HOBOKEN -- The former Hoboken SWAT commander who was disciplined for "pretending to be a Ku Klux Klan member," posing with bare-breasted women at Mardi Gras and letting Hooters waitresses hold his weapons, among other transgressions, has lost his appeal to be reinstated as a police officer.

The ruling by the Civil Service Commission in December upholds an administrative law judge's October 2014 decision to terminate Lt. Angelo Andriani, and it could signal the close an embarrassing chapter for the City of Hoboken.



The administrative law judge, Imre Karaszegi, ruled that one charge alone—"embarrassing" photographs with Hooters waitresses and other civilians whom Andriani had given his weapons to during Hurricane Katrina goodwill trips to Louisiana in 2005 and 2006—was enough to terminate the former commander of the Hoboken SWAT unit.

The judge also slammed Andriani for a photograph that showed him holding a napkin on his face, with two eye holes cut out, which the city argued was him pretending to be a Klansman.

The majority of charges, however, were dismissed, with Karaszegi finding insufficient evidence to support claims of threats and discrimination against SWAT team members, illegal work done at his residence, racist statements, falsifying employment records, lying to investigators, improperly spending of SWAT funds, drinking on duty, and violating sick leave provisions while under suspension.

The rulings cast serious doubt to the credibility of former SWAT members who had testified against Andriani. The attorney who represented those police officers in civil suits, Louis A. Zayas, did not return a request for comment.

The civil service commission largely agreed with the judge's decisions, but expressed disagreement on one major allegation. The commission said Karaszegi was wrong in dismissing the charges related to Andriani allowing a guest a private dinner in Kenner, Louisiana to handle his firearm.

"It is immaterial that the weapon was unloaded or that the appellant was not on duty or that he was in a private residence," the civil service commission wrote, adding that there was no "defensible reason" he allowed a civilian to possess his weapon.

Andriani's lawyer, Gerald Miller, said an appeal was filed with the appellate court in March. It likely will not be heard for a year, he said.

The decisions by the Civil Service Commission and Judge Karaszegi did not mention Andriani's bizarre disturbance incident at an airport in Tampa in 2010.

On suspension in May of 2010 for the SWAT team scandal, he allegedly became infuriated that TSA agents had cut him in a security line. He took pictures of TSA agents' badges, complained about the screening process and said he was a police officer, federal authorities claimed. That incident led to his firing, though a judge later that year ruled that Andriani should have been suspended, not fired.

Here's a look at four other things we learned from the rulings in Andriani's case:

Karaszegi found the testimony of the police officers unconvincing, calling the testimony "inconsistent, vague and self-serving on occasion." "All these police officers testified as to how shocked or disgusted they were, at the time, as to Andriani's alleged used of the word 'n----r," the judge wrote. However, none took formal action or ever filed a complaint.

The multiple photographs documenting the SWAT team's hard-drinking "goodwill" trips to Louisiana in 2005-2007 to help the area rebuild after Katrina were enough to have Andriani removed from the force for conduct unbecoming a public employee. Andriani and SWAT members were photographed drinking with Hooters waitresses and other civilians with apparel that identified them as police. Andriani and SWAT members allowed civilians to handle their unloaded weapons.

Andriani, a 23-year veteran off the department, claimed the white napkin with two eye holes he draped over his face at a dinner party in Kenner, L.A. was not meant to emulate a Klansman. Instead, he claimed, he was acting out a Robin Williams skit "concerning a holdupman."

Then Hoboken police chief Carmen LaBruno testified that he was "not sure whether the act of handing the weapons to the Hooters employees was a violation of any departmental regulation as to the 'surrender' of a weapon, and therefore he did not discipline Andriani at the time. (The SWAT scandal resulted in LaBruno's resignation. The ex-chief was also seen in New Orleans posing with bare-breasted women in photographs.)

James Kleimann may be reached at jkleimann@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jameskleimann. Find NJ.com on Facebook.