Mayor 'Outraged' Over Video Showing Cops Hitting Man, Failed Internal Probe

A video showing a Bloomfield officer beating a man and an internal affairs investigation that found the cops did nothing wrong during the 2012 Garden State Parkway incident has "outraged" the mayor.

Bloomfield Police officers Orlando Trinidad and Sean Courter, both 33, pleaded not guilty Friday to conspiracy, official misconduct, tampering with public records and false swearing charges. Trinidad also pleaded not guilty to aggravated assault.

A third officer, Albert Sutterlin, retired early after pleading guilty to tampering, according to NorthJersey.com.

"I am outraged by the police dashboard video and the fact that these charges were initially dismissed by our internal affairs division," Bloomfield Mayor Michael Venezia said. "This behavior is unacceptable. I have contacted the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office to request an investigation of our police department’s internal affairs division."

The prosecutor's office in April 2013 dropped all charges, which included eluding, resisting arrest and assault, against Marcus Jeter, 30, of Bloomfield, after a second police cruiser dashboard video was obtained.

"Charges were dismissed due to the second dash cam [video] that was made available through an Open Public Records Act request, but not made available from Essex County Prosecutor's Office, because it was not available from the Bloomfield Police Department," Jeter's attorney, Stephen Brown, told NorthJersey.com.
 
The video shows officers aggressively pulling Jeter out of his SUV and one officer repeatedly striking him with what the victim claimed was a flashlight or baton, according to ABC New York. Another Bloomfield police cruiser is seen crossing the center median, driving the wrong way on the Parkway and colliding head-on with Jeter's SUV.

Jeter told ABC New York he refused to comply with police requests to get out of the vehicle because he feared he might get shot since one officer was pointing a gun at him and another was circling his SUV with a shotgun.

His attorney told NJ.com the incident began when officers were called to the Bloomfield home Jeter shared with his girlfriend, who wanted him to leave on the night of June 7, 2012.

Brown said his client left the residence and headed toward the Parkway when officers were arriving.

Patrick Toscano, who is representing Trinidad, claimed Jeter was allegedly intoxicated, jumped out of a window at the Bloomfield home and blew out a tire while taking a shortcut to get onto the Parkway with officers in pursuit, according to NJ.com.

An internal affairs investigation into the incident found no wrongdoing by the officers. The prosecutor's office also offered Jeter a plea offer of five years before the new evidence was revealed and the case was dismissed.

"As your Mayor, I will fight to assure that utmost professionalism is maintained by our police department, and that the department is representative of the majority of our good officers and not the actions of a few bad ones," Venezia said in a statement. "I will demand the immediate suspension of any officer involved in this police cover-up, and fight to purge our department of any bad officers."