Two New Jersey police officers who collected six-figure salaries for years while suspended for using the n-word in caught-on-tape rants can finally be fired, a judge ruled.
Clark County Police Chief Pedro Matos and Sgt. Joseph Teston had their lawsuit to be reinstated tossed by Superior Court Judge Lisa Miralles Walsh on Dec. 18, so they can now face discipline that was meant to be meted out in 2023 after a review by state Attorney General Matthew Platkin, NJ.com reported.
by TapInto. Elizabeth Clee/ TAPinto
At the time, Platkin recommended both Matos and Teston be fired.
New Jersey taxpayers have shelled out more than $2,618,585 in combined salary, including annual raises during their suspensions.
The probe into the 2019 on-the-job use of slurs by Matos and Teston was opened in 2020 and spanned over three years — with lawyers for the cops unsuccessfully arguing it violated procedural safeguards.
On the 2019 tapes, secretly recorded by whistleblower Lt. Antonio Manata, Matos talked of reinvestigating a 2017 bias incident in which a black puppet was found hanging at local high school, stating, “Because I want to prove that them f–king n—ers did it,” according to court and investigation records.
In another audio tape, Teston compared a black suspect to a “f–king animal,” saying he had a “big f–king monkey head,” the outlet reported.
by TapInto. Susan Roselli Bonnell/TAPinto
A third officer, Capt. Vincent Concina, was suspended for his role in retaliating against Manata, who received a $400,000 hush-money settlement payment from Clark Township in 2020, the outlet reported.
