TOWNSHIP APPOINTS SPECIAL COUNSEL TO DEFEND POLICE CHIEF AND CAPTAIN IN JULY 5TH INQUIRY

The Township has appointed a special legal counsel to represent Police Chief Robert Cimino and a police captain in the ongoing investigation into alleged misconduct on July 5, 2016.

We reported in September that the Essex County Prosecutor's Office was investigating claims that Maplewood Police acted improperly during an altercation with some residents after the July 5th fireworks.

The Township Committee on Tuesday night approved a resolution to appoint attorneys Jeffrey Garrigan and Charles Sciarra to represent Cimino and Captain Joshua Cummis at a rate of $250 per hour. 

See that resolution HERE.

The TC also approved a resolution urging the Prosecutor's Office to conduct "a thorough, fair, transparent and timely investigation of alleged incidents of the Maplewood Police Department occurring on July 5th, 2017."

Cummis was involved in the shooting death of a Maplewood man in 2007 that led to a grand jury inquiry, but was found to have acted properly in the incident. Cimino has been with the police department for 35 years.