Bergen County officer claims favoritism cost him promotion chances
The lawsuit also details Pinto’s and other superiors’ alleged misconduct toward Arendacs over the years, including expletive-filled voicemail threats “vowing to destroy Arendacs’ career,” refusing to grant vacation time for his wedding, comments from the former chief about his grandmother’s financial status, and denial of overtime assignment requests and other requests.
A Rochelle Park police officer is suing the township and police chief, saying he has been passed over for promotions because the chief would rather promote his “favored few.”
Douglas Arendacs, a sergeant in the Police Department, said Chief Dean Pinto asserts his power over other officers and that he has been the most negatively affected.
Pinto, who also serves as the township administrator, referred all questions to Dave Pfund, the town’s attorney. Pfund did not return a call for comment.
In the lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court on Friday, Arendacs outlines his
25-year career in the Police Department and his three years as a police dispatcher before he was hired at the department. He said he started as a dispatcher in 1996.
The suit says Arendacs “is the model and quintessential law enforcement officer,” pointing to commendations, awards and letters of appreciation for his service as well as his work as a DARE and LEAD officer with the school district.
Arendacs said Pinto harbors “an intense hatred” for him for no reason and has done so since he started with the department. He said his requests for various kinds of training are constantly denied for no reason, but other “preferred” officers are assigned to them without any formal requests or applications. The lawsuit also details Pinto’s and other superiors’ alleged misconduct toward Arendacs over the years, including expletive-filled voicemail threats “vowing to destroy Arendacs’ career,” refusing to grant vacation time for his wedding, comments from the former chief about his grandmother’s financial status, and denial of overtime assignment requests and other requests.
Arendacs said he faced targeted harassment and comments about him to other officers, as well as being stripped of some of his assignments, such as the Police Department’s Youth Academy, and not being asked to teach DARE and LEAD. Additionally, Arendacs said that in May 2022, he applied for a position as a school resource officer at the same school where he taught DARE and LEAD for 17 years. According to Arendacs, he was told by a captain that it was “fruitless” and a different candidate preferred by Pinto would be made the resource officer.
“Consequently, Arendacs felt forced to embarrassingly withdraw his application for the [school resource officer] position,” the lawsuit says.
The suit says that at one point, Pinto appeared to be remorseful for his actions and discussed Arendacs’ concerns about the denied requests and his comments. According to the lawsuit, Pinto apologized and said he would get Arendacs into leadership courses and involve him with the new hire process.
Arendacs said Pinto reverted to his old ways, filing a violation in December
2022 citing low productivity and accusing him of being “an incompetent supervisor,” which negatively affected an opportunity to be promoted to lieutenant in March 2023. The lawsuit says that in two instances, officers on Arendacs’ shift were on administrative leave, causing him to be short of officers during his shift.
“Pinto’s violation negatively impacted Arendacs’ later promotional candidacy,” the lawsuit says. “During his promotional candidacy interview, a Rochelle Park council member specifically asked Arendacs about the productivity of the shifts which Arendacs supervises.” Two lieutenant positions opened up, with five officers interviewing for the vacancies. According to the lawsuit, Arendacs said he knew he scored higher on the previous promotional exam and had a higher educational degree than the two officers eventually hired for the position.
Pinto told Arendacs the Township Council “wanted to go in another direction” and that the council made the ultimate decision about promoting officers. “However [former] Rochelle Park Mayor Perrin Mosca and other Rochelle Park Police Department councilmembers later told Arendacs that this information was false,” the lawsuit says.
Also, Arendacs said his understanding was that the two officers were promoted because Pinto wanted them promoted despite the council’s having the ultimate decision-making power.
A former councilwoman told him that one of his answers to a “singular question completely removed him from consideration for the promotion,” the lawsuit says, noting that Arendacs said he wanted to be a lieutenant in charge of community affairs. In contrast, the other candidates said they wished to be chief. The councilwoman told him that his answer “was fatal to his candidacy.”
The lawsuit says Mosca told Arendacs that Pinto and a captain “lambasted” him to the council, continuing to interfere with his career projection.
The suit says Rochelle Park’s promotional process has been and remains “illegal, unconstitutional, bogus and pre-determined as to who gets promoted within the Rochelle Park Police Department.” The suit says the township allows this process to “fester and exist” despite its being contrary to municipal and state law as well as standard promotional policy.
Arendacs is seeking damages and an immediate promotion to the position of lieutenant.