Alphonse PetraccoMayor of Nutley On March 24, 2015, I blogged about a retired Nutley police officer’s acceptance of $40,000 to settle his lawsuit against Mayor Alphonse Petracco, who the officer claimed was on a power trip and lived “above the law.” After posting the blog, I searched for other lawsuits arising out of Nutley, just […]
Posted inRandom Notes on NJ Government
Stafford Officer’s report, written nearly 11 months after arrest, justifies warrantless search of home.
Update: April 23, 2015 Two additional, relevant files have come into my possession. 1. SWAT team report, received via an OPRA request to Stafford, in which Sergeant Herman Pharo indicates that he had spoken on the phone with Frank Koutsogiannis, the owner of the home where the warrantless search was conducted, and that Frank had […]
Posted inNJ Civil Settlements
Fire District secretly pays $50,000 to settle female firefighter’s sexual harassment suit.
On September 5, 2014, the Franklin Township Fire District No. 3 (Somerset County) agreed to pay $50,000 to a former female volunteer firefighter who claimed that she was forced from her position because of pervasive sexual harassment. According to her lawsuit, Courtney Jackson served as a volunteer at Community Fire (Station 25) from March 13, […]
Posted inNJ Civil Settlements
Atlantic City pays $160,000 to settle police excessive force lawsuit.
On May 15, 2013, the City of Atlantic City (Atlantic County) agreed to pay $160,000 to a local man who alleged that seven members of the Atlantic City Police Department pepper-sprayed and beat him when he tried to explain to them that another man they were assaulting in his kitchen suffered from schizophrenia. In his […]
Posted inNJ Open Government Notes
Stafford claims OPRA suit is “frivolous” and brought in “bad faith” to “harass the Township.”
In an earlier post, I wrote about my lawsuit against Stafford Township (Ocean County) seeking records pertaining to alleged “unlawful acts” by a Stafford officer which were allegedly not acted upon by the police chief. Township Attorney Christopher J. Dasti issued a blanket denial of my request without identifying any of the records to which […]