HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) - Two Bergen County Police officers have been acquitted on charges that they lied to investigators and removed evidence from the scene of a 2010 police shooting.
A county jury returned its verdict Friday in the case involving Saheed Baksh and Jeffrey Roberts.
County officials tell The Record (https://bit.ly/1iFVEVH) that efforts are under way to reinstate two officers, who have been suspended without pay for two years. They also say the county will likely provide them with some back pay.
The charges against the officers stemmed from a pursuit that went through six towns before ending in Bogota, where Baksh allegedly fired two shots at a suspect who wasn’t hit.
Prosecutors claimed the officers didn’t promptly report the shooting and lied about issuing a verbal warning to the car’s driver.
Some critics have questioned why county Prosecutor John Molinelli pursued the criminal case, and defense lawyers have said their clients were “collateral damage” in a feud between the prosecutor and county Executive Kathleen Donovan over a controversial plan to merge the county police force into the county Sheriff’s Department.
Molinelli has denied those claims.
Donovan’s chief of staff, Jeanne Baratta, told the newspaper that Donovan “is very pleased with the verdict in this case.”
Baratta said she expects meetings will be held next week with attorneys for the officers and the county to “discuss the procedures and what happens next.”
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Information from: The Record (Woodland Park, N.J.), https://www.northjersey.com
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