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| CBS
News | 60
Minutes |
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"(Edison police) devastated my
career…my family."
Former Internal
Affairs
officer Joe Stenukinis |
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Internal
Affairs
Officer Says His Work Against Corruption Led Others To
Revenge
Dec. 1, 2000
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| CBS |
| (CBS)
Ex-Edison Police Lt. Joe Stenukinis tells Correspondent Ed
Bradley that an "out-of-control" Edison, N.J.
police force took revenge on him and his family because of the
crimes he uncovered while head of its Internal
Affairs
division.
Stenukinis says his efforts to root out corruption in
Edison's police force — crimes he says included rape,
aggravated assault, arson for profit and theft — ultimately
ended in his own family's arrest and indictment. "(Edison
police) devastated my career…my family," says Stenukinis,
referring to an incredible series of events that began at a
bar, where his family members came in contact with off-duty
Edison police officers.
Stenukinis says that some of
the officers he had investigated assaulted his stepdaughter
that night. Edison police called to the scene then arrested
his other daughter for allegedly assaulting a cop, and
arrested him and his wife for obstruction of justice as they
inquired about their daughters at the police station.
Ciro Sinagra, hired by the county prosecutor to do an
independent investigation of that night's events, says
Stenukinis and his wife, Linda, did no wrong. "By
all…witness statements, no, they did not (commit a
crime)," he says about their arrest.
But a grand
jury investigating the incident indicted Linda and Joe
Stenukinis, as well as daughter Jennifer.
"I
reported to (prosecutor) Larry West…that, yes…there were, in
fact, off-duty police officers involved in the assault and
were present…and did nothing," Sinagra says.
"(West's) response was 'Oh, the boys were just
drinking and having a little fun that night,' and had a
chuckle." West failed to mention many aspects of Sinagra's
report when guiding the grand jury and no police officer
involved that night was indicted. Stenukinis says, "This is
a vendetta against me and my family."
The
Middlesex County prosecutor's office offered to drop the
charges against his family if Stenukinis resigned from his
25-year career on the Edison police force. Fearing jail, he
agreed, but is now filing a federal civil rights lawsuit. The
outcome, however, wasn't a big surprise to Stenukinis, who
says his efforts to stop police corruption often ended
similarly: "(The crimes by police) were suppressed…covered
up."
Edison Mayor George Spadoro says his police
department is neither out of control nor fraught with
corruption. "As a whole, it's a darned good police
department."
Copyright 2000, CBS Worldwide Inc., All Rights
Reserved.
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