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Hackensack officers withdraw claims against county, prosecutor

ANOTHER SCOOP: Two Hackensack police officers are withdrawing their state and federal civil complaints against Bergen County and the prosecutor’s office, in the wake of rulings that rejected similar claims made by a colleague, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.

Photo Credit: BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR
Photo Credit: BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR

The claims alleged by Anthony Ferraioli and Aldrin Larnboy, along with Ferraioli’s wife, Dawn Fray, “lack legal basis,” wrote attorney Alex D’Jamoos, in papers that Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said he was told will be filed tomorrow.

Their claims against the city and suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa still stand.

The officers alleged that they and others were subjected to demotions and punitive beats for not supporting Zisa’s candidates in the June 2008 Policemen’s Benevolent Association election for union delegate.

They also claimed that Zisa and others shook them down for donations.

Several of a group of suits accusing Zisa and others under his command of abusing their authority have either been tossed, withdrawn or partially dismantled in both state and federal court. A federal judge already had dismissed some of the claims in the suits filed by Ferraioli and the two others.

Another U.S. District Court judge
warned that city police officers might find themselves in serious trouble if they bring any more actions against their deposed boss.

It was a pair of decisions against Officer Alessandra Viola, the PBA local’s secretary, that apparently convinced the three to pull out.

First, a state appeals court dismissed charges she filed against the county and Molinelli’s office, which she added on to an original complaint accusing Zisa and the city of sexual harassment and civil rights violations. She claimed she was retaliated against for not backing the chief’s “hand-picked” candidate and was sexually harassed by him and his brother, Deputy Chief Frank Zisa.

The county and Molinelli were added because his office assumed a monitoring role over the Hackensack police department after Zisa was arrested on criminal charges and suspended from his job.

Three days ago, a judge said Viola must pay $128,000 of the county’s legal bill to defend the allegations, which she deemed frivolous.



MORE (CLICK ON HEADLINE TO READ)
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Bergen prosecutor says civil cases are ruse to get criminal trial info for Hackensack chief

Monday, 02 January 2012 01:30 Jerry DeMarco

ONLY ON CLIFFVIEW PILOT: Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli wants a federal judge to stop lawyers for suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa from using civil lawsuits filed by officers against their client to discover “highly confidential and privileged information” his office plans to use against Zisa in an upcoming criminal trial.


Federal judge throws out Hackensack officer’s civil rights charges against Zisa, others

Wednesday, 28 December 2011 17:40 Jerry DeMarco

CLIFFVIEW PILOT HAD THE SCOOP: A federal judge today dismissed most of a lawsuit by a Hackensack police officer against suspended Chief Ken Zisa and two other officers over a failed drug test that he claimed violated his constitutional rights.


Court refuses to let Hackensack officer sue Bergen prosecutor for suspension

Friday, 16 December 2011 13:34 Jerry DeMarco

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A state appeals court has refused to allow a Hackensack police officer to hold the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office legally responsible for her suspension while the agency was monitoring the city department after criminal charges were filed against now-suspended Chief Ken Zisa.

Hackensack officers indicted in retaliation case

Friday, 07 October 2011 21:27 Jerry DeMarco

UPDATE: A Bergen County grand jury has made it official: Prosecutor John L. Molinelli on Friday announced indictments returned against three Hackensack police officers and the sister of the patrolman at the center of the trouble.

MUGSHOTS courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR

The 13-count indictment springs from a fight that Officer Richard Sellitto, 27, and his 25-year-old sister, Dana (both LEFT), got into at a Paramus Houlihan’s before dawn on June 7.

Sellitto – who had his jaw broken in a fight at a Hackensack bar months earlier — called it in as an assault on him and his sister.

Zisa: Prosecutors misled grand jury into misconduct indictment

Tuesday, 27 September 2011 11:40 Jerry DeMarco

CLIFFVIEW PILOT HAS IT FIRST: Lawyers for suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa accused Bergen County prosecutors of lying to a grand jury after cutting a deal with three officers trying to boost federal cases they have against the embattled chief. Prosecutor John L. Molinelli told CLIFFVIEW PILOT that the motion repeats three others already rejected by a judge.

Hackensack officer suing city, county charged with beating, cover-up

Wednesday, 03 August 2011 14:35 Jerry DeMarco

EXCLUSIVE: A Hackensack police officer who is suing city and county law enforcement was charged today with retaliating against a man who got into a bar fight with a fellow city officer: Officer Anthony Ferraioli is expected to be suspended without pay, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation said.

Cop at scene of chief’s girlfriend’s crash comes forward, files suit

Saturday, 08 May 2010 03:02 Jerry DeMarco

The other shoe has been dropped against Ken Zisa, in a lawsuit filed by a Hackensack police officer who said he clammed up about an accident involving the chief’s girlfriend because he was afraid he and his wife would be fired.

Zisa whisked girlfriend from cops after crash, authorities charge

Friday, 30 April 2010 10:25 Jerry DeMarco

ONLY ON CLIFFVIEW PILOT: Hackensack Police Chief Charles “Ken” Zisa went to the scene of a single-car accident involving his former live-in girlfriend, put her in his car and drove her away before officers could administer sobriety tests, authorities said this morning. The couple then filed a bogus insurance claim that, according to a source, she had swerved to avoid a rodent that dashed across the road that February 2008 night.



 


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