Carol Russell nominated as Trenton’s first black female police director, Muschal no-shows
TRENTON >> It was supposed to be a shining, historic moment for the city of Trenton.
Carol Russell, a retired Trenton Police sergeant, was officially nominated acting police director during Mayor Reed Gusciora’s State of the City speech Thursday night, becoming the first African-American woman to hold that position – one of the most visible and demanding roles within city government.
News of the hiring of Russell broke earlier in the day as Gusciora kicked around whether to “take some of the wind out of his sails,” as one city official put it, by confirming the nomination to the press prior to his speech.
He opted against it, even though the cat was out of the bag, still hoping for that payoff moment.
Instead, like it often does in Trenton, Gusciora’s appointment of Russell was overcome by the big, political shadow of South Ward councilman George Muschal.
Muschal, protesting Russell’s hiring, was the lone council member not in attendance when the mayor gave his speech introducing Russell to the gathered masses. She was mobbed by supporters, who wanted hugs and selfies.
But while she was embraced Thursday night, she faces a stiff fight from those who will likely oppose her confirmation going forward, including some old foes from the police department.
Muschal foreshadowed his no-show earlier in the day, saying he still had his suit jacket and slacks by the ready if the mayor came a calling with a Reed Reversal, a move the mayor has patented in the past on the police director position.
But when it became clear that Gusciora — who was criticized by former acting police director Pedro Medina for not having a “backbone” and pulling Medina’s reappointment re-up ahead of council’s vote — was sticking with Russell, Muschal opted to stay home.
He didn’t return a phone call late Thursday night about shrugging off the mayor’s shindig despite even bought a cake for the occasion.
Russell declined an interview with The Trentonian, saying she wouldn’t be “speaking to the press tonight.” She promised to talk at a later time.
Gusciora also got lost in the mob, departing before a reporter could corral him. He didn’t respond to phone calls later in the night.
So others were left to put into context Russell’s coronation, juxtaposed with the potential break-up of what had been a brewing political bromance between Trenton’s first openly-gay mayor and the hard-toplease ex-cop-turned statesman from the South Ward.
“As with anybody, we’re looking for someone who is going to run the police department fairly and in a new direction,” City police union president Michael Schiaretti said. “We’re willing to give them a chance to work with the rank-and-file, to change the way things are done here.”
“Everybody noticed,” at large councilman Jerell Blakeley said of Muschal’s absence. “Apparently, councilman Muschal isn’t too happy with the selection of the first African-American woman elected to the force. Is it a coincidence? I say look at his record and arrive to your own conclusions.”
Gusciora lauded his new pick as someone who is committed to community policing and changing the culture of those in the department past leaders have said are resistant to change.
Russell retired from the police force in late 2010, following 25 years of service. She earns more than $68,300 in retirement pension and will be paid roughly another $108,000 as city police director.
She worked up from patrol and became one of the most visible, and outspoken, members of the department.
In the early 2000s, as a member of a fraternal organization in the department, the Brother Officers Law Enforcement Society, she was one of the officers who called out white superiors over a racial injustice in the department.
One former police union president, apparently unnerved by her department call-out of another cop’s mistreatment for testifying for the defense in a racially charge police shooting, dubbed her a “racist,” according to Trentonian archives.
“Carol Russell is a racist and the group she belongs to is a racist organization,” thenPBA Locall 11 president Len Cipriano Cipriano told The Trentonian in 2001. “They are not here to help the department or the city. Their main purpose is to cause strife and be divisive.”
The union boss was upset by Russell’s brutal characterization of the Trenton Police department after fellow officers attempted to ostracized a “coward” cop, Leo Brennan, for the way he testified in the police shooting that killed 14-year-old Jennie Hightower.
Hightower, who was black, was a passenger in a stolen car driven by Hubert Moore, also black, that the cops lit up in a downtown parking lot following a car chase.
Fellow officers left a yellow painted chair for Brennan inside police headquarters.
Russell takes over at a time the police department is still attempting to recover from racial discord kicked up again when former police director Ernest Parrey Jr. was caught on body cam calling residents “hood rats.”
Parrey was given the boot when Gusciora took over, replaced temporarily by Mercer County undersheriff Pedro Medina.
Medina, a former Trenton cop, was on loan to the city while the county paid his $141,000 salary. He led the department for the last three and a half months, until his appointment expired. The mayor proposed a three-month reappointment but pulled it at the last second when he learned the legislative body wouldn’t approve the arrangement.
At-large councilman Jerell Blakeley undercut the mayor’s claims when he said at the meeting Gusciora had the votes to keep Medina on.
Medina’s departure was set in motion by Muschal, who raised concerns with the mayor over some of the police director’s positions, including the shifting Capt. Don Fillinger from the detective bureau, a move that incensed Fillinger because it impacted his pension payout ahead of his upcoming retirement.
Medina felt that Gusciora should have allowed council to decide whether he stayed or go instead of allowing Muschal to usurp the situation.
And now some city leaders feel Muschal may overtake the mayor’s police director again, fueled by Russell’s detractors who have already lobbed grenades at her character pointing to her relatives’ past.
Police sources have taken stabs at her for having a son, Joseph Welch, who is a convicted killer. He served more than eight years on an aggravated manslaughter conviction until his release in September 2016, according to state records.
“That’s news to me, but I feel it’s irrelevant to her role as police director,” Blakeley said. “I have relatives that have been on the opposite side of the law that has no bearing on my ability to be an effective public servant. You can go a couple inches away in anybody’s family tree, and you find someone who did something wrong. We should judge Ms. Russell on her merits, on her professional accolades and her commitment to the city of Trenton.”
Others former cops questioned her alleged lack of supervisor chops and made other so-far unsubstantiated claims about her.
“So we have somebody who freely abused sick time. Who helped a wanted person evade capture, by use of her official position. Who worked at internal affairs while claiming to be unaware of her son’s gang membership (the county addressed that issue). And maintained a relationship with a convicted felon even visiting him while in prison, in violation of department rules,” retired Trenton Lt. Joseph Valdora, who has his own steroid baggage, wrote on Facebook after news broke. “This is who the mayor wants for police director?”
Asked whether he feels Muschal may try to sabotage Russell, Blakeley said he couldn’t predict the future.
“We’ll see,” he said.
Staff writers Penny Ray and Sulaiman AbdurRahman contributed to this report.