New Jersey Cop Fired for Having Once Appeared in Fetish Films
Meanwhile, drunk driving and vehicular assault by officers are not firing offenses in Hudson County.
Kristen Hyman has been fired from her job as a New Jersey police officer for having appeared in bondage and erotica films years ago.
The 31-year-old was first suspended from the Hudson County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) last spring, just a few days before her police academy graduation, when her past as a dominatrix and fetish-film actress came to light.
Hyman has said she did not appear nude or engage in sexual intercourse in these films. Her appearances involved things like smoking cigarettes and kicking (consenting) men in the balls.
Although there was nothing illegal about her past gigs, Hyman's superiors said she should have revealed them on her police-academy application. For a question about past work, Hyman said she had been an actress and model. Apparently this was not specific enough.
Hyman was suspended for six days before an administrative judge rescinded her suspension. She was sworn in as a Hudson County sheriff's deputy on June 8, 2017. But immediately thereafter, Hyman was placed on paid administrative leave pending further internal investigation of her work history.
On Wednesday, an administrative hearing officer made the decision to fire Hyman. Hudson County Sheriff Frank Schillari told The Jersey Journal he agreed with the decision.
But while Hyman's history of legal work is a firable offense to the sheriff, deputies engaging in illegal conduct like drunk driving and vehicular assault has not been deemed sufficient grounds for firing by Schillari in the past.
In 2005, for instance, sheriff's officer Aleisha Cruz was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol after repeatedly ramming her SUV into a date's car and then hitting the man directly once he exited the vehicle (he was not seriously injured). Cruz plead guilty and was offered placement in a pre-trial diversion program rather than jail time.
After her arrest, Cruz was placed on modified duty at work and forbidden from carrying a gun. But she continued to be employed as a Hudson County sheriff's deputy for at least three and a half more years—until a second drunk-driving arrest in 2009.
Hyman has claimed that the real reason for her firing was not her previous dominatrix work but the fact that she rebuffed the advances of HCSO attorney Robert Pompliano, 70, while she was in the police academy. "Mr. Pompliano made a sexual advance against [Hyman], touched her, kissed her, and she rebuffed him," wrote her lawyer, Doug Anton, in a letter to the administrative hearing officer overseeing the case. "For that he has jumped all over this opportunity to get her fired." Hyman has alleged that the push for Sheriff Schillari to fire her came from Pompliano.