Credit: LourdesCam / Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 Changed from TIF to JPEG.

Update: In a May 9, 2019 written opinion, the Appellate Division reversed the trial court’s dismissal of Brodo’s case. On August 24, 2021, Haddon Township approved a Settlement Agreement and Release under which the Township paid Brodo and her attorney $185,000. The Agreement and Release contains a confidentiality clause.

Update:  The court dismissed Brodo’s complaint on September 15, 2017 (Order here) and Brodo appealed (Notice of Appeal here.)
——————————-
On April 20, 2016, former Haddon Township (Camden County) Police Officer Denise Brodo filed a lawsuit against the Township alleging that her October 22, 2015 firing was in retaliation for having previously questioned why a fellow officer had been paid in cash for a working a special detail.  In 2013 she had filed a similar suit claiming that the Township wrongfully suspended her for five days for questioning the payment. The previous suit settled in July 2015 for $48,400.

Brodo’s new lawsuit tracks the language of her prior one but alleges that after the old lawsuit was settled, the Township fired her for arriving to work six minutes late on one day and seven minutes late on another. She claims that no other employees were held to the same standard, that the lateness violations were a pretext and that her firing was retaliatory.

But, in a June 30, 2016 brief, the Township argues that Brodo’s case should be dismissed because Brodo was habitually late to work and was previously suspended for 30 days and told that further lateness would result in her termination.

The dismissal motion is scheduled to be heard by Judge Anthony M. Pugliese on July 22, 2016 and 9 a.m.

Chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project. Please send all comments to [email protected]