Bergen County knew gun range site was contaminated and killed investigation, suit says

Bergen County officials were not only aware of the pile of contaminated soil that sat for more than a year near the Bergen County Police Academy gun range in Mahwah, but also killed a Bureau of Police Services investigation into possible crimes committed by those who directed the dumping, according to a lawsuit filed by 21 current and former bureau officers.

The suit, filed in state Superior Court in Paterson, also accuses Michael Saudino, the Bergen County Sheriff, of demoting and reassigning Frank Carrafiello — the former bureau lieutenant who reported the soil heap to the state Department of Environmental Protection — as well as other bureau officers who investigated the remediation. 

"The retaliation ... was directly related to the Mahwah gun range contamination issues," said Matthew Peluso, the Princeton attorney representing all the plaintiffs. 

MAHWAH:Emails: Bergen County officials were warned about contaminated soil at gun range

POLICE:Police call layoffs a union-busting tactic

MAHWAH:Contamination alleged at Bergen public safety center

The revelations about the contaminated soil, the existence of which was revealed in April by the New Jersey Sierra Club and Mahwah officials, were included in the wide-ranging December lawsuit, which also accused Saudino of retaliating in various ways against the bureau officers after they rejected a labor deal earlier this year.

The suit, which named Saudino personally as well as the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, Prosecutor’s Office and the county government, alleged Saudino changed assignments, forced retirements, demoted qualified officers so he could elevate those loyal to him and created a generally hostile work environment for bureau officers working for him.

In June 2017, Carrafiello was demoted from lieutenant to sergeant, removed from his post as the academy’s rangemaster and assigned to the midnight shift, the suit said. He filed for retirement in November to preserve parts of his lost wages and benefits and from fear of future retaliation by the Sheriff’s Office, it said. 

Former Lt. Mike Devine, the bureau officer-in-charge of the institute’s police training, was also demoted to sergeant and shifted to midnights, the suit said.

When asked last July if Carrafiello’s demotion and reassignment was retribution for his contact with the DEP, Saudino said, “Of course not. Of course not.”

But the Sheriff declined to comment Tuesday. William Schievella, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said he would not comment on pending litigation “regardless of how meritless it may be.”  

The 21 bureau officers are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney's fees, the suit said. 

Each of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs had been laid off or demoted, Peluso said.

The lawsuit is the newest broadside in the battle between Saudino and the officers of the Bureau of Police Services, which was created in 2015  when the Bergen County Police Department merged with the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office.

Originally, the bureau was supposed to be reduced in number by about half, but only through attrition. But there was a budget crunch, the sheriff said, and he needed to hire 35 sheriff’s officers instead of police officers to satisfy court security and bail reform mandates.

In the end, 26 police officers were cut and another 11 demoted. 

Keep scrolling to read the complaint. 

New questions 

The lawsuit’s allegations raise new questions about which county officials knew what regarding the bullet-laden soil pile, which sat on Law and Public Safety Institute property for 14 months, according to the suit.

Alicia D’Alessandro, spokeswoman for County Executive Jim Tedesco, declined to comment Tuesday. But in April she said the administration “took swift and immediate action upon learning of the potential environmental issue.”

But emails obtained last summer by The Record and NorthJersey.com showed that officials knew about the pile at least as early as February, which is when Carrafiello emailed Richard Blohm, the institute’s director. Carrafiello complained that the tarp covering the dirt was ripping, and the weather was scattering the dirt. He asked Blohm when it would be moved. 

The lawsuit says it went back further, however.

Carrafiello and Devine first asked Blohm to remediate the outdoor firing range in August 2015. The suit said the federal Environmental Protection Agency mandates such ranges should be cleaned every five years by sifting through the backstop’s dirt and sand with small screens to trap the lead bullets. The soil gets returned to the range, and the projectiles are disposed of according to EPA regulations, the suit said.

Remediation hit snags

Blohm forwarded the request to the county, which drafted a resolution to open the bidding process, the suit said. But later, Phil Arfuso, the project manager for the remediation, told Carrafiello and Steve Antoniou, another range officer, that the county planned to save money by using workers from its Mosquito Commission to do the labor, the suit said.

Blohm told Devine the county was going to sell the lead to a scrap metal yard to cover the costs of the work, the suit said.

