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Nicolas J. Hogan, 28, of Gibbstown, was among a group of troopers who responded to a report of a trespasser at a home in Cumberland County’s Upper Deerfield Township around 1:30 a.m. Sept. 7, 2022.
Two troopers found the victim walking in the middle of the road drunk.
She needed a medical evaluation, so the troopers kept her detained -- but not under arrest -- and called for a medical unit, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said.
Hogan and other backups arrived in the interim, he said.
The woman “became increasingly distraught that she was being detained and she began weeping,” Platkin said.
“(She) was spitting on the ground," the attorney general added, "apparently because she had been upset and crying."
Footage from trooper bodycams "show fluid and mucus on her face and falling from her mouth," as the woman “repeatedly protested her detainment and attempted to walk away, resulting in troopers handcuffing and placing her in one of the troop cars,” he said.
The woman “asked multiple times for a tissue but was never given one,” Platkin said.
“At one point, while in the back of the police vehicle, the victim spat in the direction of a trooper standing near the open rear passenger door,” the attorney general said.
Hogan, who was standing on the other side of the car, held a flashlight as he opened the rear door, Platkin said.
“If you f***ing spit on a trooper…” he allegedly began to say as the victim turned toward him and spit in his direction.
Hogan then punched her in the face, the attorney general said.
“The vast majority of New Jersey’s law enforcement officers exhibit professionalism and extraordinary restraint in the course of their duties and while dealing with trying circumstances,” Platkin said.
Because of that, he said, he “will not allow situations like this one…to damage the reputation of our hardworking and admirable law enforcement community.”
The use of force in this particular instance “appears to have been completely avoidable,” said Thomas Eicher, the executive director of the state Office of Public Integrity and Accountability, which investigated the incident.
“We cannot have police officers assaulting people in distress while they are restrained and posing no threat,” Eicher said. “It is uncalled for, unhelpful, improper, and unlawful.”
Hogan remained free, having received a complaint summons charging him with aggravated assault causing significant bodily injury.
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