Jersey City police officer's suit alleging intimidation, harassment, now in hands of jury

By Michaelangelo Conte | The Jersey Journal
  May 03, 2016 at 5:30 PM

JERSEY CITY -- Jurors began deliberating this afternoon in the lawsuit filed by a Jersey City police alleging age discrimination and intimidation within the department's Emergency Services Unit.

Francis "Frank" DeFazio was a member of the ESU in 2009 when, he says, a group of fellow ESU officers formed a "3 Percenters" clique and began to alienate the rest of the squad, including DeFazio.

"There was a lot of stress, there was a lot of anxiety -- his partner on the force said it was effecting his home life," said DeFazio's attorney Theodore Campbell in his closing statement today.

"That unit was falling apart. That unit was about to explode," Campbell said, citing testimony during the trial focusing on the S.W.A.T.-like ESU unit that is armed with assault weapons and other tactical gear. DeFazio, who is now retired, also alleges harassment.

Read more:  http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2016/05/post_823.html