All is not at peace in Jackson Township.
Police Chief Matthew Kunz has just filed a massive lawsuit revealing explosive allegations involving Mayor Mike Reina’s decision to appoint Joseph Candido - a sitting Police Lieutenant (and subordinate to Kunz) as Director of Public Safety and effectively, Kunz's boss.
The lawsuit highlights that in his short tenure, Candido has taken complete control of the police department and even taken disciplinary action against Kunz.
The suit also brings back to light Reina’s earlier fight against LCSW and his attempts to bully Kunz into kicking LCSW out of Jackson.
According to the court filing in New Jersey Superior Court in Ocean County by Secaucus Attorney John P. Nulty, Jr., Esq.:
The Township of Jackson, through Reina, and Candido, have unlawfully usurped the statutory rights and privileges attendant to Kunz's position as Chief of Police. By statute, Kunz possesses the right to administer and enforce rules and regulations applicable to the Department and to oversee and manage the Department’s day-to-day affairs. The Legislature has made clear that these statutory rights are designed to insulate chiefs of police from political pressures and to permit them freedom to manage their departments free from unnecessary interference. A police chief’s management of the department therefore is subject only to general regulatory oversight by an ”appropriate authority” – typically the mayor or another high-ranking municipal official.
To further insulate chiefs of police from political passions, the Attorney General’s Internal Affairs Practices and Procedures (“IAPP”) provides that investigations of misconduct by chiefs of police are subject to a rigid procedural framework, whereby any such investigation must be carried out by the County Prosecutor’s Office of Attorney General’s Office, which then submits its findings to the appropriate authority.
The Township has trampled upon Kunz's statutory rights and procedural protections. In early 2024, the Township passed an ordinance which designated Candido -- a Lieutenant within the Jackson Police Department and thus a subordinate of Plaintiff -- as the Township’s Director of Public Safety. The ordinance also provides the Director with ultimate supervisory authority over the Department’s day-to-day affairs and, consequently, Plaintiff. Stranger still, the ordinance does not name the Director as the “appropriate authority” with the attendant statutory powers to oversee the Department’s general procedures, but rather names the Township Manager as the “appropriate authority.”
Upon assuming his new title as Director, Candido has exercised absolute and total authority over the Department’s day-to-day operations, including personnel assignments and duties, uniform and badge requirements, purchasing authority, equipment assignments, police investigatory affairs, and officer discipline. In each of these various responsibilities, he either has cut Kunz completely out of the decision-making process, overturned Kunz's prior orders, or both. Kunz thus has been forced involuntarily to cede unassignable statutory privileges to a subordinate officer.
Even more egregious, Director Candido has seen fit on two occasions to issue discipline to Kunz, in direct violation both of the IAPP and the Department’s own Standard Operating Procedures.
There are several fatal problems that render the Township’s activities here unlawful. First, Director Candido has not been designated by the Township as the “appropriate authority,” and therefore cannot exercise any authority over Kunz. Second, even putting that issue aside, the appropriate authority is intended as a position to be filled by a civilian, such as the mayor, with general policy oversight of a department’s affairs. The “appropriate authority” cannot act as a law enforcement officer, nor manage a department’s day-to-day operations at a granular level. Defendants have violated both of those requirements here. Third, Director Candido is barred from serving as the Director of Public Safety by the common law incompatibility doctrine, which prohibits public officials and employees from serving in dual roles, one of which is subordinate to the other. Because he already serves as a Lieutenant in the Department subordinate to Kunz, Director Candido cannot fill a second role in which he is able to exercise supervisory authority over Kunz. Finally, the two instances in which Director Candido issued discipline to Kunz both were improper because he failed to comply with the requirements of both the IAPP and the Department’s Standard Operating Procedures, both of which require that investigations for police chief misconduct be carried out by the County Prosecutor’s Office or the Attorney General’s Office, and then be referred to the appropriate authority.
The suit also lists a number of contentious issues over the years between Kunz and Reina, including that in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Reina directed and encouraged Department Heads to file false, misleading and/or inflated insurance claims. Kunx resisted this illegal direction and, instead, reported the conduct to the FBI. Kunz, at the FBI’s request, acted as a confidential informant and provide information which he reasonably believed, demonstrated criminal conduct by Reina. During the course of that investigation, the FBI revealed to Reina that Kunz had been operating as a confidential informant and had provided information to it regarding Reina’s conduct.
The court filing seeks for immediate relief as follows:
i) Dismissing all subject disciplinary charges against Kunz;
ii) Rescinding and voiding any suspension or other penalty or finding associated with said notices and permanently removing same from Kunz's disciplinary history and record;
iii) Permanent injunctive relief prohibiting Director Candido from interfering with Kunz's authority to manage the day-to-day operations of the Police Department, including, but not limited, to the ability to regulate personnel assignments, shift policies, uniform rules, budget approvals, press releases, directing law enforcement personnel, seeking confidential information, and equipment allocations;
iv) Permanent injunctive relief prohibiting Director Candido from engaging in law enforcement activities, including, but not limited to, conducting motor vehicle stops; answering calls for service; engaging in patrol activities; speaking with officers or department employees regarding confidential police matters; issuing directives to officers or department employees; having unfettered access to police headquarters; stopping or detaining individuals; arresting individuals as a police officer; wearing a police uniform, visible gun, or badge; operating a vehicle equipped as a police vehicle, including police hand radios; accessing criminal investigative records or criminal history record information; accessing areas of the police department where confidential information is discussed or displayed; accessing the police department’s video surveillance and security system; directing or participating in the investigation of any criminal activity; and carrying a firearm in the performance of his duties.
v) An order declaring all orders and directives issued by Director Candido to be void;
vi) Awarding counsel fees and costs in favor of Plaintiff; and
vii) Such other legal and equitable relief as the Court may deem just and proper.
The immediate filing is pending before Judge Valter Must who has not yet scheduled a hearing on the matter.
Kunz has been employed by the Township for over 34 years and has served as its Chief of Police since 2008.
To join the FAA News WhatsApp Status, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment