Zombies ahead? Warning prompts complaint from Englewood Cliffs police officer

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS — The unusual warning came on August 1, 2010.

A portable police message board stationed on Charlotte Place flashed the words, “Run for your liff [sic], zombie horde ahead.”

There were no reports of a zombie invasion that day.

Instead there was improper use of police equipment, potential to cause public alarm, conduct unbecoming of an officer and official misconduct, according to a complaint lodged by Capt. Scott Mura on Friday.

In an email sent to Police Chief Michael Cioffi, Mura asked that the Police Department launch an investigation into how three borough officers, “could have thought this was the appropriate and responsible use of the borough’s police sign board?”

In a second complaint emailed to Cioffi on Friday, Mura alleged that an officer had violated the department’s electronic social messaging policy by posting about police business while on duty in 2013 and taking photos at police headquarters.

“It could've caused a panic to some crazed person that believes such a thing could happen,” Mura said in a phone interview Friday. "What were these guys thinking?"

A third email sent to the mayor and council asked for an investigation into improper use of the department's email system by Cioffi, who appeared to have forwarded a photo of a busty woman leaning over a box of doughnuts to a lieutenant in 2016.

The caption above the photo said the image was used to test doughnut inspectors at Tim Hortons and was sent under the subject line, "Will you be hired?"

Cioffi declined to comment Friday.

Mura said he made the complaints to show a pattern of misbehavior in the Police Department.

"I'm the whistleblower," Mura said.

Mura said he took on the role after alleging several years ago that Cioffi and other borough police officers had illegally dismissed parking tickets for former mayor Joseph Parisi Jr. and his allies.

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The allegation led to one of nine administrative charges against Mura, who was accused in 2015 of conducting an investigation into the parking tickets without authorization, improperly running a background check on his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend and lying on four occasions.

Mura sued the borough in response and alleged Cioffi had retaliated against him for the investigation. He settled with the borough last year, receiving $110,000 and a retroactive promotion, provided he retired and does not work for the borough in the future.

Mayor Mario Kranjac said Friday that Mura is still on the borough’s payroll.

He said he would not comment on Mura's complaints until an independent investigation was conducted.

Email: shkolnikova@northjersey.com