Jury says Atlantic City to blame for a rogue cop, K-9 attack

One of the state's largest police forces failed to control its officers, allowing a man to be severely bitten by a K-9 controlled by a rogue cop, a federal jury ruled Thursday.

The six-man, two-woman jury found that the Atlantic City Police Department had an "official policy, practice or custom" that led one of its officers to use "excessive force" against an Ocean City man in 2013.

The civil court jury, sitting in Camden, determined that Atlantic City should pay plaintiff Steven Stadler, 49, $300,000 in compensatory damages. He sued three officers for excessive force and the city for failing to train, supervise and discipline its officers properly.

The jury also found that Police Officer John Devlin, the K-9 handler, used excessive force against Stadler, and determined Devlin should pay $500 in damages. The jury dismissed claims against officers Glenn Abrams Jr. and William Moore.

"Had (the department) intervened, disciplined, had a robust (internal affairs) function, had not rewarded officers for patterns of excessive force … if the city had not turned a blind eye, we would not be here today," Stadler's civil rights attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, told jurors in her closing statement Tuesday.

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Bonjean said the department has condoned misconduct for years by letting its rogue officers run "amuck," knowing their violent actions would be ignored by the city's "sham" internal affairs system. She's been involved several civil rights cases against the city, including another that's scheduled for trial in federal court on April 9.

The jury's "message is that they think it's the city's fault the cops are doing this," Bonjean said. "It's an extremely challenging case. I had a client who pled guilty to resisting arrest."

The city's defense lawyers contend Stadler was resisting arrest, and that officers used legal and reasonable force to get him under control. Stadler was arrested after he attempted to rob a coin box at a car wash owned by an Atlantic City police sergeant at the time.

A 2018 Asbury Park Press investigation of rogue officers across the state found that some of the most violent officers remain on the force even after being charged with crimes. The Press found that millions of dollars are paid to settle wrongful death or excessive force cases.

The three defendant officers all have long histories of internal affairs complaints, court records revealed.

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"These officers did nothing more than their job that night," Tracey Riley, a Mount Holly attorney who represents the officers, told the jury in her closing statement.

Bonjean contends that officers with violent histories were promoted and then armed with dangerous police dogs by a department that ignored its "early warning system" for nearly 14 years. The system was set up to identify and remove violent or otherwise bad officers. But officers were never held accountable, she told the jury.

The Press investigation that examined police misconduct and internal affairs oversight in New Jersey found that Atlantic City paid out millions of dollars in civil excessive force lawsuit settlements and identified officers who had trouble throughout their careers but were allowed to stay on the force. The city refused to turn over other settlement records to the Press under the Open Public Records Act, saying that their record-keeping was in disarray and it would cost hundreds of dollars to track them down.

The gambling capital of the East Coast, Atlantic City gets about 27 million tourists a year. Between 2011 and 2016, six casinos closed, sending the city into financial upheaval. In 2016, then-Gov. Chris Christie appointed a law firm to run the day-to-day operations of the city as part of a state takeover.

The once-robust police department has been cut in recent years from more than 300 officers to 252 today. It still remains one of the largest police forces in the state.

No oversight

A number of lawsuits have claimed that people have suffered permanent injuries because of rogue officers whose bad behavior was ignored throughout the entirety of their careers.

In an interview with the Press on Thursday, Police Chief Henry White Jr. said the department has changed significantly since the implementation of body cameras in 2015. He said internal affairs complaints and use of force reports plummeted since then.

"But I want to be careful to say that just because we're (making) improvements and implementing changes doesn't mean that what was done before was wrong," White said.

Rich Rivera, a New Jersey internal affairs expert and former police officer turned whistleblower, has worked as an expert for plaintiffs in several cases against the city's police department. He said there's "widespread knowledge" that there's wrongdoing occurring in the department.

“Why is it that the county prosecutor and attorney general, not only in Atlantic County but in other counties, willfully ignore local police misconduct and crimes by police officers?” Rivera said. “Because they don’t exercise their authority, we see police abuses across the state taking place daily. Until the attorney general steps up and does his job, we will continue to see local police departments fail.”

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The city, which is struggling with economic deterioration, has paid out millions to settle excessive force lawsuits in recent years. That doesn’t include the city’s legal defense costs. One officer still on the force, Sterling Wheaten, has cost Atlantic City $4.4 million alone.

Wheaten, when called as a witness during the Stadler trial to demonstrate the city’s failed early warning system, invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. His attorney said he’s under federal investigation for an incident that involved his police dog biting 20-year-old David Connor Castellani in 2013, during an arrest outside the Tropicana Casino and Resort.

Castellani’s neck needed more than 200 stitches after Wheaten sicced his dog on the young man, who had sought directions from the police after being separated from his friends at the casino, according to court records. The city settled with Castellani, who also is represented by Bonjean, in September 2017 for $3 million.

