By Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Don't Edit

(Wall police department Facebook page)

A lawsuit filed by a former Wall Township Police dispatcher says officers called him a "monkey," mocked him, and posted racist and sexually-explicit cartoons for him to see -- all within a broader negative atmosphere in which officers and their superiors routinely used the n-word.

The dispatcher, Nicholas Curcio, is white, and of Italian descent, the suit states.

The suit further charges that when the dispatcher informed the department's chief at the time, the chief dismissed his concerns and called him a "rat."

Don't Edit

Curcio, a former dispatcher and communications supervisor who began working for Wall in 1994, alleges in the suit that the harassment occurred prior to and up until his suspension without pay in 2016.

The suit, which was filed in state Superior Court in Monmouth County on July 31 and amended on Sept. 20, did not state why Curcio was suspended without pay. Curcio's lawyer in the lawsuit, Ravi Sattiraju of Princeton, declined to elaborate on the suspension.

The suit names Wall Township and the Wall Police Department as defendants, charging that the township and the department tolerated a hostile work environment in violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.

Don't Edit

A cartoon the dispatcher alleges was displayed in the police department. (Lawsuit exhibit).

"Defendants' employees, including supervisory personnel, would subject Plaintiff in a hostile work environment by mocking the discoloration Plaintiff suffered on his legs as a result of his diabetes and generally because of his darker-skinned, Italian-American complexion," the suit states.

"Defendants' employees, including supervisory personnel, routinely called Plaintiff names, including 'half-black,' 'black legs' and 'you look like a black guy.'"

The suit added: "The above racial slurs were part of a larger issue where Defendants' employees, including supervisory personnel, routinely used racial slurs against African Americans including the N-word."

Don't Edit

A member of the Wall Township Committee reached by phone Monday night, Dominick DiRocco, said he had not seen the lawsuit but that he and fellow elected officials had heard about the allegations.

"We take these allegations very seriously," said DiRocco, who declined to comment further and referred the matter to the township attorney, Sean Kean.

Wall Township Administrator Jeffrey Bertrand rejected the allegations in the suit, though he declined to elaborate due to the pending litigation and what he referred to as "a personnel matter" involving Curcio.

"We obviously will be defending any claims," Bertrand said.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

A poster the dispatcher alleges was displayed in the police department. (Lawsuit exhibit).

Kean, who is also a Republican State Assemblyman from the 30th District, did not respond to requests for comment. Wall Mayor Timothy Farrell and the township's current police chief, Kenneth Brown, also did not respond.

The former police chief, Robert Brice, declined to comment directly on the allegations in the suit, but said, "I look forward to having the opportunity in court to defend myself and any allegations against me."

The identities and the number of officers involved in any of the alleged behavior described in the suit were not specified. Brice was the only individual identified in the suit, though he is not named as a defendant.

"I think it was a culture that permeated the department," Sattiraju said.

Don't Edit

Exhibits attached to the complaint include a cartoon drawing of a police officer and his new bride driving a convertible with a "Just Married" sign in back, dragging two African-American men by ropes tied around their necks, their hands bound behind their backs, as three officers waved at the couple from the sidewalk.

The car's license plate reads "KKK-1" and the officers are all wearing Ku Klux Klan badges, with numbers on their hats that the suit says correspond to badge numbers of actual Wall Township Police officers, though they are not identified by name.

Don't Edit

A poster the dispatcher alleges was displayed in the police department. (Lawsuit exhibit).

Another exhibit in the suit is a drawing of a "Wall Twp. Police" car with two figures in the front seat wearing Klan-like white hoods below the caption, "Boyz N The Hood."

A third is a poster-sized white paper with the message "Best Wishes From Wally World," with dozens of hand-scrawled messages addressed to "Monkey," including one that read, "Get well soon, and no, we don't miss you."

Still other exhibits included sexually explicit drawings with dialogue between "Baby Nick," and unidentified others, and posters with homophobic captions.

Don't Edit

The suit demands a jury trial, with attorney's fees and compensatory and punitive awards for "physical and bodily injuries, severe emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, personal hardship, career and social disruption, psychological and emotional harm, economic losses, and other such damages" suffered by Curcio.

Curcio's lawyer, Sattiraju, represented another former Wall employee in a discrimination suit, Brandon Jacobs, who in May won a $1.25 million settlement with the township and its insurance company.

Don't Edit

A poster the dispatcher alleges was displayed in the police department. It has been edited to remove another person's name. (Lawsuit exhibit).

Jacobs, a former township tax and utility clerk who is Jewish, charged in a 2015 lawsuit against the township that he was the target of anti-Semitic slurs and Nazi propaganda from fellow township employees, "on a near daily basis." Jacobs had begun working in the township in 1999, and later went on disability.

Township officials said they had been advised by the townshp attorney not to comment on the Jacobs case.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.