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revelarts
07-30-2012, 04:03 PM
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hVOj-SoDeHQ?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Regina Tasca is a “rogue cop” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVOj-SoDeHQ) – and God bless her for it.


Tasca is in the middle of disciplinary hearings that may result in her termination from the Bogota, New Jersey Police Department. She stands accused of “bizarre and outlandish” behavior in two incidents a year ago during which she revealed herself to be “A danger to other police officers.”


Her first supposed offense -- which wasn't mentioned until after the second -- was a failure to assist another officer who was “attacked” by a drunken woman who was roughly half his weight and barely five feet tall. Her second was was to intervene when a police officer from another jurisdiction viciously assaulted an emotionally troubled young man who was not suspected of a crime.


“I consider myself a peace officer,” Tasca told Pro Libertate. “My thing is to help make sure that people are safe, and that they don’t have a reason to fear the police – that we treat them like human beings. The incident that started all of this was one in which I intervened to prevent excessive force against a kid who was the subject of a medical call, not a criminal suspect."


On April 29, 2011, Tasca was on patrol when she got a call for medical assistance. Former Bogota Council Member Tara Sharp, concerned about the erratic behavior of her 22-year-old son Kyle, called the police to take him to the hospital for a psychological evaluation. Requesting police intervention, particularly in cases of this kind, is never a good idea. Sharp was exceptionally fortunate that Officer Tasca was the first to respond: She has years of experience as an EMT and had just completed specialized training on situations involving psychologically disturbed people.


Once on the scene, Tasca acted quickly to calm down the distraught young man.


“When the call came, I heard that a couple of officers from Ridgefield Park were coming to provide backup, which I thought was OK, Tasca related to Pro Libertate. “Kyle had been shouting and swearing when I got there, but I got him calmed down.” The young man’s mood changed abruptly when he saw the other officers arrive.


“He noticed them and asked me, `Why is there another police officer here from another town?’ Then he said that he was leaving, and he moved maybe two or three steps when one of the Ridgefield officers jumped him.”
Sgt. Chris Thibault tackled Kyle, wrapped him in a bear hug, and attempted to handcuff him. Within an instant, Sgt. Joe Rella piled on and began to slug Kyle in the head while his horrified mother screamed at the officers to stop.


Tasca instinctively did what any legitimate peace officer would do: She intervened to protect the victim, pulling Rella off the helpless and battered young man. Eventually the Ridgefield officers handcuffed Kyle – then turned their fury on Tasca.


“One of them yelled at me, `We can’t have this!’” she recalled. “I said, we `can’t have’ what? There was no reason to take that kid to the ground and start slugging him. This was a medical assistance call, and the mother was sitting their screaming at them to stop beating on their son. I didn’t fail to aid another officer; I acted to stop a beatdown.”


Two days later, Tasca was summoned by her captain, who informed her that she was being suspended pending a disciplinary hearing. She learned that in addition to “using force” to stop Rella’s assault on Kyle Sharp, Tasca was accused of failing to assist Bogota Officer Jerome Fowler when he was “assaulted” by an intoxicated woman on April 3.


“Nobody had said anything to me about the earlier case until after the incident with the Ridgefield officers,” Tasca pointed out to me.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QgC-XanBPAI/T5rpeR9aArI/AAAAAAAAHr0/hWJug1Uu4l8/s320/Tasca+Profile+Pic.jpg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QgC-XanBPAI/T5rpeR9aArI/AAAAAAAAHr0/hWJug1Uu4l8/s1600/Tasca+Profile+Pic.jpg)


Tasca was on night patrol when she came across “this young girl walking in the middle of the street, crying, with one broken heel. She was very drunk, and the officer who had picked her up had just dropped her off at the apartment of somebody who was described as a `male friend’ – but practically nothing was known about this guy. He just left her there without finding out anything about the situation at that apartment; she could have been assaulted, raped, or killed. Whoever it was, he just threw her back out on the street – which actually might have been the best outcome. So she was crying hysterically and very distraught when I found her. I radioed HQ that I would be assisting her, and the officer who had picked her up arrived, and we went to the hospital with me carrying her in the back seat of my police car.”


