NORTH BERGEN, N.J. (TCN) — A police chief is facing a lawsuit from multiple officers for allegedly fostering a “workplace environment characterized by inappropriate behavior,” including exposing himself and mistreating police staff.
According to NJ.com, five officers from the North Bergen Police Department intend to sue Chief Robert Farley in civil court. One of the officers, Special Capt. Michael Derin, said Farley “created a hostile work environment” after Farley reportedly found out that another employee planned to file a suit against the department. Derin reportedly wrote in a court document that Farley “chases me around his office. After cornering me in the filing area with no further room for retreat, he sticks a hypodermic needle through my jeans into the tip of my penis.”
The needle poke reportedly caused him to bleed.
Derin claimed Farley “would shave his body hair on people’s property, their persons, and their food,” and that the chief was “fond of scraping fluids from his underwear onto people seated in the chief’s office.”
NJ.com reports Derin was fired when he went to file a complaint against Farley.
North Bergen Police Lt. Alex Guzman is another plaintiff in the case. In a letter from Guzman’s attorney to the North Bergen Township Attorney, Guzman laid out his allegations against Farley, saying the “practical jokes” Farley claims he’s playing are “demeaning, demoralizing, and targeted.”
Guzman claimed in his letter that Farley “has exited the bathroom in his office and exposed himself to others in the room, making inappropriate comments such as, ‘Hey, look, it’s bigger than you thought, right?'”
Guzman alleges Farley placed hot peppers in an officer’s food in the microwave, which created fumes that led to physical illness. One officer reportedly needed EMS treatment. He allegedly “instructed everyone to report the incident as a malfunctioning pepper spray canister in the armory if anyone asked.”
Farley has also allegedly “defecated on the floor in front of his entire staff,” as well as in a trash can near Derin and Guzman. Another time, he reportedly “left feces on the bathroom floor, apparently with the intent of having someone unknowingly step on it.”
According to the letter, Farley would allegedly break pens and smear ink on officers’ uniforms and faces, leave spray-paint cans under cars, causing them to explode on the vehicles, throw staplers across the room, and poke holes in a chief’s coffee cup. Guzman said the alleged harassment targeted his family, too. He says Farley sent gay pride flags, dildos, and masturbation cream to his house, and his wife opened the package in front of their children.
Another time, he reportedly put Viagra and Adderall into the office coffee pot, “causing staff to inadvertently experience the effects of these substances without their consent.” The letter claims he poisoned a corporal’s fish, killing all of them.
Guzman purported there were “deliberate efforts to conspire against me in an attempt to undermine my civil lawsuit,” including intimidating witnesses and retaliating against other officers who associated with him.
NBC News reports North Bergen officials said it was “highly suspicious” that officers were coming forward against Farley after he cut overtime pay.
A statement from the town read, “The Township of North Bergen has full confidence in Chief Robert Farley’s leadership of the North Bergen Police Department and we strongly deny these false and outrageous allegations made by disgruntled officers who are resorting to attacking the reputation of a dedicated public servant to further their own selfish goals.”
The township referred the claims to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office in order to avoid a conflict of interest.
The attorney representing the officers, Patrick Toscano, told NBC News, “I have represented thousands of police officers over the years. I have never seen anything like this. There’s just no other way of saying it.”
