Sergio Bichao

@sbichao

A Plainfield businessman says two cops attacked him last year.

Two police officers claim the city retaliated after they investigated the police director on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute.

The police union president and a lieutenant are suing each other over a confrontation.

PLAINFIELD – In a city where the former mayor reportedly shouted "I am the (expletive) mayor!" in City Hall, a police officer now is accused of making his own vulgar pronouncement: "We are the cops. We run (expletive) around here."

The alleged remark by Officer Michael Black is quoted in a Superior Court lawsuit filed this summer in Elizabeth by a Plainfield businessman who said he was accosted and attacked by two undercover cops last year for "appearing suspicious."

The lawsuit is just one among nearly a half-dozen legal complaints that the city and its Police Division are defending against or have recently settled.

All but one of the complaints have been filed by current or former police employees, including two cases in which officers claimed they were retaliated against after blowing the whistle on the then-police director's attempt to hire a male prostitute. That police director, Martin Hellwig, was never charged with a crime and faced internal discipline only for misusing police equipment.

In addition to the litigation, several police officials have been criminally charged in the past four years, adding to the image of a police organization beset by internal strife and misbehavior.

News of the lawsuits, details of which are being reported on for the first time, comes as the 133-officer division tries to forge better ties with the community in the wake of the national protests and unrest following grand jury decisions in police shootings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York.

Police Director Carl Riley, who assumed control of the department this year with the election of Mayor Adrian Mapp, declined to comment on pending litigation or events that transpired before he took over the force.

"We must forget the past, learn from it and move forward," Riley said Thursday evening to a crowd gathered at a police-community forum at Shiloh Baptist Church.

At the same forum, Mapp spoke highly of the Police Division, saying "they are doing a wonderful job" and "are the best that any community could ask for."

Afterward, he told MyCentralJersey.com that he has considered and declined to endorse any plan to implement a civilian review board to adjudicate citizen complaints against police, saying there is no need.

Prostitution investigation

One of the pending lawsuits against the city is by Jeffrey Walz, who was demoted from sergeant in 2010, a year after reporting what he believed was an attempt by Hellwig to meet with a male prostitute.

Walz said he found a three-page email printout of an exchange between Hellwig and the masseuse in the center console of a police vehicle on July 22, 2009. The emails were in response to a Craigslist ad and had the subject "Re: Hook-up."

In the emails, Hellwig describes himself as a 55-year-old with "a very nice body with athletic build," 5-foot-11 and "smooth."

"Available within your time," he says. "Could be in area in half hour or so."

Three minutes later, the masseuse replies: "cool would enjoy giving u a massage the donation is 80 would u like a appointment."

"Yes. Is 1:15 OK?" Hellwig replies on June 8. That appointment appears to fall apart, so the messages continue several days later, with the two settling on anytime up to 2 p.m. on June 18. The masseuse gives Hellwig a North Caldwell address with instructions on where to park. "And it is 80 cash only and tips are always welcome."

It is not clear if Hellwig ever met with the man because his vehicle broke down on the way to North Caldwell and had to be towed, according to Walz's July 27, 2009, report, which he submitted to Capt. Edward Santiago.

According to Walz's lawsuit, Santiago then called the State Police Political Corruption Unit to conduct an investigation and the division's internal affairs unit, which reportedly looked into the complaint in February 2010.

As a result of the internal affairs investigation,Walz was issued a notice of disciplinary action suspending him for 90 days on Aug. 2, 2010, and demoting him from sergeant to police officer, the lawsuit says.

Capt. Michael Gilliam also investigated the Hellwig incident and says he was demoted to sergeant as a result, according to his own lawsuit alleging violations of the state Whistleblower Act.

The city settled with Gilliam last year. In exchange for Gilliam dropping the lawsuit, the city promoted him back to captain, gave him the difference in pay since his demotion, dropped all administrative charges against him and paid his attorneys $27,500 in legal fees.

Gilliam retired a year later in May with a $91,600 annual public pension.

Reached at home Wednesday, Hellwig declined to respond to any allegations in particular.

"That's their interpretation, not mine," he said about Walz's and Gilliam's claims.

In 2010, then-Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs suspended Hellwig for three days for improper use of a city computer. City officials made no mention of the prostitution allegations, which also were not reported in the mainstream press, although they were discussed on local blogs.

When asked about the case on Dec. 11, Mapp said Hellwig should have faced a "harsher punishment."

"It should have been handled differently by the city, county and the state," he said.

Hellwig collects a $59,369 annual public pension for his 1996 retirement from the Verona police.

