PoliceCrimes.com Forum ~

[WaTcHeR]

HOBOKEN, N.J. -- The Hoboken Police Department's SWAT team has been disbanded, just days after officials learned of racy photos showing the unit's commander and other officers cavorting with waitresses from a Hooters restaurant in Alabama.

On the same day Hoboken's new public safety director was sworn in, he gave the city's police chief orders to disband the SWAT team and to order the lieutenant at the center of the controversy to desk duty.

After seeing the photos of Lt. Angelo Andriani and other members of the Hoboken police SWAT, newly appointed Public Safety Director Bill Bergin said he had to act decisively.

Bergin listed his reasons for disbanding the SWAT team in a phone interview with Newschannel 4's Pei-Sze Cheng: "The brazenness of the whole situation, because everything in the photographs, which I was shocked at, had Hoboken all over it, from the uniforms, to the police car, the bus that was involved."

Bergin ordered the police chief to disband the SWAT team and to have Andriani return from his extended vacation and assign him to desk duty immediately.

The photos were taken last year on a return trip from Louisiana, where the Hoboken officers helped with the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

They show the waitresses holding shotguns and other weapons belonging to officers under Andriani's command. Some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit were among the officers present.

City Councilman Ruben Ramos Jr. on Friday called for an investigation by the city into the conduct of the officers during the trip.

Andriani is currently at the center of a federal lawsuit against the city of Hoboken filed by five Hispanic officers who accused Andriani of being racist.

"What the police department has done is used the SWAT team as a tool to retaliate against our members," said Richard Rivera of the National Latino Peace Officers Association. "What they're trying to do is pit the officers against our members and blame them."

Bergin said his next move is to sit down with the police chief to discuss the Katrina trip.

"(I want to) sit down with him and see exactly what evidence is involved, and see what transpired with this as far as who gave them the finances to make this trip, and just basically the background on how valuable the trip was," Bergin said in the phone interview.



http://www.wnbc.com/news/14622959/detail.html
_________________
Cops that lie, should die!

(Terrorism) noun: the use of violence (or threat of violence) by a person or an organized group against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear. Doesn't that sound like what our government does to its own citizens?

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

[WaTcHeR]

More to come......


_________________
Cops that lie, should die!

(Terrorism) noun: the use of violence (or threat of violence) by a person or an organized group against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear. Doesn't that sound like what our government does to its own citizens?

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

[WaTcHeR]

_________________
Cops that lie, should die!

(Terrorism) noun: the use of violence (or threat of violence) by a person or an organized group against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear. Doesn't that sound like what our government does to its own citizens?

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

[WaTcHeR]

Rushing to the aid of storm victims, about a dozen New Jersey police officers and their chief helped deliver a truckload of relief supplies more than 1,000 miles after Hurricane Katrina and later returned to help provide security for the New Orleans region. But some on the trip say the good-will visits at times resembled wild road trips that led to charges of lewd and racist behavior involving the SWAT team members and the chief.

As a result, the Hoboken SWAT team has been disbanded, and officials in the New Jersey city have launched a pair of investigations into the actions of the officers who helped deliver the supplies to Kenner, a city "adopted" by Hoboken.

A lawsuit filed by five police officers accuses a Hoboken lieutenant of racist behavior during the Louisiana trip, as well as in New Jersey. Photos later surfaced, including one of Hoboken Police Chief Carmen LaBruno with a topless woman, allegedly taken in New Orleans during Carnival, and Hoboken police officers posing with Hooters waitresses and allowing them to carry their guns.

"The city is taking this matter very seriously because of the nature of the allegations," said a city spokesman, Bill Campbell. The Hudson County prosecutor's office and the city's public safety director are both investigating, Campbell said.

The entire SWAT team, about 12 officers, has been reassigned, Campbell said.

LaBruno could not be reached for comment.

A host of Hoboken officials, including some members of the city's SWAT team, visited Kenner in September 2005, bringing a truckload of relief supplies. The Hoboken City Council had adopted Kenner after the storm, and Hoboken residents and the business community donated items including food, bleach, brooms, food, diapers and more than 1,500 rolls of paper towels.

The police officers were on the clock for the Kenner trip, Campbell said.

It was during that trip that Kenner leaders, including City Councilwoman Michele Branigan, took a group of Hoboken officials to Bull's Corner restaurant in LaPlace, and at one point Hoboken Lt. Angelo Andriani allegedly poked holes in a white napkin and donned it as if he were a Ku Klux Klansman, according to a lawsuit filed last month by the five Hoboken officers, four of whom were on the SWAT team. The plaintiffs accuse Andriani of being a white supremacist who forced them to do manual labor at his home. All the plaintiffs are Hispanic.

