A resident of Englewood Cliffs had a party one night and six of her guests were ticketed for overnight parking in violation of a borough ordinance. This particular resident had contributed to the mayor’s election campaign.
In response to the issuance of six valid tickets the campaign contributor called her mayor. The mayor contacted the chief of police about the issue, the police chief asked (or directed) the officer who wrote the tickets to facilitate dismissing the tickets.
An officer facing a “request” from his chief does not have many options. Predictably the officer “agreed” to the chief’s request and sought dismissal of all 6 parking tickets.
What kind of leader forces his subordinate into such an uncomfortable position? Once the mayor, the chief and the officer were in “agreement”; the municipal prosecutor and the municipal court judge were brought in to have the tickets dismissed. These tickets were dismissed without any defendant ever making an appearance in court.
Rather than have the defendants enter a plea and make their appearance; the police, the prosecutor and the judge relied on a false statement and dismissed all six tickets. The false statement relied upon read “resident called”. That false statement was relevant because in Englewood Cliffs overnight parking tickets are not issued when a resident calls and alerts police that there will be guests parking overnight in the borough.
The resident never called anyone to alert the police that she would have overnight guests. The document claimed that she did; the court based its dismissal on that document. Our system of justice is not supposed to accept falsehoods as a basis for determinations.
A phone call made by a contributor to the mayor’s campaign activated the entire governmental chain of command; including the court and the prosecutor. If any of this strikes you as unethical or unlawful you are not alone.
Lieutenant Scott Mura (a 21 year veteran) learned of this conspiracy and commenced an investigation. In a brazen abuse of authority, the chief ordered his lieutenant to cease an investigation in which the chief himself was implicated.
The State of New Jersey has an ethics standard that forbids official action raising an appearance of impropriety. At this point in the story 5 official actions appear improper.
1. The mayor calling the chief to get tickets dismissed
2. The chief approaching his subordinate to get tickets dismissed.
3. The officer offering the court a false statement in order to get the tickets dismissed.
4. The court dismissing every ticket without a single defendant making an appearance.
5. The chief ordering a lieutenant to cease and desist from investigating a crime in which the chief was a participant.
These five actions not only appear improper they are improper.
The sixth and most outrageous impropriety comes in the form of disciplinary charges brought against the only person involved who insisted that law be adhered to. In true Jersey fashion the chief of police brought a slew of charges against a whistleblower and the taxpayers are funding another witch hunt.
The highest ranking law enforcement officer in Bergen County was supposed to step in and investigate the 5 improprieties that Lieutenant was investigating. The fact that the highest ranking officer (Molinelli) in the county is suspected of taking bribes, implicated in a mob hit, vacationed with criminals and has a vicious streak a mile wide may have something to do with his lack of interest in a ticket fixing scandal.
Lieutenant Scott Mura did exactly what the law required of him. The county prosecutor should have investigated this matter. Dereliction of duty is the order of the day in Bergen County and it will remain the order every day until Molinelli is replaced by a person of integrity.
As a consequence of having a criminal occupy the prosecutor’s office, police officers must rely on the civil justice system for protection. The disciplinary hearing that exposed these issues is a taxpayer funded exercise in futility. The prosecutor and hearing officer were hired by the very people involved in the ticket fixing.
No matter what the outcome of this process happens to be, Lieutenant Mura is entitled to a fair hearing before a Superior Court Judge. Lieutenant Mura is also entitled to bring his own charges in the form of a whistleblower action against the Borough of Englewood Cliffs. The financial consequences of this conspiracy are incalculable.
Englewood Cliffs residents are exposed to liability in the millions over six parking tickets issued to someone who gave money to the mayor in order to help him get elected. All of this fraud, waste and abuse could have been avoided had integrity occupied the office that festers with Molinelli’s corruption.
The time it takes to demand accountability is less expensive than the money required to compensate victims of predators in high office. In my view this patter will repeat itself again and again unless the voters decide to target the elected officials who sit silently while scandals pile up and costs cripple communities.
