Court Upholds Firing, Suspensions Of NJ Officers For Unlawful Search

October 26, 2021

Two Hackensack police officers accused of a warrantless search should not have been fired, a New Jersey appeals court has ruled. The court upheld the decision to fire a third.

The city had long sought to fire officers including Mark Gutierrez, Rocco Duardo and Victor Vazquez following the December 2016 search. The Civil Service Commission fired Gutierrez this year but imposed a six-month suspension on the other two and ordered Hackensack to reinstate them.

Three Superior Court appellate judges on Thursday affirmed the suspensions of the two officers, saying the commission’s decision “was not arbitrary or capricious.”