Excessive force complaint

In his lawsuit, Derron Appleton, 27, a city resident and real estate investor, said he was meeting with two prospective clients in front of a home on Johnston Avenue at about 3:30 p.m. Nov. 17, 2013. When he returned to his car, an unmarked police cruiser pulled up and two men, whom Appleton did not know where police, approached in "a menacing manner."

"At that moment, and without cause or consent by Appleton, Officer Eric Groething opened the door to Appleton's vehicle, reached inside, physically grabbed Appleton and forcefully removed him from his vehicle in the presence of the investors and others in the area.

"Appleton tried to plead with Groething to understand what was happening," but Groething "violently" turned Appelton around and slammed him against the cruiser. Black, meanwhile, was questioning the women to whom Appleton had been speaking. When Black returned, Appleton asked him for an explanation, to which Black allegedly replied: "We are the cops. We run (expletive) around here."

Appleton's attorney, Maged W. Hanna of Craner, Satkin, Scheer & Schwartz, of Scotch Plains, declined to comment further on the case Dec. 12 but said that the city's motion to dismiss the lawsuit was unsuccessful.

Appleton was charged with obstruction and ticketed for having an air freshener hanging from his rear-view mirror. The obstruction charge was dismissed in Municipal Court.

An attorney for the city did not return a request for comment.

At the community forum on Dec. 11, Lt. Troy Edwards, without referencing the lawsuit, said dealing with these sorts of complaints about "bad encounters with police officers" is "what my job is" as head of the division's internal affairs unit.

"I want to dispel a rumor," he told the crowd of 200 people. "There is a prejudice about police that we all cover up for each other, that we take care of one another, blue wall, whatever. That does not exist in the Plainfield Police Division and it will not exist as long as I work there — and I have some say about it."

Union president sues

The president of the city's police union, meanwhile, is in court over dueling lawsuits involving Lt. Jeffrey Plum.

Crawford sued last year in Superior Court, claiming that in February, he saw Plum, while off duty, "kissing and otherwise acting unprofessionally and inappropriately with a subordinate, Melissa Howell."

Crawford said Plum retaliated by filing a hostile workplace complaint against him. Crawford says he also was transferred to a less desirable shift, resulting in "emotional distress, significant reduction in overtime, unwanted change in schedule requiring him to work certain holidays, being the subject of ridicule by fellow officers and suffering embarrassment before the community."

In his countersuit, Plum denies the allegations and says Crawford placed his arm around his neck, pulled him into an office and began yelling at him for a reason not explained in the complaint. Plum said he attempted to leave, but Crawford blocked him.

Plum says Crawford filed a false report to superiors, alleging that Plum engaged in illegal and improper conduct. Plum says Crawford's lawsuit is "baseless, contains false allegations and was filed against the plaintiff for the sole purpose of harassing the plaintiff and forcing the plaintiff to respond to the lawsuit."

Plum says he has filed numerous internal complaints against Crawford and that one was found to have merit but "no detrimental action was taken against Crawford nor was action taken regarding other complaints."

Plum, meanwhile, was the subject of another lawsuit filed by a black female police aide in 2011 who claimed that he retaliated against her when she refused to do tasks she believed did not adhere to proper procedure. Sharon Williams, who no longer is employed by the city, said Plum treated her differently because of her race.

The city last year settled her lawsuit by paying for $145,000.

The Crawford and Plum lawsuits and settlement were first uncovered by Libertarian Party activist John Paff, who posted the court documents on his website.

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

Policing Plainfield police

Since 2010, a number of Plainfield police officials have faced criminal charges:

Sgt. Leslie Knight and Lt. James Abney: In September, the Union County Prosecutor's Office charged the pair with stealing a combined total of $11,000 in padded overtime and extra-duty shifts that they allegedly never worked. Each was suspended.

Sgt. Samuel Woody: Charged in 2012 with coercing a women into performing a sexual act on herself while he masturbated, he was sentenced in April to six years in prison.

Sgt. Wilfred "Toby" Whitley: He was charged in 2010 with soliciting prostitution. He retired last year with a $71,784 annual public pension.

Officer David Thomas: A Union County jury in 2010 convicted him of second-degree insurance fraud after filing a false $3,300 claim for a computer he said was stolen from his home. Thomas lost his job and state pension.

Officer Martesse Gilliam: The son of Michael Gilliam was charged in 2010 with driving while intoxicated, aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and obstruction of justice after an alleged fight outside a Bloomfield bar. An Essex County jury in 2012 found him not guilty of assault. Gilliam last year sued Bloomfield police over the incident, alleging police brutality. The lawsuit is pending.