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Frank M. Nucera Jr., 64, of Bordentown was convicted in October 2019 of making false statements to FBI agents who were interviewing him about what was the alleged violation of the 18-year-old suspect’s civil rights during an arrest.
Nucera is also awaiting a retrial in U.S. District Court in Camden on additional charges of hate-crime assault and depriving the suspect’s civil rights.
The former chief must serve all of the sentence because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
Nucera became infamous for a string of comments cited by federal authorities, including:
- “These n s are like ISIS, they have no value. They should line them all up and mow ’em down. I’d like to be on the firing squad, I could do it”;
- “It’s gonna get to the point where I could shoot one of these n——“;
- “I wish that n would come back from Trenton and give me a reason to put my hands on him, I’m tired of ’em.”
Authorities said Nucera also used police dogs to intimidate Blacks.
Two Bordentown Township police officers responded to a phone call from a local Ramada in September 2016 about two teenagers who’d stayed in a room without paying, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said.
They questioned the 18-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl before “the situation escalated into a physical confrontation, with both teens attempting to resist arrest,” she said.
Backups summoned by the officers included Nucera, who was the chief at the time.
The handcuffed boy was being escorted out of the hotel by police when Nucera “approached him from behind and slammed the teenager’s head into a metal doorjamb,” the U.S. attorney said.
“During a video recorded interview by FBI special agents, Nucera falsely stated multiple times that he did not touch [the boy] during the arrest,” Honig said.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Kugler sentenced Nucera to two years of supervised release.
Kugler also ordered that Nucera not begin serving his sentence until the remaining counts are resolved.
Honig credited special agents of the FBI with the investigation leading to the charges, convicted and sentencing, secured by Molly S. Lorber, the attorney in charge of her Camden Office, and Senior Civil Rights Counsel R. Joseph Gribko.
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