Neptune police under fire from NAACP for secret report

Austin Bogues | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Local NAACP president discusses issues in Neptune Asbury Park/Neptune NAACP President Adrienne Sanders discusses topics from the Turner Report to the resignation of officer Elena Gonzalez.

NEPTUNE - The local NAACP chapter says it wants the U.S. Justice Department to investigate conditions within the Neptune police force as it also presses for the township to release a secret report about internal police complaints.

Asbury Park/Neptune Chapter President Adrienne Sanders said Justice Department scrutiny is warranted because of recent discrimination claims by past and present police personnel and questions raised by the fatal 2015 shooting by former Neptune police sergeant Philip Seidle.

Releasing the so-called "Turner report," which studied the internal workings of the police department, also “would bring to light the real environment within that police department and the township," said Asbury Park/Neptune Chapter President Adrienne Sanders. "I think it's essential for that report to be made public."

In 2014, the township committee paid $27,000 for an outside consultant to investigate internal complaints within the police department. The report, produced by Gregory K. Turner Consulting LLC, has never been released to the public.

In the video at the top of this story, Sanders explains why the NAACP wants the Justice Department to investigate.

Mayor Michael Brantley told the Press on Thursday the township committee would be making "a statement" regarding the report at its Monday meeting, but declined to elaborate. Brantley also declined to comment on the NAACP request for the Justice Department to investigate the police force.

SECRET REPORT: Neptune paid $27,000 for police report, and it's a secret

The township has refused to release the report, citing personnel matters and pending litigation.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment in an email to the Press on Friday.. Sanders said the NAACP is making its request in a letter.

The NAACP is the latest organization pressing for the release of the report, which has drawn attention as Neptune faces heightened scrutiny over police operations.

Shelley L. Stangler, the attorney representing the children of Tamara Wilson-Seidle, who was shot and killed by her ex-husband, former Neptune police sergeant Philip Seidle, in a daylight attack June 16, 2015, said she will seek a copy of the report.

The Seidle family has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the township, along with Asbury Park Police and the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office.

The suit says the department failed to discipline Philip Seidle properly and wrongly allowed him to use his service weapon, which he wielded during the shooting.

The suit also claims that Seidle used "the police force at his whim, to create an intimidating and threatening environment" for Wilson-Seidle whenever he picked up the children he had with Tamara Wilson-Seidle.

"[The report] would be relevant to this case," Stangler said, referring to the wrongful death lawsuit. "I would certainly say that there is a basis for the release of this kind of information," Stangler told the Press.

WRONGFUL DEATH: Seidle children file federal lawsuit in mother's killing

The report is also being sought by a pair of lawyers representing a current Neptune Police officer and a former police sergeant in separate discrimination lawsuits against the township.

The report has been kept from public view by the township through loopholes in the state Open Records Act.

In May, Neptune Township municipal clerk Rick Cuttrell denied an OPRA request seeking the report.

Cutrell told the Press the report was not an official "government record" under New Jersey state law because it had never been formally accepted by the township committee.

He also said the report could not be released because it was exempt under New Jersey state law protecting investigations regarding sexual harassment and employee grievances.

Attorneys Donald F. Burke and Donald F. Burke Jr., each representing Neptune Police Officer Kyheem Davis and former police Sgt. Elena Gonzalez in separate discrimination lawsuits against the township, unsuccessfully sought the Turner report in 2016 through a subpoena.

Gonzalez alleged she was the target of sexual harassment and racial discrimination during her 11-year tenure on the force. She filed suit against the township in 2013 and received a $330,000 settlement the next year; another officer, Christine Savage, also received $330,000.

Watch the emotional resignation of a Neptune officer Elena Gonzalez resigned from the police department, after saying she was repeatedly subjected to sexual harassment and discrimination.

Gonzalez maintains the harassment never abated. She filed another discrimination suit in 2016. She resigned from the force in April. You can view a video of her reading her emotional resignation letter to the township committee above.

Davis said he was retaliated against for supporting Gonzalez and Savage’s accounts of harassment when he was interviewed for the Turner report.

This past May, however, a Monmouth County Superior Court judge rejected a motion by Davis’ attorneys to obtain the report.

"It is truly amazing that the Neptune Township Committee would pay for the Turner investigation and not read the report or take action addressing the findings. It is nothing less than willful ignorance and deliberate indifference," Burke Jr. said, in an email to the Press.

Walter Luers, who serves as vice president of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government, said there may be portions of the report that should be withheld, but other portions that can be made public.

"If the report contains legal advice then it might be privileged," Luers said.

"Any factual information should be produced. If I were running the town I would just produce the whole thing because it all involves taxpayer money," Luers said.

The Neptune Township Committee meeting will be held at the township's municipal headquarters, located at 25 Neptune Boulevard. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. and is open to the public.

Austin Bogues 732-643-4009; abogues@gannettnj.com

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