NJ jail guard demoted for reporting superior choking inmate in mugshot

A New Jersey correction officer claims he was demoted and retaliated in opposition to for reporting that his white superior choked a black inmate who was being processed within the county jail, new court docket papers allege.

Anthony Smith — a CO in Hudson County for 20 years — stated the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation “unleashed a torrent of reprisal” in opposition to him after he made a grievance alleging Sgt. Mario Fernandez had choked an inmate in a mugshot picture, based on his lawsuit filed Friday.

“Whenever you converse out in opposition to somebody particularly inside your division, that is what occurs to you,” Smith, 46, informed The Publish. “You mainly get blackballed.”

The correction officer had acquired a mugshot picture, obtained by The Publish, displaying the hand of a white individual across the neck of a black inmate along with his eyes closed.

“I used to be disgusted,” stated Smith, who in 2008 based outreach group the Blacks and Regulation Enforcement Servicing the Neighborhood Group. “One thing needs to be achieved about it.”

Fernandez — who was allegedly “infamous” for being aggressive with inmates and coworkers — was in the end suspended for 45 days for the incident, based on the Hudson County swimsuit.

Smith, of Somerset, started working for the division in 2003 and was promoted in 2020 to a group relations officer — a task that features recruiting, mentoring college students, attending proceedings with juveniles and different out of jail tasks.

However after he reported Fernandez on Aug. 26, 2022, Smith’s profession got here to a grinding halt, the lawsuit alleges.

As a substitute of taking “correct remedial motion,” Smith claims division officers broadcasted his grievance “all through the corrections facility,” based on the submitting.

Then three days in a while Aug. 29, Capt. Paul Morales repeatedly pressed Smith to disclose who had despatched the picture to him with the “apparent implication” being that Morales “needed to show the whistleblower and topic them to retaliation,” the swimsuit alleges.

Smith refused to say which worker despatched him the picture.

Fernandez was suspended over the incident a couple of weeks later, however Morales allegedly expressed that he was upset about Smith coming ahead, the court docket papers state.

“You realize, that’s not proper,” Morales stated, based on the lawsuit. “That shouldn’t be occurring to my supervisors. I don’t understand how this bought out.”

“A brutal marketing campaign of retaliation” ensued, together with Smith being demoted on Dec. 28 and despatched again to work within the Kearny jail starting on Jan. 1, 2023, the court docket paperwork declare.

Smith was informed his new project was as a result of the jail being “quick manpower” — however he claims this was merely a “pretext” because the lockup was short-staffed all through the pandemic but he was not despatched again to work there throughout that point, the swimsuit alleges.

“I used to be upset. I used to be embarrassed,” Smith informed The Publish of the demotion that landed him working within the jail once more. “I do the correct factor and I’m being punished for it.”

Smith says he met with the county director thrice to debate getting his previous job again however the director wouldn’t budge.

Native college students, group leaders and Kearny Mayor Albert G. Santos have known as for Smith’s return to his publish and held three “separate rallies” for the correction officer.

In the meantime Smith’s coworkers began “treating him in a particularly disrespectful method” and isolating him at work, the swimsuit claims.

And Smith was assigned to undesirable postings often given to new staff and was “consistently” shuffled across the jail, the submitting alleges.

He was additionally posted to the identical unit as Fernandez, and was pressured to work and work together with Fernandez “each day,” the swimsuit claims.

“Every such interplay is destructive, with defendant Fernandez treating Plaintiff in a demeaning and degrading method,” the swimsuit expenses.

On March 15, when Smith made a grievance about allegedly being retaliated in opposition to, the county performed “a halfhearted investigation,” the swimsuit alleges.

Smith is suing for unspecified damages.

“The factor that strikes me most about this case is that Anthony knew full nicely that reporting a sergeant would get him blackballed,” stated his lawyer Christian McOmber, of McOmber McOmber & Luber P.C. “However he crossed the ‘blue wall’ as a result of he’s a person of honor and does the correct factor irrespective of the associated fee.”

Hudson County and Fernandez didn’t return requests for remark.