The young woman was taken to the Emergency Room at Holy Name Medical Center.
“Once we got there, our job was done,” Tasca continues. “I stuck around for a little while to make sure everything was OK. There were about a half-dozen hospital security personnel on the scene, as well as about four or five EMTs and nurses there. The girl walked over to the nurse’s station, then decided that she didn’t want to go to the hospital. When Jay [Officer Fowler] reached for her, she started flailing her arms, and hit his hand, opening up an old cut he had on one of his knuckles.”


This was the “assault” that figures so prominently in the charges against Tasca. The officers who ganged up on Kyle Sharp have not been charged or subjected to administrative discipline – but Tasca’s refusal to help ground and pound a tiny, intoxicated woman who had made incidental contact with a fellow officer is being treated as a career-imperiling delinquency.


“Apparently, Jay believed I should have pushed all these people aside and help him subdue a tiny girl -- she was about five foot one, and very skinny – who had given him a scratch,” Tasca pointed out.


After being put on suspension, Tasca was subjected to a psychological evaluation by Dr. Matthew Geller, a psychiatrist who does contact work for New Jersey law enforcement agencies. Geller provided the diagnosis he had been paid for, ruling that Tasca was unfit for duty. At the same time, the Bogota PD’s internal affairs officer produced a report concluding that Tasca’s refusal to assist Officer Fowler in the April 3 incident demonstrated her unfitness.


The internal affairs review wasn’t exactly a model of investigative rigor, Tasca observes: “There were nearly a dozen other people who witnessed the incident – and the only one he interviewed was a 14-year-old Ambulance Corps volunteer who happened to be his niece!”


Tasca, an openly gay female police officer, believes that at least some of the problems she’s experienced are the product of a cultural clash with what she describes as “the Old Boys Club.” More importantly, however, she has been targeted for the unforgiveable offense of “crossing the Blue Line” by taking the side of a Mundane being attacked by a member of the Brotherhood.


“I’ve been an officer here in Bogata for eleven years, and spent seven or eight years as a Class 2 Special Officer in Fairview, which is where I grew up,” Tasca told Pro Libertate. “Until now, I’ve never had problems with anybody on the force, or anybody in the community. Oh, sure, when you work near people for ten or twelve hours every day, you’ll have disagreements and maybe say some things you shouldn’t, but that’s typical of just about any relationship, professional or otherwise. But never in my career had I been accused of unfitness for duty until after that incident a year ago.


As a veteran with nearly twenty years in law enforcement, Tasca has noticed a dramatic change in the institutional culture of law enforcement in recent years.



<tbody>
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YewWVLGpWY8/T5rpu8_kdOI/AAAAAAAAHr8/QsDMt9Eu_pQ/s1600/Perez+and+family.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YewWVLGpWY8/T5rpu8_kdOI/AAAAAAAAHr8/QsDMt9Eu_pQ/s1600/Perez+and+family.jpg)


Ramon Perez and his family.

</tbody>
“I think what we’re seeing is a lot of kids who are given power and immediately begin to abuse it,” Tasca observes. “Some of these guys are as young as 18 years old. You give them a uniform, and it goes right to their head. And even many of those that don’t do abusive things miss the point, which is that we’re supposed to be peace officers. They get a badge and a gun and they think they’re gods, or at least that they’re entitled to treat people like dirt. I see them as people, and insist on treating them like I’d want to be treated.”


In contemporary law enforcement, commitment to the Golden Rule is a firing offense. Just ask Ramon Perez (http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2006/12/new-police-professionalism-serious.html), whose experience is strikingly similar to that of Regina Tasca.


Perez, a probationary officer who had won the top leadership award at his police academy, was cashiered by the Austin, Texas Police Department as a result of his refusal to use a Taser on an elderly, non-violent man (http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2006-12-29/432110/) during a domestic disturbance in January 2005. The order was unconstitutional, illegal, a violation of the guidelines in the department’s handbook and, most importantly, immoral.


