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Zisa, Tiernan, Garcia, Aletta
(MUGSHOTS courtesy Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office)
A grand jury in Hackensack returned a 13-count indictment naming Zisa, 56, Kathleen Tiernan, 49, Capt. Danilo Garcia and Detective Thomas Aletta, both 42 — all from Hackensack — for their alleged roles in:
- The cover-up of a drunken crash prosecutors said Tiernan had in February 2008: After she smashed Zisa’s SUV into a utility pole at quarter to 1 in the morning, the chief showed up, snatched her from officers on the scene, and drove her away — without allowing for a sobriety test, the indictment says. Zisa subsequently filed a bogus insurance claim, to which he and Tiernan attested, and the chief collected more than $11,000 for the car, it says.
- A September, 2004 robbery and assault involving Tiernan‘s son and an unidentified second suspect who were both living with Zisa at the time: Although both were identified by the 15-year-old victim, the indictment alleges, Zisa prevented charges from being filed, with help from Garcia and Aletta.
Helping make the case are several Hackensack police officers. One of them, Officer John Herrmann, 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,” according to a lawsuit Herrmann filed in federal court.
Zisa helped Tiernan into his private car and they left, leaving the two officers with his smashed truck, authorities said.
Herrmann said he didn’t immediately come forward because he feared for his job in a department that Zisa ruled through fear and intimidation.
“[I]f word did get out,” Herrman alleges Zisa told him, he would know where it came from. The officer is one of several who have been cooperating with Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli’s investigators.
The charges against Zisa: official misconduct, conspiracy, insurance fraud, witness tampering, and more.
Against Garcia: misconduct and conspiracy.
Aletta: misconduct, conspiracy and evidence tampering.
Tiernan: conspiracy and insurance fraud.
Convictions carry prison stretches of anywhere from 18 months to ten years in prison — and New Jersey history has shown that state and federal judges don’t look favorably on police officers convicted of crimes.
A designated monitor from Molinelli’s office has been reviewing the day-to-day operations of the city department since April, after Zisa was suspended. A month later, Zisa and Aletta were charged with not filing charges against Tiernan’s son was involved in a mugging.
City Police Capt. Tomas Padilla has been running the department since Zisa’s suspension.
CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM BROKE THE STORY: Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa turned himself in to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Thursday night on charges of ordering a subordinate to file a false report to cover up a DWI accident his girlfriend had. FOR THE FULL STORY: CLICK HERE
Arraignments at the county courthouse in Hackensack are scheduled within two weeks, said First Assistant Prosecutor William Galda.
The case was investigated by members of Molinelli’s Confidential Investigations Unit, under the direction of Detective Chief Steven Cucciniello. Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Daniel Keitel, Chief of the Confidential Investigations Unit, presented the case to the grand jury and is handling it through the court system.
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