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John Herrmann, who has been cooperating with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office’s investigation, said he was the second Hackensack officer to show up at the Feb. 4, 2008 crash and noticed that Kathleen Tiernan was “visibly intoxicated.” Who should arrive within minutes, he said, but the chief himself.
Zisa immediately theorized that she hit a utility pole with the chief’s SUV after swerving to avoid hitting an animal, signaling to Herrmann and the first officer to arrive that he “was taking over the incident, there would be no investigation and Ms. Tiernan would face no charges for her driving while intoxicated,” the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newark says.
Zisa helped Tiernan into his private car and they left, leaving the two officers with his smashed truck, authorities said. The chief, who is suspended with pay, is accused of filing a false insurance claim for the damage.
Herrmann, meanwhile, said Zisa told him the next day that he was glad the officer “had said nothing to anyone about his girlfriend’s incident.”
“[I]f word did get out,” Herrman alleges Zisa told him, he would know where it came from.
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