A few days after that incident, Perez was given a punitive transfer to the night shift. Two months later, Perez was told to report to APD psychologist Carol Logan to undergo what he was told would be a “communication” exercise. In fact, it was a disguised “fit-for-duty review” intended to ratify the pre-ordained decision to fire him.


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7d5ubWGprhw/T5rp-Og-H9I/AAAAAAAAHsE/lRQ1nm32E4Q/s1600/Perez+the+peace+officer.jpeg (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7d5ubWGprhw/T5rp-Og-H9I/AAAAAAAAHsE/lRQ1nm32E4Q/s1600/Perez+the+peace+officer.jpeg)
Logan’s four page report focused entirely on Perez's moral and religious beliefs. Perez is a self-described non-denominational fundamentalist Christian, an ordained minister who home-schools his children. He is also firmly convinced that protection of civil liberties is the paramount duty of a peace officer – a duty he regarded, literally, as a sacred trust.


According to Logan, the depth of his commitment to his beliefs – beginning with that perennially unpopular tenet called the Golden Rule -- produces an “impairment” of his ability to absorb new facts, to communicate with his superiors, and to deal with “feedback.”
As was the case with Regina Tasca, Ramon Perez’s detractors dredged up a second incident of “misconduct” involving a refusal to use unnecessary force.


By twice displaying a peace officer’s preference for de-escalation, Perez had established himself as a repeat offender. He was purged from the APD, a department that has since done much to distinguish itself – in the face of fierce and plentiful competition -- as one of the most abusive in the country.

A vast geographic and cultural gulf separates Ramon Perez, a Fundamentalist Evangelical from Texas, and Regina Tasca, an openly gay Roman Catholic from New Jersey. They have at least one critically important thing in common: Both of them intervened in defense of helpless citizens facing criminal violence from fellow cops, and learned that for people who have chosen a career in law enforcement, behaving like a peace officer is a firing offense.






God Bless both those cops i pray 1000's like them take there place.

revelarts
07-30-2012, 05:12 PM
link for above
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2011/08/in-praise-of-rogue-cops.html

Kathianne
07-30-2012, 05:19 PM
link for above
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2011/08/in-praise-of-rogue-cops.html

Rev, I appreciate your beliefs and diligence, but when one cannot find anything, news or alternative media, there's problems.

revelarts
07-30-2012, 05:25 PM
Rev, I appreciate your beliefs and diligence, but when one cannot find anything, news or alternative media, there's problems.

what do you mean?

Kathianne
07-30-2012, 05:31 PM
what do you mean?

other than 'conspiracy sites' I can't find anything to back up the above on either officer.

revelarts
07-30-2012, 06:07 PM
other than 'conspiracy sites' I can't find anything to back up the above on either officer.
??
The Youtube is of a local tv news station and
the links to other local news stories are embeded in the article.
But here are a few other sources.


http://www.northjersey.com/bogota/Psychiatrist_Bogota_officer_fit_to_perform_job.htm l

http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime_courts/crime_courts_news/Attorney_questions_Bogota_chief_over_charges_again st_officer.html


"About NorthJersey.com:
NorthJersey.com is the premier site in the region for breaking news, high school and professional sports coverage, entertainment information, features on food and dining, and the local news North Jersey residents care about most. Home page customization allows users to get news from their town, in the state, across the country and around the world all in one place. NorthJersey.com is powered by the award-winning people and publications of North Jersey Media Group (NJMG), the area's largest news-gathering organization. NJMG is best known for their flagship daily newspaper, The Record . Stephen Borg, President of NJMG, is the fourth generation of his family to act as publisher of the award-winning publication."


http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2012/04/suspended_bogota_police_officer_i_was_stopping_exc essive_force.html

