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Animal control officers in the doghouse
Lawsuits try to revoke their certification

by Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter Staff Writer2 days 18 hrs ago | 171 views | 1 | 7 | |
OFFICERS IN TROUBLE ? An attorney is suing the state to revoke the animal control officer certifications of several Hudson County-based officers, including Hector Carbajales (seen in a 2008 photo).
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Animal advocate and attorney Diana Jeffrey has filed two lawsuits against the state?s Department of Health and Senior Services to revoke the certification of several animal control officers in Jersey City.

One lawsuit, filed in state Appellate Court on Dec. 29, seeks to revoke the certification of Jersey City?s lead animal control officer, Joe Frank, and his colleague, Emmanuel Machado, alleging that both incorrectly seized a woman?s dog back in 2005, and then allegedly tried to cover up the seizure. Frank declined to comment when reached last week.

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There are two lawsuits to decertify local animal control officers.
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A second lawsuit filed the same day in the same court calls for the revocation of Hector Carbajales? animal control officer certification. Carbajales is the former manager of the Hudson County?s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (SPCA) shelter in Jersey City, which was shut down in April of 2008. Then, the rotting carcasses of animals were found inside a freezer in June 2008. The lawsuit cites Carbajales? guilty plea in May 2009 in Jersey City Municipal Court to charges relating to the discovery of the carcasses, believed to be animals he picked up while providing animal control services for the towns of Union City and North Bergen.

Carbajales still has a license to perform animal control work, and has done so in other towns, although he does not work in Jersey City. Now, the city?s stray animals are brought by city workers to the Liberty Humane Society Shelter, a facility founded by volunteers.

Carbajales could not be reached by telephone for comment last week about whether he still works as an animal control officer anywhere.

With the two lawsuits, Jeffrey is trying to compel the DHSS to follow a decision set down by the state?s Appellate Division in June 2008 that the DHSS has the authority to revoke the certifications of animal control officers when their conduct ?poses a significant threat to the public health and safety.?

Jeffrey said she has made several requests to the state to remove the three officials? certifications, but the state has not gone through with the revocations.

But she is confident that these lawsuits will get the decertification to take place.

?The department has a responsibility to police animal control officers,? said Jeffrey, a former board member of the Liberty Humane Society with a law practice in Bloomfield.

A DHSS spokesperson said on Wednesday that the department is aware of Jeffrey?s lawsuits but could not comment since it is ongoing litigation.

Officers out of control

The incident spurring the first lawsuit occurred in a Jersey City home on Dec. 21, 2005.

On that day, according to an independent August 2006 investigation by the Liberty Humane Society, Jersey City Animal Control Officer Joe Frank dispatched three animal control officers to remove a dog belonging to a tenant living in a home on Winfield Avenue in Jersey City?s Greenville section. Frank allegedly did this at the request of the landlord, who was a friend of his wife, according to the investigation. The landlord had previously gone to court to have the tenant?s dog removed but was unsuccessful, according to the investigation.

(It should be noted that the Liberty Humane Society is now under consideration to take over more animal control services for Jersey City, so they might stand to gain if the current animal control employees lost power.)

When the officers arrived at the location, they found the dog inside a locked basement apartment, and the dog?s owner not home. When two of the officers refused to remove the dog because they did not have a court order for removal, the third officer, Emmanuel Machado, allegedly entered the apartment and removed the dog by force, according to the investigation.

Machado then took the dog to the Liberty Humane Society?s shelter near Liberty State Park and registered the dog as a ?stray,? according to the investigation.

Machado later called a friend who knew the dog?s owner and passed along information. But Machado then issued the summonses according to the investigation.

In May 2006, a judge in the Fort Lee Municipal Court threw out the summonses after being provided information on how the dog was seized by Machado.

The Liberty Humane Society said the dog could have been euthanized if it had not been reclaimed within seven days as per state law. The investigation report was submitted to the DHSS by the LHS to prompt them to revoke Frank and Machado?s certification. But there has been no response then or now, Jeffrey said.

Machado could not be reached for comment last week.

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.