Plaintiffs' attorneys later released photos allegedly taken during the Hoboken police officers' next visit to Louisiana to provide security during Mardi Gras, plaintiffs' attorney Louis Zayas said. LaBruno was photographed posing with a woman flashing her breasts. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

On the way home from that trip, SWAT team members were photographed with waitresses at a Hooters restaurant in Alabama, and the waitresses are pictured holding the officers' weapons.

After those photos were released, Hoboken Mayor David Roberts filled the empty position of public safety director, who oversees the Hoboken police and fire departments, Campbell said. Bill Bergin's first action was to disband the SWAT team because of the officers' behavior in Louisiana. The investigations into their actions are continuing, Campbell said.

"That's the priority," he said.

Kenner Councilwoman at-Large Jeannie Black said Tuesday she didn't know about the Hoboken controversy, but said she did know that the Hoboken police officers who visited the city helped residents.

"I don't condone their behavior," she said. "But I understand they did a lot of good."

Black was among four Kenner officials who traveled to Hoboken in November 2005 to thank city officials and accept more donations. She said that because of the awareness raised by the Hoboken police officers, New Jersey residents and schoolchildren held fundraisers to donate money and goods for Kenner even after the initial September trip.

"I just think they did a lot of good," she said.


http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/11/nj_cops_katrina_missions_land.html
_________________
Cops that lie, should die!

(Terrorism) noun: the use of violence (or threat of violence) by a person or an organized group against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear. Doesn't that sound like what our government does to its own citizens?

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

[WaTcHeR]

HOBOKEN - State officials said the Hoboken Police Department's SWAT team was "freelancing" during its trips to Louisiana.

By going to the Big Easy without the state's approval, the SWAT team may have unnecessarily cost city taxpayers and exposed Hoboken to potential litigation, officials said.

While a task force of 250 officers under the command of the New Jersey State Police - which included Hudson County's rapid deployment unit drawn from six municipalities - went to Kenner and were sworn in by the Louisiana State Police to help after Hurricane Katrina, officials said, Hoboken's SWAT team went down without any red tape - or the approval of the state or the county.

"They were freelancing," said State Police spokesman Capt. Al Della Fave. "They had nothing to do with our deployment."

The trips - one to bring supplies to flooded Kenner, La., and then a return trip Hoboken police officials said was to provide security during Mardi Gras - were central to allegations in a federal lawsuit filed last month by five officers that alleged SWAT commander Lt. Angelo Andriani is an "unabashed white supremecist." It was during one of the trips that Andriani posed for pictures wearing a mock Ku Klux Klan hood - a white napkin with two eyeholes - and a grey cap sporting the Confederate flag.

In the following weeks, more pictures from the trips were released, including pictures of Andriani and other Hoboken cops posing with waitresses from a Hooters in Alabama holding guns and posing in front of and inside Hoboken police vehicles. Another picture showed Police Chief Carmen LaBruno, who said he paid for a trip to New Orleans out of his pocket, posing with a bare-breasted woman.

The law enforcement officials who went to Louisiana with the New Jersey State Police were sent under a nationwide agreement called the Emergency Management Action Contingent, which aims to give a coordinated reponse to national disasters - it also gives officers law enforcement powers outside their normal jurasdiction.

Under EMAC, the local police departments are also reimbursed for costs by the state, Della Fave said.

Because the Hoboken SWAT trips weren't made under EMAC, Hoboken taxpayers weren't reimbursed. City officials said they spent about $5,100 on fuel and other costs on the two trips.

But the city could have been on the hook for much more if the Hoboken cops had done any actual law enforcement on the trips. According to one senior security official who asked that his name not be used, if Hoboken cops had made any arrests while wearing police clothing, carrying guns and driving marked vehicles while outside of their jurisdiction but not operating under EMAC, they could be challenged for "impersonating" a police officer.

LaBruno did not return calls left on his answering machine.

Roberts is distancing himself from the second visit saying that the city sanctioned the first and there was a "lukewarm acknowledgement" of the second.

Kenner Police Chief Steve Caraway said his department worked with New Jersey State Police - who, coincidentally, also were based in Kenner - not with the Hoboken cops.

If doing law enforcement on the first trip was questionable, the second trip raised even more eyebrows with the state cops. On the return visit to Louisiana in February and March of 2006 - described as a "thank you" from Kenner for the department's help after Katrina - the officers provided security for Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish and under the command of Sheriff Harry Lee, who died in October.