"About NJ.com
NJ.com is New Jersey's largest website for local news, sports, entertainment, jobs, autos, real estate and information, powered by 12 New Jersey newspapers (http://www.nj.com/newspapers/) and the NJ.com staff. NJ.com offers forums, blogs, webcams, and listings on where to go and what to do in and around the Garden State. No matter what part of the state you hail from, you can find news on NJ.com from your your town (http://www.nj.com/local/). "
http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-officer-may-be-fired-after-stopping-beatdown,0,2795580.story

"WPIX-TV
220 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017

About WPIX:
FCC information (http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumers.html)
Closed captioning concerns (http://www.wpix.com/about/cc/)
Current EEO Report (http://media.trb.com/media/acrobat/2012-06/323745800-07101743.pdf)

New York's WPIX-TV (Channel 11), is the flagship station of The CW Television Network, and is seen in over 10 million homes through over-the-air and satellite distribution.

Founded in 1948 and owned by Tribune Broadcasting, a division of the Tribune Company, WPIX has long been regarded as a groundbreaking station in New York...."






The Officer Perez story

http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2006-12-29/432110/

http://www.austinpost.org/austin-news/quintana-arbitration-hearing-city-wins-damning-themselves-again

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/courts/entries/2009/12/


I get the impression that they are not "conspiracy sites"

So, in this case, we agree that the stories are probably true i suppose?

Kathianne
07-30-2012, 06:22 PM
??
The Youtube is of a local tv news station and
the links to other local news stories are embeded in the article.
But here are a few other sources.


http://www.northjersey.com/bogota/Psychiatrist_Bogota_officer_fit_to_perform_job.htm l

http://www.northjersey.com/news/crime_courts/crime_courts_news/Attorney_questions_Bogota_chief_over_charges_again st_officer.html


"About NorthJersey.com:
NorthJersey.com is the premier site in the region for breaking news, high school and professional sports coverage, entertainment information, features on food and dining, and the local news North Jersey residents care about most. Home page customization allows users to get news from their town, in the state, across the country and around the world all in one place. NorthJersey.com is powered by the award-winning people and publications of North Jersey Media Group (NJMG), the area's largest news-gathering organization. NJMG is best known for their flagship daily newspaper, The Record . Stephen Borg, President of NJMG, is the fourth generation of his family to act as publisher of the award-winning publication."


http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2012/04/suspended_bogota_police_officer_i_was_stopping_exc essive_force.html

"About NJ.com
NJ.com is New Jersey's largest website for local news, sports, entertainment, jobs, autos, real estate and information, powered by 12 New Jersey newspapers (http://www.nj.com/newspapers/) and the NJ.com staff. NJ.com offers forums, blogs, webcams, and listings on where to go and what to do in and around the Garden State. No matter what part of the state you hail from, you can find news on NJ.com from your your town (http://www.nj.com/local/). "


http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-officer-may-be-fired-after-stopping-beatdown,0,2795580.story

"WPIX-TV
220 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017

About WPIX:
FCC information (http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumers.html)
Closed captioning concerns (http://www.wpix.com/about/cc/)
Current EEO Report (http://media.trb.com/media/acrobat/2012-06/323745800-07101743.pdf)

New York's WPIX-TV (Channel 11), is the flagship station of The CW Television Network, and is seen in over 10 million homes through over-the-air and satellite distribution.

Founded in 1948 and owned by Tribune Broadcasting, a division of the Tribune Company, WPIX has long been regarded as a groundbreaking station in New York...."






The Officer Perez story

http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2006-12-29/432110/

http://www.austinpost.org/austin-news/quintana-arbitration-hearing-city-wins-damning-themselves-again

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/courts/entries/2009/12/


I get the impression that they are not "conspiracy sites"

So, in this case, we agree that the stories are probably true i suppose?

Conspiracy sites or not, only two were clickable for me. Both ended awaiting court decision.

revelarts
07-30-2012, 07:12 PM
Conspiracy sites or not, only two were clickable for me. Both ended awaiting court decision.

your just kidding right, you don't really think they are "conspiracy" sites do you?

