Edison police 'wagon wheel of death' rolls on with yet another lawsuit

EDISON – As the Edison Police Department's internal drama has been playing out in a New Brunswick courtroom this week, police and township officials are facing yet another employee lawsuit, adding to more than a dozen the embattled department has faced in recent years.

The trial in the lawsuit filed in December 2012 by former Capt. Michael Palko began this week in Superior Court. Palko alleges he was subjected to harassment, political retaliation and pressured to retire.

As that lawsuit proceeds, a lawsuit filed in 2013 by seven other officers, alleging similar discrimination by Police Chief Thomas Bryan and his allies, also is working its way to possible trial.

Meanwhile, four Edison police officers are facing criminal charges including conspiracy and official misconduct with one of the four — Michael Dotro — facing five counts of attempted murder for allegedly firebombing his captain's home while the family slept.

RELATED: Dotro and wife, 3 other Edison cops indicted

But there's more.

Joseph Kenney, a former patrolman who retired in 2012 with an $88,000 annual pension — and who won a $250,000 settlement in 2011 for a retaliation lawsuit stemming from a 2008 incident — filed a new lawsuit, repeating other officers' claims that the police department's internal affairs unit created a "hit list" of supporters of Mayor Antonia Ricigliano and opponents of Bryan.

That hit list — a physical chart with lines drawn to connect names of officers, and which the lawsuits describe as "reminiscent of a criminal enterprise organizational chart" — came to be known by officers as "the wagon wheel of death."

The lawsuits are an ugly legacy of political turmoil in the township dating back many years. Scandals in the department resulted in the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office in 2011 taking over the department's internal affairs unit, which is charged with investigating complaints against officers.

Last month the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee held a hearing on state Sen. Peter J. Barnes III's bill to have the state attorney general take over Edison's internal affairs.

The "wagon wheel of death" lawsuits trace the recent internal unrest to the administration of former Mayor Jun Choi.

Kenney's lawsuit said that after Choi became mayor in 2006, "under the guise of rehabilitating the police department, Choi set out on a purely partisan campaign to reward, promote and protect personal friends and political supporters within the department, and to ostracize, marginalize and oust as many of his political opponents and/or critics of his policies as possible.

"The unwritten rule in Choi's culture of political cronyism was the politics could either enhance or be hazardous to one's job security."

It was under Choi that Bryan became chief.

"Under the façade of reform, Bryan established his own culture of political patronage and broadened Choi's unambiguous system of reward and punishment, making it clear to subordinates that anyone who refused to follow his political agenda or who questioned or criticized his policies would receive disfavored assignments."

After Ricigliano won the 2009 Democratic primary against Choi and became mayor, the police department's internal affairs unit opened investigations against officials and politicians loyal to the new mayor, Kenney's lawsuit says.

Kenney's attorney, Edward McElroy of Eichen, Crutchlow, Zaslow & McElroy in Edison, did not return several calls seeking comment. A township spokesman also did not comment on the litigation.

Bryan this week has been attending Palko's trial, in which he is expected to testify, NJ Advance Media reported.

NJ Advance Media this week also reported the judge in the Palko case will not permit Kenney to testify on behalf of Palko, who says he was targeted because of his age and because he supported Ricigliano and backed Kenney in incident that led to his first lawsuit. The judge ruled that Kenney could not prove he and others were forced out of the department because of their ages.

Kenney's previous lawsuit had stemmed from a 2008 incident in which he allegedly confronted a superior officer whom he accused of not helping him when he got stuck trying to help two people trapped in a car wreck. Kenney accused his superior officer of saying that he didn't want to risk himself for "dirty (expletive) Indians" in the car. Kenney filed a complaint against his superior and then Kenney was charged with insubordination for the confrontation. The township settled his lawsuit for $250,000 before the end of the trial.

Staff Writer Sergio Bichao: 908-243-6615; sbichao@mycentraljersey.com