Carrafiello and Devine discouraged this, citing the complexity of the upcoming job and problems with previous remediation efforts, the suit said. The work started anyway in January 2016.

But the remediation hit snags from the start, the suit said. A sifter machine tipped over and broke, and the replacement sifter’s grates were too large to catch the bullets. Arfuso then let contaminated sand — which the suit said contained “actionable levels of lead” — be stored on the fire academy’s training grounds.

Over the next 14 months, the uncovered sand pile leached directly onto the grass, parking area, driveway and an area near the training grounds, the suit said. A blue tarp, pinned down with stones, was put in place only after it “had already been allowed to significantly reduce in size by the elements,” according to the lawsuit.

Mahwah tested its township wells and found acceptable levels of lead and copper. But the pile itself contained 280 times the amount of lead considered acceptable by the EPA.

Jeff Tittel, director of the NJ Sierra Club, called for an independent investigation by the state Attorney General's office into "who in the county knew when, and why they didn't act." 

"There has to be accountability and people held responsible, because this should never have been allowed to happen," Tittel said Wednesday. "And to then cover this up is shameful, especially when there could be serious consequences to the environment and to public health. It's really unconscionable."

Rob Hermansen, Mahwah's council president, is also unsatisfied with the county's handling of the contamination. 

"I've asked the county for answers on what happened, why it happened and to make sure it would never happen again," Hermansen said Wednesday. "I still don't have any answers. No one has ever gone back, followed up with us, telling us how the pile got there, why it was the way it was, or why it was uncovered."

Hermansen accused Bill Laforet, the borough's mayor, of not diligently pursuing the issue because of Laforet's close political ties to county officials. 

Laforet dismissed Hermansen's remarks, saying it is his job as mayor to have a good relationship with the state and county governments. 

In March 2016, fire instructors filed a union grievance to complain about contaminated soil leaching onto the training grounds, the suit said. And the Saddle River Fire Department complained to Blohm after the department had to replace equipment that had been dragged through the tainted dirt.

A representative from the Saddle River Fire Department could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

The suit said Blohm told instructors to “hose down the contaminated soil into the storm drains located on the fire training grounds, which they rightfully refused to do.” So instead, Blohm told county street sweepers to clear the dirt, which they did despite not being given the right protective equipment, according to the suit.

In June 2017, The Record sought Blohm’s emails about the gun range remediation. But the Sheriff’s Office denied the request, instead claiming the emails were “investigatory records” that had been turned over to the EPA, which is leading the investigation.

That investigation is still ongoing, an agency spokesperson said Tuesday.

Blohm said Tuesday he had “no comments whatsoever” on the lawsuit. Arfuso did not respond to a request for comment.

In a March 2016 meeting, Carrafiello told Blohm he should call the EPA for direction on the remediation. Blohm refused, the suit said.

“I’m not calling the EPA, and you would be smart not to do that either!” Blohm said, according to the suit.

The remediation finished that month. But the soil pile did not move, and Carrafiello emailed Blohm in February and April of last year to ask about its status. According to emails obtained by the Record, Blohm forwarded Carrafiello’s February email to Arfuso, and Arfuso promised action. He copied Ralph Rivera, the county’s public safety director, and replied that another tarp would be put down. Arfuso also said he would get an exact removal date.

But six weeks later, the pile was still in place. On April 5, Carrafiello called the DEP.

Two days after that, former bureau officers Capt. James Mullin and Lt. Robert Espinosa opened a criminal investigation into the illegal dumping and assigned two detectives to the case, the suit said.

But Undersheriff Brian Smith killed the inquiry by calling Mullin and ordering him to stop, the suit said. Smith said Mullin should tell his people to “only assist the environmental regulatory agency.”

Mullin and Espinosa, who were in the room when Smith called, “viewed this as improper political intervention in the investigation of a crime because the possible suspect (Blohm) was a county official with personal and/or professional connections to Bergen County Executive James J. Tedesco.”

Espinosa and Mullin were demoted and removed from their assignments during Saudino's June 2017 layoffs. The suit said this was because of their gun range investigation. Espinosa eventually retired early.

Mullin had also assigned bureau detectives to help Tom Dooley, the EPA investigator, after Dooley had asked for aid, the suit said. But Smith told Dooley he should cut them loose — if Dooley needed help, he should call Smith, and Smith would assign detectives from the Sheriff’s Office, the suit said.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com