Jersey City police car

A Jersey City cop alleges he was arrested three years ago as an act of political retribution. Michael Dempsey | The Jersey Journal

(Jersey Journal file photo)

A Jersey City cop charged with drunken driving and refusing to take a Breathalyzer test outside a Kennedy Boulevard gas station three years ago says in a lawsuit that his arrest was an act of political revenge.

The officer, Michael Lang, who has been on the force for nearly 10 years, alleges cops violated his civil rights when they arrested him on June 9, 2013. The drunken driving charges Lang faced were dismissed the following year by a judge who found the officers who arrested Lang had no probable cause.

Lang's five-count lawsuit, filed in August 2014 in Hudson County Superior Court, is one of numerous lawsuits initiated in the last three years by Jersey City employees who allege they were the victims of political retaliation for not supporting Mayor Steve Fulop and his administration. Judges overseeing some of those cases have dismissed them in part or entirely, while others are still moving through the court system.

The city and co-defendants Robert Cowan, the now-retired former police chief, and Cowan's brother, Thomas, who was promoted to deputy police chief last week, have asked a judge to dismiss Lang's case. The judge is expected to rule soon.

In the lawsuit, Lang, represented by North Bergen attorney Louis Zayas, alleges Fulop -- who became mayor three weeks after Lang's arrest -- oversees the police department with an eye on who does and doesn't support him.

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City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said the city would not comment on this pending litigation. Robert Cowan also declined to comment.

Lang's arrest came at about 3:30 a.m. at the BP gas station on Kennedy Boulevard in the Heights. An altercation occurred between Lang, who was off duty at the time, and four others inside the gas station's convenience store and eventually spilled outside. At the time, police said both that Lang, who had pulled his gun on the four people, was the victim of an assault and that his behavior indicated he was drunk.

Thomas Cowan was one of the officers at the scene, according to the lawsuit.

Lang alleges in his lawsuit that he was arrested that day because he and the Cowans were on opposite sides of the previous month's mayoral contest. Lang sided with former Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who lost, and Robert Cowan was a major supporter of Fulop, who won. Fulop in October 2013 promoted Cowan to police chief.

Lang says it was general knowledge that he is Healy's friend and "that he fraternizes with him when they see each other." Lang was at Healy's sons' Newark Avenue bar the night of his arrest; some cops who were with Lang at Healy's said he "did not appear to be intoxicated," according to court documents.

On Feb 19, 2014, a Weehawken municipal judge dismissed Lang's DWI and the charge that he refused to take a Breathalyzer test (Lang says he wouldn't take the test because he believed he was being "set up," according to court documents). Jersey City police officers did not cooperate with the Weehawken municipal court prosecuting Lang, and twice did not show up in court, according to a transcript of that February hearing.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.