And based on what you read and saw do you think either of them Deserved anything but a medal for stopping assaults from out of control cops?


or do you think they should tried then fired for stopping an old man from being tasered and stopping an emotional challenged non violent kid from being beaten?

revelarts
07-30-2012, 07:30 PM
By KIRSTIN COLE pix11.com | @colekirstin 9:14 p.m. EDT, April 16, 2012

Plenty of cop "beat downs" can be found online, but how often does the officer who stops others from handing out the beating get fired for it? That's exactly what's happening to Officer Regina Tasca in the Bogota Police Department.

Tasca's dashboard camera captured her as she attempted to stop two officers from beating an emotionally disturbed young man. Just days after the incident, she was told she was being suspended with pay. A year later, her trial is about to begin as the Bogota PD seeks to fire her.

In Bogota, officers control whether or not their dashboard camera rolls. Fortunately, when Officer Tasca responded to a call in April 2011, she clicked her unit "on." The black-and-white tape captures it all--a mother, Tara, screaming for police to stop punching her son on their front lawn. She had called to have her emotionally disturbed son Kyle taken to the hospital. Bogota police responded while waiting for the ambulance. Tasca was the sole officer on the road that day, so she called for back-up according to protocol. Ridgefield (http://www.wpix.com/topic/us/connecticut/fairfield-county/ridgefield-PLGEO100100201150000.topic) Park police then sent two officers. Tasca had just completed her state-mandated training for working with emotionally disturbed citizens.

Tasca described what we see on the videotape: "The Ridgefield Park officer automatically charges and takes him down to the ground. I was quite shocked. As he's doing that, another Ridgefield Park officer flies to the scene in his car, jumps out and starts punching him in the head."

On the tape you can hear Tara, the mother, and Kyle, her son, screaming, "Why are you punching him?" and "Stop punching me!"

The two Ridgefield Park Sergeants are never heard refuting the claims that they punched the 22 year-old man as he was waiting for an ambulance.

Even worse, Kyle was never charged, nor arrested, for any offense. Tasca says it's because he never threatened, did not have a weapon, and indeed never resisted and was not violent. Eventually Tasca was able to pry the punching Ridgefield Park officer off Kyle, as seen in a picture taken by the Kyle's mother, who also later commended Tasca in a phone call.

The call came in to Tasca's answering machine and was kept on a recording: "Thank you Regina. I appreciate you standing up for him, for protecting him while the officer attacked him. I can't figure out what i would have done without you at the scene."

Catherine Elston is the attorney helping Tasca prepare for a week-long departmental trial. Elston is also a former police officer.

"This was excessive force used against an emotionally disturbed person," she said. "This was an unlawful tackle, this was a punching an emotionally disturbed person whose arms were pinned under his chest with his face pushed into the ground."

What happened next is so baffling to so many.

Tasca's voice began to waiver as she recounted the meeting with her superior officer:

"The next thing I know he asks me to turn over my weapon and be sent for a fitness for duty exam," she said.

Bogota PD, after hearing Tasca's story, believes she is psychologically incompetent to be a police officer, and she is being sent for testing. The Ridgefield Park Police officers seen tackling and punching an emotionally disturbed man waiting for an ambulance are never questioned. never interviewed by an Internal Affairs Investigator, and are still working the streets today.

Bogota Police chose to suspend Tasca, an 11-year veteran with numerous commendations. There are photographs from the hospital documenting the bruises on the 22-year-old's head, back, arms and wrists.

Tasca says the real reason she's being called out on these charges is she crossed the "blue line" by refusing to support another officer even when he used excessive force. The other problem? The Bogota Police Department is very small--fewer than 20 officers. And there, she is a definitive minority.

Tasca spells it out: "I'm the only female--the first female ever--and the first and only gay female also." When asked if she feels targeted because of her sex and her sexual orientation, she doesn't hesitate in here answer: "Yes."

The trial, to be in front of a retired judge who will be the sole decision maker, starts Tuesday.

"If another officer is using excessive force, it's my duty to make sure you stop it. and that's what I did," says Tasca about her actions.