Following the Press' story about the federal investigation into Wheaten, Rivera filed an internal affairs complaint with the department, citing the story and noting that Wheaten’s ability to perform his police duties have been “brought into question” and needs “immediate attention.”

An email from internal affairs commander Lt. Lee Hendricks said the situation had been “under review” prior to the complaint.

Early warning system ignored

For at least 14 years, the Atlantic City Police Department ignored an early warning system in place to flag officers who show a pattern of misconduct, Bonjean argued in the Stadler case.

Early warning systems are designed to protect both citizens and officers by making sure supervisors intervene with additional training, monitoring, counseling or psychological evaluations if it's needed.

Wheaten is just one of several officers whose history of internal affairs complaints — mostly for excessive force — started early and accumulated over the years, court records show. In a seven-year period, he had 33 complaints against him, 23 of which were for excessive force.

None of those complaints were sustained.

Officers who took the stand during the trial — Abrams, Devlin, Moore, Timek and Officer Mike Oldroyd — testified that no supervisor ever brought their complaint history or their triggering of the early warning system, to their attention prior to 2014 or 2015.

Oldroyd testified that he had a meeting with his supervisors regarding his internal affairs history in February 2014 — 14 years into his career.

Despite 91 internal affairs complaints until that point, his supervisor at the time agreed that the complaints were mostly “nonsense, not factual” and that they had an obligation to speak to him because he had a certain amount of complaints, he testified in a deposition.

Oldroyd said he wasn’t left with the impression that he should be doing anything differently, and that he was a “proactive” officer who was doing a good job.

Lt. Bridget Pierce said officers were made aware when a complaint was lodged against them, though. She said now, when an officer is flagged for triggering the early warning system, a report is generated and sent to the county prosecutor's and attorney general's offices.

Chiefs of the department throughout the years knew the system wasn’t working, according to testimony. Chief Arthur Snellbaker, who served from 2000 to 2006, testified that a computerized early warning system they had was an "unmitigated disaster," according to 2007 court records.

Former Chief Ernest Jubilee testified that when the city was going through its accreditation process in 2012, the paperwork falsely suggested the city was using a sophisticated software system to track officer behavior.

The city’s internal affairs policy, which was revised in 2010, indicated that the city would start using an electronic tracking system, but the system was never implemented and a separate policy that would have shown how the department would respond to those who triggered the system was never enacted, he said.

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Prior to a new, more complex electronic early warning system adopted by Chief White in 2015, internal affairs records were kept on a white index card by a clerk in the internal affairs unit, according to court records.

Atlantic City Police memorandums obtained from court filings show the department illegally purged internal affairs records — which included using white-out on the index cards — until 2008, which is against the attorney general's guidelines. Since 2000, the guidelines have required that internal affairs records be kept for the duration of the officer's career plus five years.

In 2015, the city's early warning system was drastically improved, White told the Press Thursday. He said a combination of three criteria will flag an officer with yellow, green or red, all of which gets reviewed. Some criteria include internal affairs complaints, use of force reports, motor vehicle pursuits, motor vehicle accidents and sick time usage.

"With this early warning system, it truly gives the commanders — well really everyone in the department — a complete snapshot of all our officers," said White, who became chief in 2013.

Wheaten started as a rookie in the department in 2007, and by 2012, he was promoted to a K-9 officer — a competitive and prestigious post, according to officers in the department.

Another officer, Sgt. Frank Timek, triggered the early warning system every year of his career with 44 complaints from 2002 to 2013 — mostly for excessive force, according to internal affairs records that came out during court proceedings in the Stadler case.

But he was still chosen for a K-9 post in 2008 and was promoted to sergeant in 2012. He’s also a member of the department’s stakeout unit, the SWAT team and the honor guard.

Just one of the 44 complaints against him was sustained. The charge, outcome and punishment weren't disclosed in court records.

Perks of being a K-9 handler include a pay increase, a take-home car, extra days off and being sent to the highest priority calls, like robberies, burglaries and resisting arrest, Timek said in court testimony.

The attorney general’s internal affairs guidelines say that internal affairs history, regardless of the outcome, is relevant for tracking officer behavior.

Joe Rodriguez, a former Atlantic City officer and K-9 trainer, testified that he recommended Timek and Andrew Jaques not to be assigned dogs because of their temperaments.

In a 2007 federal court ruling, a judge wrote that Jaques exhibited a pattern of a "volatile, short-fused" officer with a series of written complaints that pertain to Jaques' inability to "control his temper or use verbal skills properly."

Timek and Devlin both testified in February that they didn’t recall being asked about their internal affairs or excessive force history during the K-9 handler application process.

Jaques, who retired from the department on medical disability in August, was terminated by the department early in his career in 2006, but was reinstated by the state’s Civil Service Commission, records show.

Kala Kachmar: @NewsQuip; 732-749-2238; kkachmar@gannettnj.com.







