http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/jerseycity/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1192860051240100.xml&coll=3
A Jersey City police officer was terminated yesterday after pleading guilty to official misconduct based on allegations he played cards with friends who were smoking pot and he did not report the unlawful activity, officials said.
"Police officers have a high obligation to perform their sworn duty even if it involves their friends," Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Peter Stoma said today, regarding the guilty plea by former Officer Joseph Cieslak on Wednesday. "I feel like it's a fair resolution given all the facts and circumstances we were able to prove regarding his conduct."
Police Capt. Hugh Donaghue said Cieslak was suspended without pay following his arrest in March. Paperwork for his termination, which was completed Thursday, became effective yesterday.
At 2 a.m. on March 20, Cieslak was arrested in the Laidlaw Avenue home of Gerald E. Sole.
At the time, Sole, 28, was serving five years probation for a drug dealing conviction, according to Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio.
Inside Sole's apartment cops found 147 grams of marijuana as well as a handgun, officials said.
Sole was also was charged with drug and weapons offenses, while a third man, Austin L. Kang, was charged with drug possession, officials said. A tip sent Jersey City cops to the apartment, where they smelled a strong odor of burning marijuana and a search turned up the large bag of pot near a table where Cieslak had been playing cards, reports said.
Cieslak was given a drug test after his arrest and he passed it, officials said. The former officer pleaded guilty to third degree official misconduct, an offense which carries a possible sentence of three to five years in prison, Stoma said.
Cieslak, however, has been allowed to go into pretrial intervention instead of prison. If he completes the one-year PTI program, the offense will be removed from his record. The program includes community service and drug monitoring, Stoma said.
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that's fucking ridiculous
-------------------- "America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you've lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn't belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don't care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve." - Tom Morello
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