Written by Claire Bernish at theantimedia.org

What would happen if you were accused of sexual assault?

If you’re a cop in Paterson, NJ, the answer is eight years paid leave—and $2 million.

Officer Manuel Avila has already received $800,000 in “salary” from the city of Paterson over the course of his leave from work after being accused of sexual assault. Now, Avila is attempting to force the city to pay him for vacation time—which he somehow rationalizes he’s owed, that he somehow figures he missed—ostensibly incurred during the time he wasn’t working, anyway.

“As absurd as that sounds, you really can’t dismiss it,” said Paterson City Council President William McKoy.

Paterson has already forked over $710,000 to settle the civil lawsuit stemming from his criminal trial—and that doesn’t even include the legal bills from that same trial and the disciplinary proceedings, which added another $300,000 to boot. Avila has been dubbed Paterson’s $2 million man.

But who is really footing the bill?

Yep, you got it—the taxpayers.

“It’s unfortunate and unfair to the taxpayers that this has been dragging on for so long,” said McKoy. “The difficulty is that all this is being done outside the council’s expense.” Even worse, the council doesn’t get the details about those disciplinary hearings, which effectively makes police officers a “protected class of people,” as McKoy aptly described.

A psychiatrist deemed Avila unfit to carry a weapon back in 2007, leading to his assignment in the holding cell area at police headquarters. This was supposed to help the officer meet the terms for pension.

But shortly after being assigned to that post, Avila was charged with forcing a female prisoner to perform oral sex on him. Though he was acquitted of the criminal charges by a jury in June 2010, the city still had to pay the hefty settlement from the victim’s lawsuit in July 2011.

There have been complications with the disciplinary proceedings—locating the victim and an injury suffered by Avila’s lawyer—that have caused unusual delays.

At one point, the city considered simply terminating Avila, but the severance itself would have had a $70,000 price tag. Now, the city is discussing retirement options with Avila—though the sum he’s demanding and the sum they are offering have not been publicly disclosed.

What will likely result from this mess is that a once-accused cop will be paid for eight years of what amounts to vacation, as well as the additional vacation time he “earned” while already on that vacation.

McKoy unwittingly summarized the entire U.S. police state dilemma in one sentence:

“There has to be a better system of accountability and oversight.”



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