A message left by the deputy chief of the Weehawken police department on his subordinate’s voicemail last year didn’t sound good.
“It’s 11:52 a.m. and I’m parked right outside your [bleeping] car. Oh, man. [Expletive]. Un[bleeping] believable. Staying with somebody. I wonder who you’re staying with. I found you…I got you.”
The deputy chief, Robert Del Priore, is the subject of a stalking and sexual harassment complaint filed June 6 by Police Lt. Veronica Flood-Helwig. Flood-Helwig has named other members of the department as co-defendants and witnesses in the suit.
But an independent investigator who was hired by the department when Flood-Helwig made complaints earlier in the year paints a different picture.
“On the surface, Helwig’s allegations are serious,” reads a report from attorney David Corrigan of Little Silver. “They paint a picture of a superior officer who makes repeated phone calls to a subordinate and uses an inappropriate tone to communicate with a subordinate who wants nothing to do with him. Whether the conduct is on or off duty, such conduct would be offensive and affect Helwig’s terms and conditions of employment … Our investigation, however, reveals something completely different. It reveals DelPriore to have a personal and professional concern for a fellow officer who appears to have some difficulty in dealing with an alcohol problem. He becomes angry with her only after he believes she is deceiving him concerning her compliance with an alcohol treatment program.”
Tangled web
Helwig, the highest ranking female officer in the force and the first female superior officer ever in Weehawken, has charged DelPriore, the highest ranking male officer (who serves under Public Safety Director Jeff Welz), with sexual harassment and stalking, as well as causing “hostile work conditions.”
Also named in the suit is Captain William McLellan, Flood-Helwig’s superior, for allegedly ignoring numerous complaints made about DelPriore. The township of Weehawken is also named in the suit.
Eighteen fellow police officers have been named as witnesses in the case and could be called to testify if the suit goes to trial. No court date had been set as of press time.
Tells of offensive cartoons, stalking
According to the terms of the lawsuit, Helwig, 37, and a 17-year veteran of the department, said the problems began when offensive cartoons and sexually explicit drawings began appearing on the walls of the headquarters approximately 18 months ago.
According to the report, Helwig stated that she complained to both DelPriore and McLellan about the drawings, but the superior officers did nothing to remove them.
Helwig also stated that DelPriore followed her around while she was off-duty and left threatening messages on her voice mail and written messages on her car. Helwig claims that the incidents happened for more than a year before she filed an internal affairs sexual harassment complaint in February.
“DelPriore has for a period of over a year harassed the plaintiff, asking her who she is with and who she is dating off-duty,” the complaint states. “On numerous occasions, in addition to leaving disturbing voicemail messages, the defendant DelPriore would be seen throughout the town looking for the plaintiff and asking about the plaintiff’s whereabouts.”
Welz called the charges “unwarranted.”
“We intend to rigorously defend this action to the end,” Welz said. “The claims are without merit and have been found to be unsubstantiated.”
Once Welz found out about the internal affairs complaint in February, he ordered that a special investigation be conducted by an outside agency. Attorney David Corrigan, of Little Silver, who has represented the township in labor negotiations in the past, was brought in to oversee a thorough investigation.
“We took the allegations extremely seriously,” Welz said. “We personally ordered that there should be no departmental contact between the Deputy Chief and Lt. Helwig. Because this was such a serious offense, it was better that it was not handled by the police department, so we gave Corrigan free rein to conduct the investigation, without any input from any police department official. He interviewed several people, and the witnesses do not corroborate her allegations.”
In fact, in the 30-page investigation report, Corrigan says that it was DelPriore acting as a long-time friend (and the best friend of Helwig’s estranged husband, retired Weehawken police officer Paul Helwig) who was trying his best to help Helwig get through some personal problems, including treatment for alcohol dependency.
The report states that when Helwig complained about the offensive materials, the town “took immediate corrective action.”
Was ordered to get treatment
According to details listed in the investigation report, Paul Helwig filed a domestic violence complaint against his wife in their home in Wood-Ridge in Bergen County in September of 2000.
Because of the state attorney general’s guidelines regarding law enforcement officers and restraining orders, Veronica Flood-Helwig had her weapons confiscated until the matter was resolved.