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said he could understand the enthusiasm for wanting to help in the aftermath of Katrina, but said there was "clearly" a lack of accountability with the second trip.

"There was no authorization from this office and that was unacceptable," DeFazio said.

The New Orleans Police Department did not return calls, and a spokeswoman from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Department said they did not have any record of Hoboken police being sworn in as police officers during either visit.

Hoboken's new public safety director, Bill Bergin, disbanded the SWAT team and ordered Andriani placed on desk duty, and said investigations into the trip - one by the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office and another by the city - are continuing.
_________________
Cops that lie, should die!

(Terrorism) noun: the use of violence (or threat of violence) by a person or an organized group against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear. Doesn't that sound like what our government does to its own citizens?

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

[KC]

Hoboken SWAT Team: We Were Forced To Go To Hooters
Disgraced Officers Say Embarrassing Photos Are Superior's Fault


HOBOKEN, N.J. (CBS) ― The racy photos of cops cavorting with Hooters waitresses rocked the Hoboken Police Department. Now, officers face disciplinary charges after a scathing report on their conduct was released.

The photos embarrassed and brought unwanted attention to the Hoboken police.

Officers of the disbanded SWAT team and their chief are seen in the photos having a ball during Mardi Gras, and with Hooters waitresses during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

Retiring Hoboken patrolman John Camile told CBS 2 HD he's moving on with a bit of a heavy heart.

"You feel that weight that people are taking everything and putting down the police department," retiring Hoboken cop John Camile told CBS 2 HD.

But for several of his colleagues, who now face disciplinary charges after a specially commissioned report recommended the department take action, this ordeal is far from over.

"All are being held to account for their actions," Hoboken Mayor David Roberts said.

That could be bad news for five officers who are suing the department and SWAT leader, Lt. Angelo Andriani.

The officers claim Andriani intimidated them into attending the outings documented in the photos.

Andriani firmly denies the allegations.

But lawyers for both sides are accusing the city of conducting a flawed internal investigation.

"They have taken this action to shield Hoboken from any civil liability," attorney Louis Zayas said.

Andriani's attorney told CBS 2 HD the officers are being punished due to the mayor's embarrassment and the internal investigation is more of a sham.

"It's like Alice in Wonderland," Charles Sciarra said. "This is all political and not a legitimate investigation. The city is trying to undo the damage that was done when the mayor watched all this happen."

Hoboken Police Chief Carmen Labruno has been noticeably absent during the news conferences regarding this story. And Mayor Roberts won't say if it's because the chief is just shy of news cameras or if he's a focus of this investigation.

Hoboken officials say they'll release names next week.

Mayor Roberts says a state judicial official will oversee the upcoming hearings on the case.



http://wcbstv.com/topstories/hoboken.swat.team.2.666259.html
_________________
www.policecrimes.com

[WaTcHeR]

Hoboken city officials released the charges facing police officers involved in the Hooters debacle last week; however, they could not release the names of the officers.

Nine officers were listed and all of the charges are administrative. There are no criminal charges at this time.

Director of Public Safety Bill Bergin said at an impromptu reading of a press release at City Hall last Wednesday that the punishments would range between 10-day suspension and termination of employment for those found guilty.

Bergin said, "We stated that [last Wednesday] the city hoped to be releasing the names of those individuals charged in connection with this matter, provided that the city had appropriate legal authority to do so ... The release of individual names would not be in the city's best interest at this time."

Officials maintain that the names of the officers would compromise the investigation and subsequent hearings.

According to Corporation Counsel Steven Kleinman, "We did speak to various individuals at the Hudson County Prosecutor's office and various individuals at the N.J. Attorney General's office," but he said that he had not been contacted by the U.S. Attorney General's office.

"It was our intention to release individual names," said Kleinman, but there are "strict rules of confidentiality," according to the state Attorney General's guidelines. "We don't want to be facing any litigation over this," added Kleinman.


The charges stem from two trips by the Hoboken SWAT team to Louisiana in 2005 and 2006 to assist in post-Katrina hurricane relief. Compromising photos from the 2006 trip were leaked after five Latino officers filed a lawsuit against their boss, Lt. Angelo Andriani, accusing him of using racial slurs and other improprieties.

Lt. Andriani has been suspended with pay, his lawyer said last week in the local daily newspaper.

The investigation was conducted by David Corrigan, the city's labor counsel.

Louis Zayas, lawyer for the five officers who filed the original complaint, called the investigation "a sham" since Corrigan is employed by the city. They requested his removal from the investigation but were denied.

