NJ Police settles race case
New Jersey Police Department has come under fire for having harassed black youths based on their race. And has decided to settle the matter with a big check. The report follows:
Bias suit vs. police settled for $275,000
BY ALESHA WILLIAMS
MANALAPAN — A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey against the Police Department alleging that three black youths were harassed because of their race has been settled for $275,000.
Court records indicate each of the youths will receive about $62,000, with the remainder, nearly $91,000, going to the ACLU for legal services.
But township police maintain there was no wrongdoing. The decision to settle was made by the attorney for the department's insurance company, department attorney Mitchell Ansell said.
The suit was filed in August 2004 on behalf of Sean Anderson, then 12, of Jersey City, Diamond Yorker, then 17, of Manalapan, and Randy Reina, then 18, of Edison.
It charged that on the night of June 21, 2003, Officers Pete Chalfin and Steve Turner
singled the trio out from three white friends while they were all walking on Parkview Way near Buck's Head Park.
According to the complaint, the officers sent the three white youths home, saying, "You don't have to see this," as they proceeded to search and question only the black youths. Reina allegedly was warned not to set foot in Manalapan again. The police ultimately left without charging anyone.
"I was just thinking 'I don't know what they (the police) are trying to do,' " Yorker, now 20, said of that night, during a news conference at ACLU-NJ offices in Newark Thursday.
He said he became more worried when police told his white friends they could leave, noting that the friends remained at the scene.
"I was just scared," Yorker said, adding that Sean, his younger cousin, began to cry when officers confronted him.
Diamond's father, Randal Yorker, now a supervisor of adult probation in state Superior Court, Freehold, said he encountered skepticism and hostility when he went to the department to file a racial discrimination complaint after hearing the boys' account.
The families also were outraged that the officer who took the complaint, Lt. Denis Brady, listed their race as "Negro."
"I felt if this person who wrote this is a leader . . . then there's something systemic going on" in the department, Randal Yorker said.
But Manalapan police maintained the officers acted appropriately and claimed the settlement was a victory for the department during a subsequent news conference Thursday at town hall.
Ansell said the families' decisions to settle and withdraw their claim seeking mandatory racial discrimination training for the department are vindication for the two officers.
"If they were that concerned (about problems in the department) why were those claims withdrawn?" Ansell asked.
Chalfin said the youths who were "patted down" were asked multiple times to take their hands out of their pockets during the incident, which occurred at about 10 p.m. in a park where visitors aren't permitted after dusk.
Turner added the park is poorly lit and known for drug activity.
"A lot of officers don't come home to their loved ones because they didn't concern
themselves with hands in pockets," Turner said. "Tomorrow night, I get the same call, I'm doing the same thing."
Township officials also said they supported the officers.
"The settlement paid by the township's insurance company was a decision solely to limit additional financial exposure to our residents," Mayor Andrew Lucas said.
An investigation by the department's Internal Affairs Unit and the Monmouth County
Prosecutor's Office dismissed the complaints, but ACLU representatives said they hoped the settlement would prompt police statewide to strengthen external oversight.
"The settlement does not resolve the problem," said ACLU-NJ attorney John O'Connor, who said police did not interview the white witnesses during their internal investigation.
O'Connor said he hopes the incident challenges "the people of Manalapan to say, 'What's going on here? Let's ask questions.'"
"The story of what these boys endured is especially poignant because it is so
commonplace," ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs said, adding the ACLU funds will support the organization's Racial Justice program. "The settlement should send a message that race discrimination is not only immoral, it can also be a costly mistake."
"It's not about the money," Sean Anderson said. "I'm happy that justice was served."
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