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NEWARK -- The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Manalapan Police Department on behalf of three black youths, one a Manalapan resident, who say they were the targets of racial discrimination and unprovoked harassment.
At a news conference at the ACLU's office, Sean Anderson, 12, of Jersey City, Diamond Yorker, 17, of Manalapan and Randy Reina, 18, of Edison, said that on June 21, 2003, they were singled out from their three white friends by Officers Pete Chalfin and Steve Turner as they walked near Buck's Head Park on Park View Way.
"We receive discrimination complaints every day, but in this case there were reliable witnesses, and the differential treatment engaged in by the officers was blatant and brazen," said Ed Barocas, legal director for the ACLU-NJ.
The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court in Freehold, asks for mandatory racial discrimination training and supervision for the department, as well as unspecified compensatory damages for the youths.
According to the ACLU's complaint, the officers sent the three white friends home, saying "you don't have to see this" as they proceeded to search and question only the black youths. Reina allegedly was warned not to set foot in Manalapan again. The police ultimately left without arresting anyone.
Chalfin and Turner could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Roughly 20 minutes after the confrontation, Yorker arrived at police headquarters with his parents and Randy's mother, Deborah Reina, to file a racial discrimination complaint. There they were met with hostility and skepticism by Lt. Kevin Dunckley, said Randal Yorker, Diamond's father, who is an attorney working for the Superior Court's Drug Court program in Monmouth County.
The next day, Sean Anderson's father, Preston, came into headquarters to file his own complaint. He said he was outraged that the officer who took the complaint, Lt. Denis Brady, listed his race as "Negro."
"I'm 50 years old," Preston said. "I've been through enough racism all my life -- I've been trying to get away from it."
"I'm disappointed that here in the (21st) century we as African-Americans are described as 'Negroes,' " Randal Yorker said.
An internal investigation, launched in September and conducted jointly by the department's Internal Affairs Unit and the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, dismissed the complaints.
"There is no evidence to suggest criminal conduct by the Manalapan police officers; nor is there evidence that any juveniles spoken to in this manner were singled out due to race or ethnic origin," Prosecutor John Kaye stated in a March 16 letter to Barocas.
A similar letter, signed by Manalapan Police Chief Stuart Brown, was sent to Randal Yorker on April 2.
Capt. Louis Moreto, serving as acting chief while Brown attends courses at the FBI Academy, said that -- as is the department's standard policy -- he would not discuss a matter that is the subject of litigation.
"We take the issues of racial profiling and bias very seriously," Moreto said. "We expect professionalism from our police officers and will tolerate nothing less. If we find anything to the contrary, we take appropriate action -- either criminal or administrative -- to correct that."
Though Assistant Prosecutor Richard Incremona said he was not authorized to comment on this case, he stressed that his office stands behind its report. Incremona added that in the 9 1/2 years he has held his current position, he does not recall a single racial discrimination complaint filed against a Mana-lapan police officer.
Township Attorney Donald Lo-murro said he is not aware of any other allegations of racial discrimination by police in Manalapan.
"All you have right now is a bare-bones allegation," Lomur-ro said. "The mere holding of a press conference doesn't mean something is true."
Details of complaint
According to the ACLU's com-plaint, the three youths were walking near the playground with their white friends -- Vin-cent Lynch, Brett Ecker and Nicholas Rodriguez -- around 10 p.m. and were approached by Chalfin and Turner in separate squad cars.
The boys say police never ex-plained why they'd been stopped. The ACLU's complaint states they were not making excessive noise.
Yorker said that, when asked by police to remove his hands from his pockets, he asked why and said he had done nothing wrong. The pair responded, he said, by throwing him on a squad car and ordered him to spread his legs apart as they searched him.
The three white boys stood their ground when they were told they could leave, Anderson said. When the officers began questioning only the three black boys, their white friends told the police, "You're racist," to which the men replied, "Yep, that's exactly what we are," An-derson said.
The other two boys were also searched before they were al-lowed to leave, according to the lawsuit.
"I felt they could have handled the situation better than they did," Reina said. "I felt degrad-ed."
Chalfin joined the force in 1997 and is currently assigned to the Patrol Division. Turner has been a police officer for 10 years, working in Manalapan for the past four.