"If the city was genuinely concerned... you don't hire one of your own lawyers to conduct the investigation," said Zayas in an interview last week.

Officials could not comment whether Police Chief Dr. Carmen LaBruno was included in the investigation or whether he faces any disciplinary action as a result.

At Wednesday's meeting, Kleinman was asked whether LaBruno had resigned, Kleinman said, "If Chief LaBruno has resigned, I have not seen it."

Mark Rufolo, LaBruno's lawyer, could not say whether LaBruno was implicated in the investigation, but Rufolo did say that "[LaBruno] has cooperated with the investigation."

Bigger fish to fry

Bergin said in his statement, "Please be advised that charges against additional police and civilian employees remain under review, since additional information relevant to this matter has been received in recent days and we are consulting with law enforcement agencies outside of Hoboken regarding the appropriate manner in which to proceed with respect to those individuals."

The review of other officers includes the misappropriation of SWAT funds by the police department, possibly used to pay for LaBruno to go on the trips.

According to Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio, the alleged misuse of funds is under review by the city of Hoboken.

DeFazio said, "[The SWAT funds] are part and parcel of the review."

"That's one of the things," he said.

The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office also conducted an investigation at the same time that the city conducted their review. In February, it was determined by the prosecutor's office that there were no criminal charges as a result of the investigation, however there were suggestions with regards to administrative policies, according to a city source.

Officials would not say whether or not the law enforcement agencies they were dealing with included the FBI. Bergin said in a subsequent interview, "That is a general statement that keeps the door open for us.

Added Bergin, "There are some very, very critical things still going on."

No names, but charges

According to the statement prepared by the city, Officers No. 1 through 3 were charged with five violations of the Administrative Code and five departmental violations regarding improper conduct at a Hooters in Tuscaloosa, Ala. and failure to report the improper conduct; Officer No. 4 was also charged with the same five administrative and departmental violations, but not the failure to report; Officer No. 5 was charged with five administrative violations, eight departmental violations, neither having to do with the trip, and failure to report; Officer No. 6 was charged with five administrative violations, eight departmental violations, not in connection with the trips, failure to report, and use of derogatory language; Officer No. 7 was charged with five administrative violations, eight departmental violations, not in connection with the trips, use of derogatory language, improper conduct at the Hooters restaurant, and failure to report; Officer No. 8 was charged with five administrative violations, eight departmental violations, not in connection with the trips, use of derogatory language, failure to report, and additional misconduct; Officer No. 9 was charged with five administrative violations, eight departmental violations, both in connection with the trips as well as the Hooters restaurant, and various other acts of misconduct on numerous occasions.

Zayas said the charges against his defendants are designed "to retaliate against the individuals who brought this information to light."

The charges against the nine officers have been filed; as a result the hearings are scheduled to begin within 30 days. The city hopes to begin the hearings in a few weeks, however the process could be delayed due to the defendants making discovery request, which would then lead to the city requiring additional time to provide them with the information they need for their defense.

Council wants information

At the City Council meeting last Wednesday night, some council members voiced their displeasure in not being informed about the SWAT investigation situation before the press was.

The issue came up when Councilwoman Beth Mason questioned City Labor Counsel David Corrigan's $9,500 legal fees appearing as a claim before the council. The council must vote on individual claims until the budget is complete.

Mason wanted to know if Corrigan's fees were from the investigation. "I am hesitant to pay bills on something that the press seems to find about before we do," said Mason.

"What does that have to do with paying the bill?" asked Councilwoman Terry LaBruno.

Councilman Peter Cammarano, who said he read the same news reports and questioned their accuracy, asked Kleinman whether the council should go into closed session to discuss the matter.

"This is a white-hot matter, peoples jobs are on the line," Cammarano said.

Kleinman insisted he could not give them any more information than was in the report.

"I'd be more than happy to give you the report, but I'm certainly not going to do it or discuss it today without getting permission from the Hudson County prosecutor or the Attorney General's office," Kleinman said. "If we say the wrong thing, then people who may deserve to get disciplined may not be disciplined."

Bergin attempted to read the statement to the council but was denied. He was apologetic that the council had not received the information earlier.

Kleinman took responsibility for the mishap, saying that he thought the council would receive the report "contemporaneously."

http://www.hudsonreporter.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1291&dept_id=523585&newsid=19373595&PAG=461&rfi=9
_________________
Cops that lie, should die!

(Terrorism) noun: the use of violence (or threat of violence) by a person or an organized group against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear. Doesn't that sound like what our government does to its own citizens?

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson