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Hackensack police chief Ken Zisa put on paid leave, acting officer in charge named
Friday, April 30, 2010
LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY APRIL 30, 2010, 7:12 PM
BY MONSY ALVARADO, MARLENE NAANES AND SHAWN BOBURG
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITERS
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HACKENSACK — Police Chief Charles “Ken” Zisa was placed on paid leave Friday, a day after he surrendered to Bergen County authorities to face an insurance fraud charge stemming from a 2008 accident involving his then-girlfriend.
TARIQ ZEHAWI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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Captain Tomas Padilla was named the acting officer in charge of the Hackensack Police Department.
Capt. Tomas Padilla was named acting officer in charge of the department.
The Bergen County prosecutor, John L. Molinelli, said at a press conference that he also has assigned Timothy Condon, who is in charge of special investigations for the prosecutor’s office, to serve as a monitor for the department. Condon’s duties will include “general oversight” of the department, Molinelli said. Condon will sign off on “all major policy decisions,” including promotions, over a six-month period.
At the end of six months, Molinelli said he would decide whether to extend the monitoring agreement. Condon would not maintain an office at police headquarters, he said. Padilla will report to Condon, according to a memorandum of understanding between the city and the prosecutor’s office.
Padilla said he will be leaving the Bergen County freeholder board, possibly in June.
SPOTLIGHT: TOMAS PADILLA
Name: Capt. Tomas Padilla
Padilla was named the acting officer in charge of the Hackensack Police Department
Age: 46
Hometown: Upper Saddle River
Education: Padilla is a certified public manager with a bachelor’s degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He is working on a master’s degree in administrative science.
Background: Padilla is a 22-year year veteran of the department. Prior to joining the administrative office, his longest tenure was in the juvenile division where he was in charge for three years and a detective and sergeant for more than six years.
Padilla also oversaw the records and licensing bureau, and was a supervisor of the traffic and patrol divisions. He also spent time as a patrolman, a Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer and a detective in the juvenile and general investigation divisions.
Political offices: Padilla was appointed to the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders in October 2002 to fulfill an unexpired term. He was elected in 2005, becoming the second Hispanic elected a freeholder.
Kathleen Tiernan and Charles 'Ken' Zisa
Deputy Chief Frank Zisa Jr., the chief’s brother, retired Friday morning, Molinelli said, adding that he was not implicated in the controversy surrounding the chief.
The insurance fraud charge stems from a February 2008 accident involving the chief’s then-girlfriend, Kathleen Tiernan. Zisa is accused of ordering officers to write in their report that Tiernan struck a utility pole after swerving to avoid an animal, even though sources said the first officers on the scene reported smelling alcohol on her breath.
Hackensack City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said the city’s labor attorney recommended placing Zisa on paid leave until city officials are able to review documents from the prosecutor’s office detailing the charges against the chief.
Zisa, a 34-year department veteran who has served for 15 years as chief, had not emerged Friday and could not be reached for comment. It is believed he cleared out his office on Thursday, officials said. Molinelli said he did not know whether Zisa would resign or be removed.
Zisa and former girlfriend Kathleen Tiernan, were charged with insurance fraud in a car accident in which the chief allegedly drove the woman from the scene, prosecutors said Friday.
Tiernan, 49, of Hackensack, was driving a Chevrolet Trailblazer owned and insured by Zisa on at 12:45 a.m. on Feb. 4, 2008, when she allegedly struck a utility pole on Moore Street in Hackensack, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Moments later, Zisa arrived and allegedly removed
Tiernan from the car and drove her away before sobriety tests could be administered, according to the statement.
The police report on the incident states that Tiernan “swerved to the right to avoid an animal that entered the roadway” and hit a utility pole.
The report says no alcohol or drug tests were administered. It does not indicate that any charges were filed or summonses issued. Tiernan, an employee of the Bergen County Technical Schools, was alone in the vehicle, the report says.
Zisa filed an insurance claim, and both he and Tiernan are accused of signing a document with a false statement. Both are charged with insurance fraud, which is punishable by up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $15,000.
They are set to appear in court at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Investigators received information about the crash in January, the statement said.
Emotions were mixed in the police department Friday morning after news of Zisa surrendering to authorities Thursday night made its way through the city. However, officers are still doing their job, “as all professionals do,” a police source said.
Lo Iacono said he did not know if the chief planned to resign.
“Everybody has to know that the department continues to operate professionally as it always did even through these last six to eight months,” he said. “No one should be concerned that it’s affecting city operations. Should there be any involvement of an outside agency like the prosecutor’s office, we are going to cooperate and we are going to do whatever needs to be done to clear the issues.”
Zisa arrived at the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office building on Eisenhower Drive in Paramus shortly before 9 p.m. Thursday, a law enforcement source said.
Rumors swirled all day Thursday that Zisa was poised to resign. But during a meeting with some of his highest-ranking officers Thursday afternoon, Zisa reportedly said he “was weighing all of his options,” two sources said.
Outside City Hall, Padilla confirmed that Zisa held the meeting, but he declined to say what was discussed. He said the chief often meets with his staff.
Zisa left police headquarters through the back entrance at 6:30 p.m. Thursday carrying a black bag and got into his black sedan. When approached by a reporter, he rolled down the window.
“I’m not going to speak to you,” he said when asked about his plans and what might happen in the department if he did choose to leave it.
This past year has been a tumultuous one for the Hackensack Police Department, with Zisa named in five separate civil lawsuits filed by 15 current and former police officers. The officers alleged that Zisa — who also served as a Democratic state assemblyman for the 37th District from 1994 until 2002 — abused his authority by retaliating against officers who did not contribute to his state election campaigns or those of candidates he supports in county, city and local police union elections.
Zisa has denied those allegations — which did not involve any criminal complaints — saying the lawsuits were filed by disgruntled employees who are looking for a financial windfall from the city.
“I would have never expected people making well over $100,000 a year to further tax the residents by filing bogus lawsuits that need to be defended,” he said in an earlier interview.
The allegations in the civil lawsuits prompted at least one of the officers’ attorneys to write to the state Attorney General’s Office and another to contact the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, the lawyers said. City Councilman John Labrosse, whose wife was sued by Zisa for posts she made on an Internet forum last year, also asked the attorney general for help, he said.
In February, Patrick Toscano, an attorney representing suspended Police Officer Anthony Ferraioli, said that he had been in contact with the county Prosecutor’s Office and that investigators were looking into Zisa and allegations of insurance fraud and official misconduct. He made the statements at Ferraioli’s disciplinary hearing.
Thomas Aiellos, a retired Hackensack policeman who is a plaintiff in one of the civil suits, said in an interview last week that city police officers have been interviewed by county investigators in the last few weeks about Zisa and how the department handles its cases. Aiellos said he also talked to investigators from the FBI last year about the chief, the way he leads the department and his influence |on city government. And he said other officers have been interviewed by federal authorities as well.
Molinelli acknowledged “turmoil” and “divisiveness” in the Hackensack department in his remarks to reporters on Friday.
“The amount of divisiveness that has taken place in Hackensack Police Department for some time now is not necessarily the result of one person,” he said. “It’s a result of personalities, egos. But when it reaches a point where the citizens of Hackensack need to have a better sense of law enforcement direction, our office needs to get involved. And we have gotten involved.”
Zisa is a member of a Hackensack political dynasty. His family members have served, at various times, as mayor and deputy mayor, deputy police chief and city counsel.
Labrosse said he opposed Padilla’s appointment as the department’s acting chief.
“I am totally against it,” he said. “I’m not against the monitoring, but the man they are choosing … he’s too close to the chief. He is one of the chief’s guys. It’s unfortunate for him, but that’s just the way it is.”
Staff Writers Jean Rimbach and William Lamb contributed to this article. E-mail: alvarado@northjersey.com