Two Hoboken police officers resigned and one retired to avoid major disciple in 2022, while seven officers were suspended anywhere between 10 and 180 days, their annual major discipline report says.
Lt. Anthony Pasculli was one of three ranking officers documented in the annual report, which was mandated by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office in 2020, and was the only one to leave the force to resolve the situation.
“Lt. Pasculli retired from service in lieu of a 30 day suspension following a sustained violation of misuse of a law enforcement database,” the description says.
Officer Adrian Rey opted to resign rather than being dismissed after it was determined that he was sleeping on duty. Officer Matthew Isler did the same “following a sustained violation of neglect of duty and in accordance with a standing Last Chance Agreement.”
Isler was also the only officer to receive a stiff penalty before resigning, getting a 180-day suspension for neglect of duty related to an incident where he didn’t arrest a person “responsible for having committed a robbery in the presence of the officer. Officer Isler also did not include critical details surrounding the incident in his investigation report.”
Additionally, Lt. Ranaldo Gonzalez was suspended 10 days for chronic, excessive, or abusive sick time usage, while Sgt. Robert Roman received a 25-day suspension for calling the NJ Suicide Hotline “to conduct an unauthorized test of their services.”
Officer Ricky Truppner, who was named in a lawsuit over two years ago accusing several officers of engaging in the physical and sexual assault of a woman back in 2018, where he then had an improper relationship with her afterwards, got a 120-day suspension for improper usage of the police database.
“Officer Truppner was suspended for 120 days after it was determined that he utilized a law
enforcement database in order to obtain the name of an arrestee. He later used that information to seek a personal relationship with said arrestee.”
The lawsuit is still pending, court records show.
Furthermore, Officer Anthony Rutkowski received two separate 30-day suspensions: one for insubordination and another for failing to report to court as a witness on numerous occasions.
Also notable is that Police Officer Liana Palladino received a 60-day suspension to settle five separate incidents.
Those incidents were related to failing to maintain department equipment, mishandling and destroying narcotics evidence – which was captured on police body camera – and then three separate instances of unexcused tardiness.
New Jersey law enforcement agencies are technically required to post on their website by January 31st of each year, but many still just submit to the AG’s office through an online portal.
Locally, the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office, the Bayonne, East Newark, North Bergen, Union City, Weehawken, and West New York Police Departments have not uploaded their annual major discipline reports to their respective websites as of this writing.
Neither the Harrison or Guttenberg Police Departments had any suspensions or terminations to report.
The state’s annual database has also not been updated with each department’s major discipline report yet.