But attorney Elston, a veteran of "the job" knows even more. "They're not just terminating her. They're destroying her reputation."
Copyright © 2012, WPIX-TV


http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-officer-may-be-fired-after-stopping-beatdown,0,2795580.story

link (http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-officer-may-be-fired-after-stopping-beatdown,0,2795580.story)

(http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-officer-may-be-fired-after-stopping-beatdown,0,2795580.story)

Psychiatrist: Bogota officer Regina Tasca fit to perform job
<time> Thursday July 12, 2012, 8:06 PM
</time> BY DENISA R. SUPERVILLE
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Print | E-mail
BOGOTA (http://www.northjersey.com/bogota) — After a dozen witnesses and 12 days of testimony, the hearing on the Bogota (http://www.northjersey.com/bogota) officer accused of dereliction of duty ended Thursday with a defense psychiatrist testifying that the officer was fit to perform her job.
<figure style="margin:0px; padding:0px;"> http://media.northjersey.com/images/300*232/042412tasca_dngnk.jpg (http://media.northjersey.com/images/042412tasca_dngnk.jpg) DON SMITH / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
<figcaption> Police Officer Regina Tasca in April.
</figcaption>
</figure>
The hearing’s end, almost four months after it started, was a sharp contrast to its beginning on April 18, when family members and supporters of the officer, Regina Tasca, occupied the front row, a phalanx of Ridgefield Park (http://www.northjersey.com/ridgefieldpark) officers took up others, and various borough residents stopped by.
Only one steadfast Tasca supporter and a longtime borough resident, who attended all 12 days of testimony, sat in the audience on Thursday as Dr. Vicki Fiore spoke.
Tasca, a 45-year-old Paramus (http://www.northjersey.com/paramus) resident and the only female officer on the Bogota (http://www.northjersey.com/bogota) Police Department, is facing about 20 administrative charges, including failing to perform her duties, conduct unbecoming of an officer and failing to cooperate with another agency.
She was suspended with pay in May 2011 after a borough-ordered psychological exam found her unfit for duty.
In his opening statements in April, Raymond Wiss, the attorney representing the borough, accused Tasca of “outlandish” and “bizarre” behavior in two incidents in April 2011 and argued that by the end of the hearing the borough would have shown she should be fired.
Tasca’s attorney, Catherine Elston, called the charges a “witch-hunt” and said her client was being targeted because she is a woman and because she is gay. She said her client intervened in one of the incidents, both of which were captured on videotape, after excessive force was used.
In the first, which occurred on April 3, Tasca is accused of failing to assist a fellow officer as he struggled with a drunken woman whom they had taken to Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck (http://www.northjersey.com/teaneck). The woman eventually hit the other officer.
In the April 29 incident, the borough accuses Tasca of interfering with Ridgefield Park (http://www.northjersey.com/ridgefieldpark) officers as they tried to restrain a 23-year old emotionally disturbed man so they could take him to the hospital.
The trial featured testimony from the two Ridgefield Park (http://www.northjersey.com/ridgefieldpark) officers — Sgt. Christopher Thibualt and Detective Sgt. Joseph Rella; Captain James Sepp, the internal affairs investigator; Dr. Matthew Guller, the psychologist who examined Tasca and found her to be unfit for duty; Frank Murphy, a defense police expert, who testified that the officers used excessive force; and former Councilwoman Tara Sharp, the mother of the man Tasca sought to protect.
The trial served up testy back-and-forth between Elston, a veteran police union attorney, and the hearing officer, retired judge Richard J. Donohue, who served for eight years as a Superior Court judge in Bergen County (http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen) and more than two decades as a municipal court judge in Demarest (http://www.northjersey.com/demarest), Lodi (http://www.northjersey.com/lodi) and Haworth (http://www.northjersey.com/haworth).
It also included threats from Elston that she would ask the court to remove Donohue from the case because she felt he was being unfair to her client.
Both sides are expected to present summary arguments to the Donohue by July 25, with the judge expected to make his ruling about a week later, Wiss said.
Email: superville@northjersey.com



http://www.northjersey.com/bogota/Psychiatrist_Bogota_officer_fit_to_perform_job.htm l?page=all

link (http://www.northjersey.com/bogota/Psychiatrist_Bogota_officer_fit_to_perform_job.htm l?page=all)



