Lockup death in 2011 was just the start of TPD’s issues
Numerous city lawsuits have piqued personal interest through several decades as reporter and columnist.
Yet, one underscores an accountability issue regarding law enforcement. One in particular showcases problems with protections for police who sidestep their duties and violate public trust.
In December 2011, Kenneth Howard, 55, died while in Trenton police lockup after one police officer and two police aides failed to make regular 30-minute checks on their prisoner.
Nobody looked in on Howard for seven hours and the prisoner with a bad liver which required medication, died.
The Mercer County medical examiner ruled Howard died of chronic liver failure due to cirrhosis of the liver.
Trenton Police Officer Joseph
Schiaretti and two aides, Jose Millan and Richard Reyes, were charged with tampering with public records to make it appear they had performed regular inspections on Howard although accusations surfaced they had watched National Football League games.
Essentially, charges identified the three police employees as people willing to lie and tamper with evidence in order to save their own skin. Charges were dropped when Howard’s family settled a wrongful death lawsuit instead of dragging the matter out for years.
Howard had been arrested on warrants in 2011 and the city played a typical wait you out game and war of emotional attrition until Howard’s family succumbed in August 2016.
While city officials said a $690,000 settlement represented no admission of guilt, Robin Lord, a Howard family attorney, pulled no punches.
“While giving the Howard family nearly three-quarters of a million dollars, the city did not admit any wrongdoing,” said Lord.
“What happened to Mr. Howard was a disgrace. I don’t know how any of the officers can live with themselves, and I don’t know how they’re still employees. I just don’t know how the city of Trenton turned a blind eye to what happened to Mr. Howard. If Mr. Howard was a white surgeon who got picked up for parking tickets, I wonder if the result would have been the same.”
Attorney Cliff Bidlingmaier also represented the family.
If wrong doing had occurred, city officials missed on an opportunity to remove three bad apples based on one pertinent fact that police officers must avoid any perception of dishonesty.
A police officer willing to lie about personal performance, prone to self preservation and deception under the white hot light of scrutiny, potentially morphs toward being a liability depending on his lying ability.
Police officers who lie or falsify evidence should face termination as being trustworthy remains critical to administering justice. Instead, the out-ofcourt agreement lead to the Mercer County Prosecutor dropping charges as Internal Affairs launched an investigation.
By the way, if a bank discovers money missing and suspicions point to a clerk who then lies about where the money went, that employee does not receive a suspension then returns.
The three men were suspended with pay during this act of Internal Affairs subterfuge and many people who have filed a report with that investigative body know the outcome.
Results were shielded from public purview as city
officials alleged the personnel matter demanded privacy. A protective order signed by a Superior Court judge sealed the deal.
South Ward Councilman George Muschal, a retired 40-year police veteran fumed as the city paid up to have Lord shut up as the attorney said she had expert witnesses queued to testify police employees showed negligence and violated department policy on safeguarding prisoners
with medical issues.
“We can’t just keep paying money out day in and day out. If you’re gonna pay out (large sums of money) in lawsuits, somewhere along the line something went wrong,” Muschal told The Trentonian.
“I’m not a policeman anymore, but I’ve always said from Day 1 that if you create a lawsuit with total neglect on your part, you have to be accountable,” he said. “Taxpayers can’t
be held accountable for your mistakes.”
Lord had accumulated other issues with the Howard arrest as she contended police were guilty of false arrest and imprisonment.
“We worked steadfast for years to demonstrate the horrific civil rights violations committed by the Trenton Police Department upon Kenneth Howard,” Lord said in a report.
One case involved myriad issues being considered
for police reform — accountability, transparency, public review boards, Internal Affairs ability to investigate fairly and the right of public access to performance records of police officers who receive major disciplinary actions or terminations.