GLASSBORO — He’s
escaped being fired, but a borough
police officer is appealing a recommended two and a half-month suspension
triggered by an alleged mishandling of a stabbing suspect in 2010.
Officer Michael D.
Bozarth filed a motion June 28 with the state Superior Court Law Division,
seeking a new trial in Superior Court on the matter. He’s also suing the
borough for unspecified legal costs and back pay for time lost.
Bozarth, who’s been a
Glassboro officer since 2002, contends the department sought his ouster and
otherwise disciplined him without due process. A judge eventually ruled he
shouldn’t be fired but recommended the 75-day unpaid suspension.
The case stems partly
from a July 30, 2010 incident dispatched as a stabbing at a local Cheesecake
Factory restaurant.
That incident was
detailed in a brief defending the initial decision to fire Bozarth, submitted
this past November by the borough’s attorney in the matter, William F. Cook.
According to the
brief, an officer reported - and several supervisors were informed - that
Bozarth allowed the suspect to approach the officers and the alleged victim on
scene. In fact, testimony held, the suspect came close to several officers and
starting yelling at the alleged victim.
They further said
Bozarth did not search the suspect for a weapon. Nor did he initially handcuff
her or otherwise keep others out of harm’s way, the officers said.
Police were
investigating the stabbing as a possible domestic violence incident.
The brief also detailed
testimony by officers who said Bozarth had performed badly in certain training
and decision-making overall, as well as in several daily police duties.
Efforts to help him
improve, they said, worked partly. But, the brief said, “there were continuing
concerns about decision-making and assertiveness.”
Retraining, along
with other measures, were reportedly taken. Police Chief Alex Fanfarillo
eventually decided neither those measures, nor a suspension, would work.
The chief concluded,
the brief said, that Bozarth “cannot adequately serve as a police officer in
the Glassboro Police Department.”
In his suit filed by
his attorney, Thomas Cushane, Bozarth says the department violated state law
forbidding the firing or suspension of an employee unless he or she is served
with a written, specified complaint in due time.
He also contends an
initial notice (preliminary notice of discipline) given by Fanfarillo a week
after the Cheesecake Factory incident was “devoid of any reference to
discipline for (his) conduct on July 30, 2010,” his appeal reads.
Yet a final notice of
disciplinary action “is based strictly on that singular (Cheesecake Factory)
incident,” it says.
Among other abuses,
Bozarth also argues that in August 2011 - more than a year after Fanfarillo’s
original notice and still without a final ruling - he was notified that he had
long ago used up his paid leave.
When he was suspended
without pay, the suit says, Bozarth’s health benefits and those of his children
were cut off.