NEWARK -- The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Manalapan Police Department on behalf of three black youths, one a Manalapan resident, who say they were the targets of racial discrimination and unprovoked harassment.
At a news conference at the ACLU's office, Sean Anderson, 12, of Jersey City, Diamond Yorker, 17, of Manalapan and Randy Reina, 18, of Edison, said that on June 21, 2003, they were singled out from their three white friends by Officers Pete Chalfin and Steve Turner as they walked near Buck's Head Park on Park View Way.
"We receive discrimination complaints every day, but in this case there were reliable witnesses, and the differential treatment engaged in by the officers was blatant and brazen," said Ed Barocas, legal director for the ACLU-NJ.
The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court in Freehold, asks for mandatory racial discrimination training and supervision for the department, as well as unspecified compensatory damages for the youths.
According to the ACLU's complaint, the officers sent the three white friends home, saying "you don't have to see this" as they proceeded to search and question only the black youths. Reina allegedly was warned not to set foot in Manalapan again. The police ultimately left without arresting anyone.
Chalfin and Turner could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Roughly 20 minutes after the confrontation, Yorker arrived at police headquarters with his parents and Randy's mother, Deborah Reina, to file a racial discrimination complaint. There they were met with hostility and skepticism by Lt. Kevin Dunckley, said Randal Yorker, Diamond's father, who is an attorney working for the Superior Court's Drug Court program in Monmouth County.
The next day, Sean Anderson's father, Preston, came into headquarters to file his own complaint. He said he was outraged that the officer who took the complaint, Lt. Denis Brady, listed his race as "Negro."
"I'm 50 years old," Preston said. "I've been through enough racism all my life -- I've been trying to get away from it."
"I'm disappointed that here in the (21st) century we as African-Americans are described as 'Negroes,' " Randal Yorker said.
An internal investigation, launched in September and conducted jointly by the department's Internal Affairs Unit and the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, dismissed the complaints.
"There is no evidence to suggest criminal conduct by the Manalapan police officers; nor is there evidence that any juveniles spoken to in this manner were singled out due to race or ethnic origin," Prosecutor John Kaye stated in a March 16 letter to Barocas.
A similar letter, signed by Manalapan Police Chief Stuart Brown, was sent to Randal Yorker on April 2.
Capt. Louis Moreto, serving as acting chief while Brown attends courses at the FBI Academy, said that -- as is the department's standard policy -- he would not discuss a matter that is the subject of litigation.
"We take the issues of racial profiling and bias very seriously," Moreto said. "We expect professionalism from our police officers and will tolerate nothing less. If we find anything to the contrary, we take appropriate action -- either criminal or administrative -- to correct that."
Though Assistant Prosecutor Richard Incremona said he was not authorized to comment on this case, he stressed that his office stands behind its report. Incremona added that in the 9 1/2 years he has held his current position, he does not recall a single racial discrimination complaint filed against a Mana-lapan police officer.
Township Attorney Donald Lo-murro said he is not aware of any other allegations of racial discrimination by police in Manalapan.
"All you have right now is a bare-bones allegation," Lomur-ro said. "The mere holding of a press conference doesn't mean something is true."
Details of complaint
According to the ACLU's com-plaint, the three youths were walking near the playground with their white friends -- Vin-cent Lynch, Brett Ecker and Nicholas Rodriguez -- around 10 p.m. and were approached by Chalfin and Turner in separate squad cars.
The boys say police never ex-plained why they'd been stopped. The ACLU's complaint states they were not making excessive noise.
Yorker said that, when asked by police to remove his hands from his pockets, he asked why and said he had done nothing wrong. The pair responded, he said, by throwing him on a squad car and ordered him to spread his legs apart as they searched him.
The three white boys stood their ground when they were told they could leave, Anderson said. When the officers began questioning only the three black boys, their white friends told the police, "You're racist," to which the men replied, "Yep, that's exactly what we are," An-derson said.
The other two boys were also searched before they were al-lowed to leave, according to the lawsuit.
"I felt they could have handled the situation better than they did," Reina said. "I felt degrad-ed."
Chalfin joined the force in 1997 and is currently assigned to the Patrol Division. Turner has been a police officer for 10 years, working in Manalapan for the past four.
