I thought cops are employed to serve and protect, not involve themselves in politics - Fire all those involved (Fulop and Healy supporters that went public with their views)

Barber at center of lawsuit threat against Jersey City: plaintiffs 'just mad' Fulop won

By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
on May 22, 2014 at 11:27 AM

The Passaic man who played a cop in a campaign ad for Steve Fulop says the police officers behind a planned lawsuit targeting Fulop are "just mad" they backed the wrong candidate in last year's mayoral race.

The officers say in legal documents that Police Chief Robert Cowan, who supported Fulop in the election and was promoted from deputy police chief after Fulop's win, reassigned them because they investigated whether Cowan improperly allowed the Passaic man to wear an official police uniform in the ad.

The man, who declined to provide his name, was shocked to hear that his brief moment as an actor in a 32-second campaign ad has led to a threat of legal action.

"They're just mad, they're sore," the man said of the two officers threatening to sue. "They're mad 'cause they lost."

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I said it once before, that the police chief should have been appointed from outside NJ as was the Public Safety Director - Fulop should kick himself when we all know that politics and policing should NEVER mix ... especially with the history in JC and the JCPD

More lawsuits for Jersey City top cop: Were officers reassigned over Fulop campaign ad probe?

By The Jersey Journal
on May 21, 2014 at 10:06 AM, updated May 21, 2014 at 11:11 AM

Link to Story

Link to Ad Mentioned in Article

Two Jersey City police officers plan to sue the city for $5 million, saying they were reassigned as punishment for investigating Police Chief Robert Cowan's participation in a campaign ad for Mayor Steve Fulop.

The allegations, made in two notices of claim filed in March by the officers' attorney, paint a picture of the Jersey City Police Department that is straight out of HBO crime drama "The Wire," complete with a profanity-laced argument between two cops meeting near a cemetery at 3 a.m. in December.

The notices of claim represent the third time since Cowan became police chief in October that he's been accused in legal documents of reassigning officers as political retaliation.

Cowan, the most recent documents say, "has wielded his new-found power as chief to punish those who supported the 'wrong' candidate, while rewarding those who supported the right candidate."

A notice of claim is a legally required action taken before the city can be sued. The cops behind this new legal move are Officer Erik Infantes, on the force since 2002, and Sgt. Anthony Musante, a 19-year veteran. Both were members of the department's elite Special Investigations Unit (SIU) until last year.

A request for comment from Cowan was not returned. City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill said the city doesn't comment on pending litigation.

The Fulop commercial at the center of the newest allegations was aired last February, when Fulop was in the midst of his ultimately successful bid to unseat former Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

Infantes and Musante were both Healy supporters; Infantes donated $1,450 to the former mayor's campaign, campaign finance documents show. Cowan, at the time a deputy police chief, was in Fulop's camp, donating $500, with member of his family giving $1,830, records show.

In the 32-second spot, Fulop, sitting next to a man in a police uniform, speaks to a group of schoolchildren about crime.

The ad caused a minor stir in Healy's campaign, which immediately attempted to discover the identity of the man in the uniform, hoping to ding Fulop for breaking the rules. Infantes and Musante claim police brass did not give permission for any officer's uniform to be used in the commercial.

After the ad went public, Tom Comey, police chief under Healy, asked the SIU to investigate.

The investigation led to a North Arlington barber shop, where the man who played the cop in Fulop's ad works as a stylist. Infantes said he recognized the man because he had been at the barber shop the day before with his son, the notices of claim say.

According to Infantes and Musante, the stylist told detectives that Cowan had loaned him his uniform for the commercial, identifying Cowan from a photograph supplied by Musante.

The officers say they forwarded the information to the department's internal affairs unit, adding that they don't know whether internal affairs investigated the matter further.

After Fulop become mayor, Infantes, Musante and all the other SIU officers involved in the campaign ad investigation were transferred, Infantes to the radio room to act as a dispatcher, and Musante to patrol during the "highly undesirable" midnight shift, the notice of claim alleges.

The transfers were "a transparent attempt by Mayor Fulop and Chief Cown to rid the SIU of those officers who had the audacity to investigate Mayor Fulop's and Chief Cowan's possible misconduct during the 2013 campaign," the officers allege.

Musante alleges that Cowan "summoned" him to Bayside Park at 3 a.m. on Dec. 8, 2013 ? the temperature was less than 30 degrees that night ? to confront him about the investigation into Fulop's ad. Musante says Cowan "berated" him for showing the soon-to-be chief's photo to the barber shop employee, adding that Cowan told him the sergeant had "f---ed up."

Cowan, a longtime supporter of Fulop, is the target of two other lawsuits claiming political retaliation.

In one, filed last December in federal court, four cops claim Cowan reassigned and threatened to "ruin" them after three of the officers pulled over and ticketed a woman who claimed to have connections to Fulop.

The other lawsuit, filed in March, alleges Cowan had a police officer reassigned because he refused to stop giving out parking tickets to customers parked outside a Mallory Avenue deli favored by cops.