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State Police Detective Sgt. 1st Class John Pizzuro claims in a new lawsuit that he has twice been denied promotions to the rank of lieutenant as retaliation by his supervisor, who in 2009 requested he sign nominating petitions supporting Gov. Chris Christie.

(File photo)

TRENTON — A veteran state trooper claims in a lawsuit that his exemplary career was derailed by two superiors because he refused to sign nominating petitions supporting Chris Christie's first campaign for governor.

In the lawsuit, filed May 15 in state Superior Court in Mercer County, Detective Sgt. 1st Class John Pizzuro says he was approached by a colleague, Detective Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Hampton, in 2009 while working for the division’s Official Corruption Unit.

Hampton, while on official time, told Pizzuro that he was working for the campaign and had been asked to obtain petition signatures to get Christie on the ballot, and then presented a list that included the names of about 10 troopers, according to the lawsuit.

Pizzuro said he refused to sign and noted the request was against State Police regulations.

"Hampton again instructed (Pizzuro) to sign the petition stating that ‘you have to sign it if you want things to get better,’ " according to the lawsuit.

After again refusing to sign, Pizzuro claims Hampton called him a derogatory term and walked away.

Pizzuro alleges his rebuke of Hampton came back to haunt him last year, when Hampton was promoted to lieutenant and became his supervisor, and Pizzuro was subsequently denied the same rank on several occasions despite being first in line for the job.

An attorney for Pizzuro, George Daggett, declined to elaborate on the complaint, and spokesmen for the state Attorney General’s Office and State Police declined comment. Troopers are prohibited under regulation from commenting.

A spokesman for Christie’s 2009 campaign could not be reached for comment on what role, if any, Hampton had in the campaign.

The lawsuit is the latest filed against the State Police alleging its promotional system, one of the most subjective in the country, can be manipulated to reward friends and associates of supervisors and punish those who fall out of favor or speak out against wrongdoing.

Currently, State Police supervisors at several levels meet and rank troopers eligible for promotion on a scale of 1 to 100, taking into consideration education, years of service, experience, performance and employee evaluations. But there are no interviews or objective scoring, which leaves the state vulnerable to lawsuits by troopers claiming they were wrongly passed over for promotion.

A Star-Ledger survey in 2012 found nearly every other state uses structured interviews, written exams or verbal exams, called oral "boards," to assess rank-and-file candidates seeking supervisory jobs. In response to the findings, the state Attorney General’s Office formed a panel to review the process, but no changes have been announced.

PROMOTION REVERSALS

According to the latest lawsuit, about 22 days after Hampton’s promotion, Pizzuro was told by Capt. Denise Medea that she had been authorized by Maj. Raymond Guidetti to promote him to lead the Strategic Operations Unit, which was a lieutenant position.

Medea told Pizzuro that the promotion was authorized by Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes.

But four days later, according to the lawsuit, Medea told Pizzuro he would not receive the promotion and that it was instead being offered to Detective Sgt. 1st Class Cesar Huaman. Pizzuro alleges Huaman originally declined the promotion but reversed course and accepted it after Hampton threatened him with a demotion if he did not agree.

In a meeting on Sept. 9, 2013, Pizzuro claims Guidetti told him he had no choice but to promote Huaman and said to "continue doing what you do, and unless a captain dislikes you, you should have no problem" getting promoted to lieutenant.

A week later, Medea instructing Hampton to put Pizzuro in charge of the Sex Trafficking Operation, a priority initiative backed by the Attorney General’s Office in anticipation of the 2014 Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium, according to the lawsuit.

Though Hampton complied, he soon approached another trooper to replace Pizzuro, the lawsuit said. When that trooper declined, Pizzuro claims Hampton stripped him of his duties as head of the operation and disregarded his input at meetings.

In the following months, Medea was told by Guidetti that Pizzuro would receive the next available promotion but that he had delegated all of those decisions to Hampton, who had since been promoted again, to captain, according to the lawsuit.

CHANGE IN THE RANKS

In March of this year, Pizzuro was ranked first on the promotional list for lieutenant, according to the lawsuit. But he alleges that Hampton and Guidetti changed the list from a numerical ranking to alphabetical, dropping Pizzuro to the "P" position on the list.

On March 26, six troopers were promoted to lieutenant over Pizzuro, including two that were not ranked on the list.

The lawsuit alleges Hampton’s actions "were in direct retaliation" for Pizzuro’s refusal to sign the nominating petitions for Christie in 2009, and that Hampton used his position to influence Guidetti and put a stop to Pizzuro’s career.

Pizzuro is seeking an unspecified amount of damages under the state’s whistleblower law.

RELATED COVERAGE

• State pays N.J. State Police trooper $325,000 to settle whistleblower lawsuit over gun tracking

• N.J. Attorney General creates panel to review State Police promotion process

• N.J. is one of two states to promote troopers based on supervisors' opinions

• Troopers' lawsuits against State Police cite transfers, lost promotions

• More State Police coverage

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