Helwig was examined by a physician and a psychiatrist, Dr. Oscar Sandoval of Union City, who determined that she was dependent on alcohol and suggested outpatient treatment, according to Corrigan’s report. She was restricted to desk duty upon completion of a 90-day Alcohol Anonymous program, prescribed as part of the psychological examination by Dr. Sandoval. She was also ordered to undergo weekly therapy sessions with a doctor of her choosing, but had to report twice a month to Sandoval. Those recommendations were accepted by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office as a condition for Helwig to get her weapons back.
To this date, Helwig has yet to complete the requirements set by Dr. Sandoval and accepted by the Bergen County Prosecutor to return to full-time duty, like the alcohol abuse and awareness treatments, Welz said. Thus the reason for her desk status with the department.
A month later, Paul Helwig moved to drop the domestic violence charges and remove the restraining order, in an attempt to reconcile his marriage. It appeared at the time that Veronica Flood-Helwig was moving to get her life back together and to become restored as a full-time duty officer in Weehawken.
However, just a month later, things apparently took a turn for the worse. The Helwigs separated. According to the Corrigan report, she began to have a relationship with another police officer, Sgt. George Kallert.
Also according to the report, on Dec. 12, 2000, Deputy Chief DelPriore, thinking that Helwig was staying in an alcohol-free environment in Secaucus, spotted Helwig’s car outside the Ramada Suites Hotel in Weehawken. DelPriore left the following message on Helwig’s voicemail, according to the report:
“It’s 11:52 a.m. and I’m parked right outside your [bleeping] car. Oh, man. [Expletive]. Un[bleeping] believable. Staying with somebody. I wonder who you’re staying with. I found you…I got you.”
Helwig claims that DelPriore was following her and trying to find where she was. According to the report, Helwig said that after DelPriore found the car, he would leave his business card on the windshield.
Two days later, according to the report, DelPriore apparently left this message: “You’re done. The game is on. It’s my turn.”
And on Dec. 22, DelPriore says on a message, “You know, I hope you’re…I really hope you’re absolutely ashamed of yourself, not only me, I saw you, but two or three other people saw you wrapping Christmas presents. Oh, man, I hope you’re ashamed. I really do. I really hope you’re looking in the mirror and (inaudible) I did have something for you today but you wanted to be a sh-head so that’s your business but that’s all I got to say on the subject…”
When Helwig was asked by Corrigan why DelPriore would act in such a matter, she replied, “He’s obsessed. He’s totally obsessed with me.”
Helwig denied having any sexual or personal relationship with DelPriore, who is married. Also, the suit does not mention any physical harassment or physical confrontations.
From that point, Helwig claims that the working relationship between herself and DelPriore deteriorated. “He made me a wreck,” Helwig says in the investigation report. “I’d get constant looks, constant degrading remarks. Talking down to me, putting me down, making me feel worthless. At some point, he stopped talking to me when I was with George. Giving me dirty, filthy looks. He likes to pick up the roll book and slam it down. That’s his thing.”
After an alleged verbal incident in February, when DelPriore allegedly referred to Helwig and Kallert as “pussies,” “sissies,” and “crybabies” because Helwig filed a restraining order against her estranged husband, Helwig filed departmental harassment charges and announced that she would file a lawsuit in the matter. Although Helwig did not personally witness this incident, nor hear DelPriore say the slurs, she said she heard that it took place in front of her colleagues, recruits and a civilian.
Helwig has retained the services of Christine Carey Lilore of Paterson to represent her in the case. DelPriore has called upon Thomas Cammarata of Jersey City, who has a history of defending police officers in legal matters. The suit claims that Corrigan’s investigation was inadequate and unfair and that Helwig has already been subjected to retaliation from other officers.
“She’s seeking damages for what she has been put through and what she continues to be put through,” said Carey Lilore.
Neither DelPriore nor Helwig were able to comment on the case, as per township rules regarding police officers speaking to the media.
In Corrigan’s report, he concluded, “DelPriore is not a perfect deputy chief. He is probably too close to some of his officers … His comments left on the tapes reveal a somewhat unorthodox method in dealing with a subordinate with an apparent drinking problem. But DelPriore is not a sexual harasser.”
Welz said that the department has definitely been shaken by the allegations and the lawsuit.
“We’re a small police force of 50 people,” Welz said. “So something like this has a very detrimental effect on the department. We’ve never had an incident like this before. These are two people who were long-time friends and associates, whose families socialized together and were very close. That’s why it has people so amazed and confused, that it could result in these charges.
“But we’ve restored the deputy chief’s run of the department and have every intention of carrying this to the full extent,” Welz added.