NEPTUNE - Township officials, in a turnabout, say they will finally read a nearly four-year-old consultant's report on sexual harassment and racial discrimination in the police department and consider whether to make the findings public.

The report, produced by Gregory K. Turner Consulting LLC, was submitted to the township in January 2014 but township committee members have never formally accepted the report or even acknowledged reading it.

That is about to change.

"The police committee will be looking at the Turner report," Mayor Michael Brantley said. "We’re going to look at the Turner report."

Explaining the move, Brantley said the document could prove useful as the township examines the management and structure of the police department, which has been embroiled in a string of controversies including allegations of sexual harassment, racial discrimination and officer misconduct.

In June 2015, Philip Seidle, who at the time was a Neptune police sergeant, killed his ex-wife, Tamara Wilson Seidle, after a car chase through Asbury Park. Seidle pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and is serving a 30-year prison sentence. The department faced criticism for how it handled prior discipline involving the officer.

The Turner report was commissioned in 2013 – at a cost of $27,000 to taxpayers – after two police officers, Elena Gonzalez and Christine Savage, made allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. The next year, both women settled lawsuits with the township for $330,000 each.

Scroll to the top of this story to watch a video about the Turner report.

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Gonzalez left the force in April 2017, alleging that the harassment and discrimination never abated. Both women subsequently refiled new lawsuits against the township.

Brantley said the police committee will look into the report after the Township Committee holds its Jan. 1 reorganization meeting. The police oversight committee is comprised of Brantley, Deputy Mayor Nicholas Williams and former Newark Police Captain Barry Colicelli.

Brantley said it would be determined later if the report would be made public.

For years, the so-called Turner report has been a curiosity in Neptune, largely for the secrecy surrounding it. Township officials have given various reasons for neither accepting the report nor reading it over its four-year lifespan – even though it was paid for by taxpayers.

In May, municipal clerk Rick Cuttrell denied a public records request from the Press seeking a copy, claiming it was not an official "government record" under New Jersey state law because it had never been formally accepted by the township committee.

He also said the report could not be released because it was exempt under New Jersey state law protecting investigations regarding sexual harassment and employee grievances.

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In June, Neptune Township Attorney Gene Anthony said the Turner report could not be released because doing so would "violate the privacy rights of all individuals involved in the investigation."

Several community groups, including the Asbury Park/Neptune Chapter of the NAACP, have long called for the Turner report to be released to the public.

In a 2013 interview as part of the Turner investigation, Neptune Officer Kyheem Davis said he corroborated Gonzalez and Savage's accounts of wrongful conduct. In July 2016, he alleged that his public support resulted in retaliation: Davis faced discipline for driving faster than 100 mph en route to a 2014 fatal crash and also for an incident where he was accused of mishandling an iPhone seized during an arrest.

Attorneys Donald F. Burke and Donald F. Burke Jr., who are both representing Davis, Savage and Gonzalez in separate lawsuits against the township, unsuccessfully sought copies of the Turner report in 2016 through a subpoena.

In late May of this year, Superior Court Judge Mara Zazzali-Hogan rejected a motion from Davis' attorneys to obtain the report from Neptune. Zazzali-Hogan denied the motion without prejudice, saying that an earlier ruling determined the information was blocked by attorney-client privilege.

On Friday, Burke Jr. said the township committee should have reviewed the report when it was submitted.

"They have information that’s available to them, its been available to them for the last three years," Burke Jr. said. "I’m surprised that they haven’t reached a conclusion sooner that this is information they should have reviewed and implemented necessary changes."

Austin Bogues 732-643-4009; abogues@gannettnj.com