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Detective Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Ogden, 52, and Detective Sgt. Dorothy Ogden, 46, cut a deal with the state Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) rather than go to trial, Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said.
Besides forfeiting their jobs, the Ogdens -- both of Hammonton – must successfully complete a pre-trial intervention program that will clear their records of false swearing charges, the attorney general said.
They’re also permanently barred from public office and public employment in New Jersey, he said.
Security video shows Gregory Ogden pushing people and trying to get at a man who bouncers were escorting out of the Exit 6 bar in North Wildwood on Feb. 20, 2020, authorities said.
Ogden is seen “grabbing and pulling on the hood of [the man’s] sweatshirt, throwing two punches in [his] direction, and striking a bouncer in the process,” then-Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal said in an initial report this past April.
His target then hit Ogden with a bottle, Grewal said.
Ogden, in his incident report, claimed that he was inadvertently struck by a bottle as he emerged from a bathroom, according to Grewal.
The disturbance “did not involve myself nor any of the two individuals I was at the establishment with,” the detective reportedly added.
Dorothy Ogden, meanwhile, reported losing her husband only to find him outside the bar with a bloody face.
Video, on the other hand, “shows her clearly involved in the physical altercation, pushing multiple people, including [the person] who later struck her husband with a bottle,” Grewal said in April. “Video also shows her pushing bar security personnel who intervened.”
North Wildwood police responded to an aggravated assault complaint, he said.
The couple “failed to immediately notify their chain of command in the New Jersey State Police as required,” said Bruck, who became attorney general last month.
Instead, he said, they “waited two days and then allegedly submitted official New Jersey State Police Special Reports, dated Feb. 24, 2020, that falsely described what had occurred, particularly their conduct during the incident, as revealed by video footage and other evidence.”
Bruck thanked the New Jersey State Police Office of Professional Standards, which, after investigating, referred the incident to the OPIA.
Handling the case is Deputy Attorney General Brian Uzdavinis of the OPIA Corruption Bureau, he said.
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