Bogota officer's 'bizarre' behavior warrants termination, borough's lawyer says
<time> Tuesday, April 17, 2012 Last updated: Thursday April 19, 2012, 6:14 PM
</time> BY DENISA R. SUPERVILLE
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Print | E-mail
BOGOTA (http://www.northjersey.com/bogota) — The borough is seeking to fire Police Officer Regina Tasca for “bizarre and outlandish” behavior she exhibited in two incidents last year, and for no other reason, an attorney for the borough said Tuesday.
But Catherine Elston, Tasca’s attorney, said she would establish that Tasca, who is openly gay and the only woman on the force, had been targeted by various members of the Police Department during her career.
Raymond Wiss, who represented the borough in a disciplinary hearing, said Tasca’s termination is warranted based on two incidents in April 2011 — one at Holy Name Medical Center, in which she is accused of failing to assist a fellow officer who was attacked by a drunken woman, and another in which she allegedly tried to restrain one of two Ridgefield Park (http://www.northjersey.com/ridgefieldpark) officers who responded to a call for assistance for an emotionally disturbed person at the home of a borough councilwoman.
Wiss called Tasca’s failure to assist Officer Jerome Fowler in the Holy Name incident a “clear dereliction of duty.”
Tasca faces 13 charges, including failure to perform the duties of her rank, incapacity either through mental or physical or gross ignorance of laws, conduct unbecoming of an officer and failing to assist other members of the department.
She was suspended with pay last May, after a department-ordered psychological exam found her unfit for duty.
Wiss, the borough’s attorney, focused Tuesday on the April 3 incident at Holy Name.
Fowler testified that he and Tasca, who were the only Bogota (http://www.northjersey.com/bogota) officers on the road at the time, took the unusual step of leaving town to take the woman to the hospital because she was extremely drunk.
In video footage of the incident, which was played at the hearing, the woman can be seen walking into the emergency room with Fowler, Tasca, hospital security guards and emergency medical technicians following her.
A few seconds later, the woman bolts back to the sliding door and attempts to leave, and Fowler runs after her. Fowler testified that Tasca did not follow him or try to help him. The woman hit Fowler in the face as he tried to subdue her.
Elston asked Fowler whether he knew Tasca was gay. He said he hadn’t known until Monday night, when WPIX aired a segment about the case. Elston asked him about a 2010 Christmas card, which he addressed to “Mr. Regina Tasca.”
Fowler said it was a mistake.
“There was nothing malicious or anything like that,” he said.
Under questioning from Elston, Fowler said he had been the subject of an internal affairs investigation for revealing to a former police officer that Tasca had been ordered to undergo an earlier psychological exam in December 2010.
Fowler said he was given two written reprimands as punishment, and that he believed Tasca did not act to help him at Holy Name in retaliation for revealing that she had been ordered to take the test, which found her to be fit for duty.
“I could not come up with another reason why she did not get involved at the hospital,” he said.
Capt. James Sepp, the internal affairs investigating officer who recommended the charges against Tasca, testified that Tasca told him she did not intervene because the situation was under control.
Sepp is expected to continue his testimony next Tuesday, when the two Ridgefield Park (http://www.northjersey.com/ridgefieldpark) officers are expected to testify.



http://www.northjersey.com/bogota/Bogota_officers_bizarre_behavior_warrants_terminat ion_boroughs_lawyer_says.html?page=all
link (http://www.northjersey.com/bogota/Bogota_officers_bizarre_behavior_warrants_terminat ion_boroughs_lawyer_says.html?page=all)

revelarts
07-30-2012, 07:37 PM
the 2 Ridgfield police should be on trial for their jobs not her, don't you think Kath?