Cop keeps job after appealing dismissal

Tuesday, July 22, 2008
By PAUL KOEPP
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Jersey City cop accused of logging excessive overtime following the 9/11 attacks and then refusing to cooperate with an investigation will keep his job, a state appeals court ruled Friday.

Detective Randy Sandifer, a Roselle resident and 20-year veteran of the force, says the charges leveled against him were political in nature and sees the court's decision as vindication. He has already served a six-month suspension.

"I'm happy my name has been cleared for something I was never guilty of in the first place," Sandifer said.

Sandifer was one of several targets of an internal Jersey City Police Department probe triggered in 2004 by a federal audit that found that officers billed the government for hundreds of thousands of dollars of overtime in the three months after 9/11.

When the investigation was turned over to the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office in December 2004, Sandifer refused to answer questions about 217 hours he billed in overtime, racking up nearly $12,000.

Sandifer held out for an assurance of full immunity on the advice of his attorneys, leading to his suspension without pay two days later and his firing the following February.

Although his punishment was reduced to a suspension on appeal, the city challenged the reduction and Sandifer was not put back on the job until October 2006.

During his appeal, Sandifer testified that he thought the officers who were interviewed had been "set up" because they were close to then-Police Director James Carter, who had an acrimonious relationship with the chief at the time, Ronald Buonocore.

The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office never pursued criminal charges against any of the officers.

A police spokesman did not return phone calls yesterday.

The city has not decided if it will appeal Friday's decision and continue to try to remove Sandifer from the force, said Corporation Counsel Bill Matsikoudis.