Chief Darren McConnell speaking at an event in 2021. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office amended its policy on internal-affairs investigations into matters involving relatives of local police chiefs in February, the agency told redbankgreen Monday.
But the changes were “not formulated as a reaction to any one specific matter,” the MCPO said in a statement that appeared to contradict an assertion made last week by Red Bank’s police union about borough police Chief Darren McConnell.
McConnell said the statement bares “another misrepresentation of the facts by the PBA.”
As previously reported, Police Benevolent Local 39 President Mike Zadlock leveled a number allegations against McConnell at the borough council’s semimonthly meeting last week.
Among them: that the MCPO had looked into McConnell’s handling of “internal affairs complaints regarding his current wife and subordinate,” Patrolwoman Kristin Altimari.
That “resulted in the prosecutor’s office coming out with their directive, February 24th, 2023,” Zadlock told the council. “That directive has not been distributed to our department but has been public to other agencies.”
In a response Monday to a redbankgreen request, an MCPO spokesman emailed a copy of a February 24, 2023 memorandum addressed to Monmouth County police chiefs and labeled as “Internal Affairs Investigations Involving Family Members of Police Chiefs.”
The document outlines changes to internal affairs investigations that involve “complaints made against a law enforcement officer who is in any way related to the Police Chief, Police Director, Sheriff, or Head of Internal Affairs.” In such cases, with some exceptions, the matters must be referred to and conducted by the prosecutor, the two-page document says.
Here’s the full text: MCPO 2-24-23 Memo
In addition, the MCPO wrote the following in the email:
“This memorandum was not formulated as a reaction to any one specific matter, but rather to serve as guidelines intended to improve the fashion in which internal affairs investigations are conducted countywide while providing integrity to such investigations. Generally speaking, the prosecutor’s office does not comment on specific pending or concluded internal affairs matters beyond what is required under New Jersey Office of the Attorney General Law Enforcement Directive No. 2022-14, which mandates disclosure of certain information under limited sets of circumstances.”
Asked to comment, McConnell said via email:
“This is the memo, that was mislabeled as a directive. I, along with every police chief in the County received it. As MCPO indicated it was not a direct response to any particular matter or issue.
This was another misrepresentation of the facts by the PBA to make it appear to be something that it is not, by stating it was in response to the handling of internal affairs investigations in the RBPD. Clearly, the information provided by MCPO does not support that assertion.”
Zadlock, who has previously declined requests for comment, did not respond to a one sent Monday afternoon.
On Saturday, McConnell rebutted other allegations made by Zadlock, most notably, that he had had “numerous inappropriate and questionable sexual relationships with the significant others'” of department personnel over his decade as chief.
As reported by redbankgreen, McConnell said in response that he’d had one such relationship “years ago,” and no others. His relationship with Altimari, he said, began after she ended a relationship with another member of the department.
“While those who want to damage my reputation and that of my wife would categorize that as a scandal, it is not,” McConnell wrote.
McConnell also told redbankgreen that he has “never had any relationship with anyone who works for the borough” other than Altimari.
Zadlock also accused McConnell of favoritism, nepotism and “selective enforcement of department and borough policies,” and said the union had filed a complaint with the New Jersey Attorney General over McConnell’s alleged behavior. In addition, the local’s members approved a no-confidence vote on McConnell last month, Zadlock said.
A spokesman for the NJAG, citing policy, said the agency “does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations.”
McConnell, 54, has been chief for a decade, and has additionally served as “interim” borough administrator for two years. He had been expected to retire as chief July 31, and with that, to give up his borough administrator position to comply with New Jersey public employee pension rules. His retirement has been postponed, in part because of the union’s complaint to the NJAG, he said.
McConnell said the union’s allegations were “more about personal issues than professional ones,” and aimed at blocking him from becoming borough manager, a position he has not decided if he wants to pursue.
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