A South Jersey police sergeant is accused of intervening in a dispute between two other people over money, then trying to get another officer to lie about the incident.

Deptford Police Sgt. Rudy Ruiz is charged with five counts of official misconduct and a count of witness tampering.

The allegations against Ruiz, 38, date back to Aug. 31, 2014, when he allegedly turned up at the home of a resident who was involved in a “potentially civil dispute” with someone, according to a criminal complaint.

Ruiz, who arrived in uniform and drove an unmarked police car, allegedly tried to coerce the resident into returning $200 to the other party.

The resident filed a complaint “about the demeanor of the officer at the scene, Sgt. Ruiz,” an affidavit of probable cause states.

Ruiz allegedly tried to hide his involvement in the matter by creating a police report about the incident under another officer’s name and asking county dispatch to add that officer, identified as Patrolman Daniel Garr, as an officer who responded to the scene. Garr never responded to the scene, the complaint notes.

In October of that year, Ruiz allegedly told Garr to lie to investigators looking into the citizen’s complaint against the sergeant.

Five days later, on Oct. 7, authorities allege Ruiz provided a false statement to investigators with the police department’s professional standards unit.

Ruiz was charged in August of this year. The documents provide no explanation for why it took five years to bring charges. He’s scheduled to appear in court Thursday for a pre-indictment conference.

His attorney and Deptford officials did not respond to requests for comment or about his current employment status.

Ruiz is paid $107,554 a year, according to state pension records.

He is a veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and was recognized by the Deptford department as one of its officers of the year in 2014.

A story about that honor noted that he had made more than 600 arrests at the time. He attributed his success to “a military mindset.”

Not everyone is a fan of his work.

Philadelphia attorney David Bahuriak said he represented two people who were arrested after Ruiz pulled them over in traffic on separate occasions.“

In my opinion, (Ruiz’s) conduct was outrageous in both cases,” Bahuriak said, adding that he filed motions to suppress and challenging the arrests.

In both cases, the assistant prosecutor dropped the charges before the motions were heard, Bahuriak said.

“I don’t know anything about the current charges against him, but in both of my cases, this officer’s behavior was reprehensible,” Bahuriak said.

Ruiz, who joined the Deptford department in 2007, was promoted to sergeant in 2014 and has served as a drill instructor with the Gloucester County Police Academy. He was recognized with a distinguished service award during the 2016 Gloucester County Police Awards ceremony.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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