Jersey City Cop Was 'Highly Intoxicated' When Pulled Over, Released With No Charges; Still on the Job
Incident uncovered after former police chief sues
A Jersey City police officer was pulled over in Robbinsville, New Jersey, for appearing to be driving drunk ("highly intoxicated" according to one cop) in an incident caught on dashboard camera and released thanks to an open records request from The Jersey Journal. The cop wasn't charged and kept his job. The Journal describes the incident and how it came to light:
The video, taken from the dashboard of one a Robbinsville police officer, shows one officer telling Sgt. Vincent Corso, the Jersey City cop, that he is too "f***** up" to drive, while just off camera there is an apparent struggle after the officers tell Corso they plan to confiscate his gun.
News of the traffic stop first surfaced two weeks ago when Robert Cowan, the former Jersey City police chief, cited the incident in a civil lawsuit he filed against the city, Mayor Steve Fulop and Public Safety Director James Shea.
That lawsuit claims the mayor "meddled" in police matters, demoted him unfairly, and placed his desk near a toilet out of spite. Would Robbinsville police have been justified if they had used deadly force to disarm Corso? No—and it's good that they didn't. But grand juries clear cops who shoot unarmed drunks. And New Jersey's a state that threw charges at a single mom who admitted she had a gun in her car, legally purchased in Pennsylvania. But cops have special privileges. In encounters with other police, those privileges may actually be constitutional rights. We all deserve those.
Watch the video, via The Jersey Journal:
