Officer sues Borough police

A 20-year veteran of the Borough police is suing the department under the state whistle-blower protection law, claiming that he was fired in an attempt to “silence him” for investigating another officer.

Sgt. Kenneth Riley was placed under internal investigation and indicted by a grand jury in 2008. He was later fired.

Riley was accused of looking into the actions of a fellow sergeant — who allowed a drunk driving suspect to urinate in bushes, according to court papers — “in an effort to adversely affect [that] officer’s standing in the department,” the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said at the time.

The case against Riley was dropped this year, and he was ordered to be reinstated. In the latest filing, Riley is alleging that the department retaliated against him in “negligent, malicious, intentional, wanton, willful and/or reckless” ways for investigating the other sergeant, according to court documents.

The civil lawsuit, filed in New Jersey Superior Court last month, further alleges that Riley “has been harmed and has sustained economic loss, suffered injury to his present and future career opportunities [and] suffered severe emotional distress, humiliation, pain and suffering.”

Riley claims that the Borough violated the Conscientious Employee Protection Act — known as the state’s whistle-blower law — by “discriminating, harassing and retaliating” against him. Riley, who requested a jury, is seeking punitive and compensatory damages.

The case dates back to January 2008, when Lt. Robert Currier, then a sergeant, allowed a drunk driving suspect to urinate in bushes on private property, according to court filings. Two other officers at the scene — who were under Riley’s command — believed Currier violated a Borough ordinance, according to court documents, and one of the officers notified Riley. Currier was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

The prosecutor’s office alleged that Riley then accessed the dashboard camera footage of the incident and showed it to other officers. It also alleged that Riley was not truthful when questioned about accessing the footage.

Riley was placed under internal investigation and was eventually indicted on criminal charges in Sept. 2008. The charges were dismissed a year later, but the Borough continued to pursue the case and filed administrative charges.

A hearing officer then found Riley guilty, and Riley was fired in Oct. 2010. But Riley appealed, and in January a superior court judge reversed that decision and ordered that Riley be reinstated and reimbursed for back pay and attorney costs — an amount that cost Borough taxpayers more than $400,000.

Riley maintained his innocence throughout the cases.

The Borough has previously denied that the department retaliated against Riley.

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“There were a number of departmental disciplinary actions taken over the course of the past two years. Sergeant Riley wasn’t the only one,” Kevin Wilkes ’83, a Borough councilman, said during an interview in February.

Riley’s attorney, Freehold-based Steven Gabor, declined to comment while the case was ongoing. The Borough’s attorney, New Brunswick-based Lori Dvorak, did not respond to a request for comment.

The recent lawsuit is the second this year from a Borough police officer who has alleged retaliation from the department. In June, a Superior Court jury awarded $525,000 to an officer who claimed he was targeted by department leadership for filing a racial discrimination complaint. The Borough vigorously denied the allegations.