None of 14 volunteer firefighters who were suspended two weeks ago for failing to complete a new sensitivity training course have come forward to appeal the decision as of Wednesday, City Administrator Anthony Iacono said.
The sensitivity training was instituted after two Secaucus residents who live next door to one of the volunteer firehouses filed a bias complaint in April with the town, saying that they were harassed by the firefighters because they are a gay couple. Town officials said that the sensitivity training is standard for Town Hall department heads, and would be instituted for police and firemen and their supervisors. But they said that it wasn’t because of the alleged gay-bashing incident.
However, 14 of the volunteer firefighters failed to complete the training recently, either because they didn’t believe it was necessary or because they simply didn’t show up.
“Some felt that [if] they weren’t part of the incident, why should they have to take the class?” Iacono said.
Mayor Dennis Elwell said that some of the firefighters who didn’t take the training weren’t very active to begin with and hadn’t made their quotas of fire calls.
None of the suspended volunteers, who have technically been ruled “inactive,” have approached Elwell or Iacono to protest their new designation.
Elwell said that anyone has the opportunity to appeal the suspension to the mayor and council. He declined to state whether the appeal would be conducted privately. In other instances where there is an appeal on a disciplinary action, it is a personnel matter and conducted in closed session. Since there is litigation involved, the matter would be reviewed by the town attorney.
Litigation
The criminal investigation into the alleged bias crime has evolved into a civil suit against 30 unknown defendants, including the members of Fire Engine Company No. 2 and the Secaucus Police Department. Town officials are also named.
Tim Carter and Peter deVries, who live in the house next to the firehouse, filed harassment charges in April claiming that firefighters coming back from a party threw rocks at their house and hurled anti-gay slurs for 12 minutes while the couple waited for the police to arrive.
On July 1, Carter and deVries filed a civil suit against the town with the Superior Court of New Jersey Hudson County Civil Division. The suit focuses on the incident itself, and the town’s handling of the incident.
“Upon information and belief, since the April 25th attack, neither Frank Walters, the Chief of the Fire Department of Secaucus, the Police Department of Secaucus, the Town Administrator, Anthony Iacono, nor Dennis Elwell, the Mayor of the Town of Secaucus, have investigated, identified and/or punished any of the Doe defendants responsible for the attacks on plaintiffs and their residence,” reads the complaint.
Shortly after the criminal complaint was filed in May, the state Division of Criminal Justice took over the investigation out of concerns that there might be a conflict of interest with one local agency investigating another.
Iacono said that any apparent inaction on the part of the town since the incident was under the instruction of the Attorney General.
“They didn’t like the way the mayor, the fire chief and myself handled the investigation,” said Iacono. “In the suit they specifically say after that night the town did nothing to prevent it from happening again. The attorney general specifically in writing told us not to do anything. The [plaintiffs] said we didn’t do anything. They wanted us to punish somebody.”
Iacono pointed out that nobody has been charged in the criminal suit, and that until someone is, the town has nobody to reprimand.
“You can’t just blame a group. You have to charge a party or parties,” said Iacono. “That’s basically what the attorney general’s office is trying to figure out: did someone commit a crime. You cannot arrest a whole group because someone was screaming obscenities.”
Iacono said that Carter and deVries had not adequately described any individuals they say are involved.
“They weren’t able to give any kind of evidence that would lead to the arrest of anybody,” Iacono said.
Part of the suit claims that it is the defendants should be identifiable with the cooperation of town officials.
“At all times relevant,” reads the complaint, “defendants John Doe 1 through John Doe 30 [hereinafter the “Doe defendants”] whose names are not yet known to plaintiffs, but whose identities can be ascertained by and with the cooperation of other defendants, have been officers in the Secaucus Fire Department, employed by or under the control of the Town of Secaucus, the Mayor of Secaucus, the Town Administrator of Secaucus, the Secaucus Fire Department, and/or Fire Chief Walters, or have been associated with said individuals and have been acting in concert with them in relation to the matters and facts alleged in this complaint.”
Although it is officially unrelated to the bias investigation, Elwell believes that the sensitivity training can serve to prevent such incidents from happening.
There are 85 volunteer firefighters in the department, or 61 if one doesn’t count the ones who were suspended or ruled “inactive.”