A mayor in New Jersey is being accused in a lawsuit of ordering police officers to remove a man from a municipal building she and her staff were in because the man was Black and they did not feel safe. Then, the lawsuit claims, she tried to cover it up.
The allegation is part of a complaint filed last week against Jackie Palmer, the mayor of Spotswood, by a senior police patrolman who accuses her of using her position to “assert convoluted and misplaced power” to, among other things, stymie his career. The officer, Richard Sasso Jr., alleges that Palmer refuses to promote him in retaliation for her husband’s “forced resignation” from the department.
The suit, filed in Superior Court of Middlesex County, also names the borough as a defendant.
Palmer’s attorney, Eric Martin Bernstein, said his client “is being targeted by a handful of members of the Spotswood Police Department, who are trying to describe her as a racist and an interferer of police operations.” Spotswood is a predominantly white borough with a population of less than 10,000.
“She is not interfering with nor has she interfered with, police operations nor is she a racist,” the attorney said in a statement.
He said that he could not comment further on ongoing litigation.
According to the suit, on April 25, 2022, a Spotswood resident, who is Black, went to police headquarters and spoke to a sergeant about “a racially-charged incident” involving Palmer that had occurred three days earlier. The sergeant who spoke to the resident, whose identity is not disclosed in the suit, assigned Sasso to investigate further, the suit states.
In a police interview, the resident told Sasso that on the day of the incident, April 22, 2022, he was the only Black person in the municipal building, the lawsuit states. The resident told Sasso that he “was approached multiple times by a clearly aggravated” Palmer and that he did not see Palmer approach anyone else, the suit alleges.
Sasso says in the suit that he reviewed surveillance footage from the municipal building from the day in question and observed Palmer “being extremely antagonistic” toward the resident and stating that he had to listen to her because she is the mayor. She was also seen ignoring a police captain’s advice to stay in her office rather than approach the resident, the suit alleges.
On April 28, 2022, the resident returned to the municipal building and recorded what occurred “so as to document any wrongdoing,” the suit states.
Police officers were called to the building by borough employees who were concerned for their safety because of the Black resident’s presence, according to the suit, which also alleges that some employees asked for police escorts to their offices. “Throughout this time, the resident did nothing inappropriate and was not threatening in any manner,” the suit states.
Palmer went on “a verbal tirade” aimed at Spotswood police officers because she was upset that the Black resident was not removed from the building and that he had called her, the suit alleges. The mayor allegedly continued to order the officers to remove the man, so officers contacted the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office to confirm that he could not be ejected because it would be a civil rights violation unless a criminal act was being committed.
When officers told Palmer that the prosecutor’s office confirmed removing the man would be a civil rights violation, she immediately became hostile and said, among other things: “Let me just be clear that if we call downstairs, I expect someone f—— here. I cannot and will not tolerate anybody feeling unsafe here,” according to the suit. She also allegedly speculated as to the man’s mental health, whether he had taken “his meds” and whether he would become violent toward her, according to the lawsuit.
“This is a business place that we don’t need some f—— crazy person who’s constantly around here and the elephant in the room is that he is f—— black and this is not a diverse town, let’s be honest,” Palmer said, according to the lawsuit. “I don’t need B.L.M. and the K.K.K. fighting on our front steps over this.”
Some of Palmer’s comments were captured on officers’ body-worn cameras and that footage, along with officer reports, have been forwarded to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office for review, the lawsuit states. Sasso accuses the borough of attempting to cover up “Palmer’s and other Borough employee’s wrongdoing,” by paying for a hotel for the resident and dropping unspecified charges he allegedly faced, according to the lawsuit.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said it cannot comment on pending litigation. The police chief, Philip Corbisiero, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Sasso joined the department in November 2012, according to the suit, which accuses Palmer of having “personally sought to stymie” his career, including by preventing him from being promoted and “repeatedly criticizing/badmouthing Sasso to essentially anyone who would listen.” The suit also alleges that Palmer abuses her power “on an almost daily basis.”
In an interview Wednesday, Sasso and his attorneys, Patrick and Matthew Toscano, said Sasso is seeking a merit-based promotion, remuneration, as well as attorney’s fees, and for Palmer to resign.
Attorneys for the defendants asked a judge last week to seal the complaint or redact it “to protect the privacy interests of the individuals involved and the integrity of municipal functions and processes.”
Sasso’s attorneys responded in a filing and requested that the court deny the defendants’ motion and allow Sasso’s complaint to be publicly accessible.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
