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Poitin Still, Hackensack
This is the first internal probe led by the department since the city agreed in April to formal monitoring by Prosecutor John L. Molinelli’s office following suspended Chief Ken Zisa’s arrest in another case. Molinelli formally returned those duties to Internal Affairs a day before the fight. (Zisa is scheduled to be arraigned in Hackensack at 11:30 tomorrow morning.)
CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned that members of the prosecutor’s staff nonetheless are involved in the investigation of the scuffle, primarily to help insure the integrity of the work done by the city department’s current leadership, which has spent the past several months reforming practices and procedures in an effort to boost morale and restore public faith.
Capt. Tomas Padilla, the department’s commander, said state law prohibits him from commenting on the incident because it is in the hands of his Internal Affairs division.
However, he confirmed that the unnamed officer did have his jaw broken in a scuffle with a bouncer at an undisclosed tavern — which has been identified by others in law enforcement as the Poitin Still, a popular city police hangout on Main Street in Hackensack.
The Hackensack patrolman was drinking at the bar one night last week when a bouncer asked him to leave, a law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. They got into an argument, which turned into a fight in the parking lot, he said.
The source didn’t say how many witnesses were there, or whether anyone summoned police. However, police logs — which are open for public inspection — show no calls came in to headquarters from that location that night.
The law enforcement source contended that another Hackensack police officer stood by and did nothing while his “brother officer” was beaten. Because the source spoke anonymously, the officer won’t be identified by CLIFFVIEW PILOT, as a matter of policy. There would also be legal ramifications for the website.
According to more than one source, the injured cop’s father called headquarters at leaset 14 hours later to find out what happened.
Officers were then dispatched to interview the officer. Meanwhile, a criminal background check turned up a 2001 domestic violence warrant for the bouncer.
Padilla said he wasn’t at liberty to disclose whether any other officers were at the site of the incident, or when the report came in to police.
“An off duty officer was involved in an incident,” Padilla said. “He was injured, was treated, has been released, and is now home.”
He confirmed reports that the officer sustained a broken jaw.
“That’s all I’m allowed to say,” Padilla added. “I can’t disclose any more details.”
Speaking in general terms, the captain noted that such incidents must be investigated carefully and deliberately, so that all of the facts are gathered and considered, before judgments on whether to charge anyone criminally are made.
To do otherwise, he said, would be unprofessional — something critics had accused the department of being before Zisa was ousted and the monitor’s appointment was agreed upon.
Although Padilla didn’t say it, rushing to judgment would also expose the department to legal liability, as well as possible sanctions by the prosecutor’s office, if mistakes are made or any type of bias is found.
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