found a small amount of marijuana in Wietecha’s vehicle, Shadiack said.

North Bergen Detective Joseph Jener said Wietecha was suspended without pay pending further investigation by the South Jersey town.

North Bergen police will conduct an internal investigation, Jener said.

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