CLARK — Three members of the Clark Township Police Department who found themselves at the center of a multi-year internal affairs investigation after being accused of misconduct have filed suit in Union County Superior Court in an attempt to keep their jobs.
Last week, Chief Pedro Matos, Sergeant Joseph Teston and Captain Vincent Concina, all of whom have been on paid administrative leave since 2020, filed independent complaints against the Township of Clark, the Union County Prosecutor’s Office (UCPO) and the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (AG).
All three officers were named in a state-level investigative report that was released last year. In the report, Attorney General Matthew Platkin recommended that Chief Matos and Sgt. Teston (both of whom were accused of engaging in inappropriate behavior and of using racist and derogatory language) be fired from their positions on the force and barred from working in law enforcement in the future. The report also recommended that Captain Concina be demoted for drinking while in uniform and failing to properly store confiscated substances.
The complaints, filed between February 8 and February 20, allege that the investigations, which took almost three years to complete, were dragged out far beyond their allowable timelines and should therefore be dismissed with no adverse consequences to the officers in question.
Last week, a representative from the Attorney General’s Office told NJ.com that the lawsuits, specifically the one filed on behalf of Chief Matos, represented an arbitrary attempt by the officers to skirt accountability.
“The leaders in the Clark Police Department have engaged in misconduct that undermines the public’s trust in government and demonstrates that Chief Matos is unfit to serve as leader of a law enforcement agency,” spokesman Michael Symons said. “Chief Matos’ lawsuit does not deny that he engaged in the underlying improprieties. He instead raises a procedural issue he seeks to exploit to evade accountability for his actions.”
The three complaints represent the latest in a long string of related — and costly — legal challenges for the township, the UCPO and the AG’s office.
In December of last year, the Clark Township Council agreed to award a structured contract valued at $1,500 per day to Kronick Resolutions, a third-party mitigation firm, to oversee the township’s interests in regards to the three officers and their pending disciplinary hearings.
On February 27, Captain Concina submitted a motion to consolidate the three complaints. That motion is currently being challenged by the AG’s legal representation, who claimed in a March 7 letter that, “none of the three sets of charges are similar in any manner. The underlying conduct is separate and distinct.”
Requests for comment by the Township of Clark were not returned at the time of publication.
