Two men who have accused an indicted Carteret officer of excessive force have been cleared of criminal charges in their arrests.

Municipal Judge James F. Weber dismissed the charges against Jamal Merritt and Aramis Rosario, both of whom were arrested by Joseph Reiman in separate incidents during the officer's 23 months on the force. Both faced resisting and obstruction charges.

"The prosecution can't proceed with the case in absence of state's witness," Webner said from the bench in South Amboy.

Reiman, 31, has been indicted on multiple charges of official misconduct and assault in the arrest of a teenager last May. His attorney, Charlies Sciarra, said the officer had not been asked to testify and other cops involved in arrest have been told not to take the stand.

No Carteret officers attended the proceedings Tuesday.

Reiman is youngest brother of longtime Carteret Mayor Daniel Reiman.

"[Joseph Reiman] would do so on all of these cases because these were all solid arrests," Sciarra said. "Criminal suspects are walking free because the Middlesex County prosecutor has sided with them, not law enforcement. It's truly shameful and time for legislative and executive leaders to determine how much public safety they will allow to be compromised in the service of the prosecutor's vendetta against Reiman."

Merritt and Rosario were interviewed last year by NJ Advance Media as part of an investigation into Reiman's history of force on the department in which the news outlet found the officer had accounted for more than 20 percent of all incidents involving force.

In Merritt's case, the 35-year-old Carteret man was arrested in the August 2015 at outside his sister's house while police searched the neighborhood for a known gang member.

He claimed he was beaten and pepper-sprayed for nearly a minute during his arrest. His mother, Carol Foster, sister, Nakia Merritt, and friend, Zoraida Roque, were all also charged with obstruction in the incident and have been fighting the charges in municipal courts since that summer.

The case started in Carteret and was transferred last year to Woodbridge after Reiman was charged. It was transferred again earlier this year to South Amboy over additional potential conflicts of interest.

"This file is a mess," the judge said before dismissing the charges against Merritt, his family and friend. "It looks like every judge in the county has signed an order on this file."

Rosario, 29, who has accused officer Reiman of pushing him into a Plexiglass door and cracking it, had both resisting and obstruction charges dismissed as well in his May 2016 arrest.

The Perth Amboy man had filed a report against Reiman and other officers the month before this arrest accusing them of harassing him.

As the judge review more than a dozen traffic citations, all of which were consolated and resolved Tuesday, Weber asked of Rosario, "What do you do, just drive through town and say pull me over?"

"You just dodged a huge bullet for a number of reasons," the judge said after approving the deal made by the municipal prosecutor with Rosario's attorney, Kevin Flood.

"My clients are happy this is over," said Flood, who represented both Merritt and Rosario.

Craig McCarthy may be reached at 732-372-2078 or at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig and on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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