Paterson won't release bodycam footage from police encounter with man who went missing
PATERSON — City officials refused to make public two video recordings from body cameras worn by Paterson police officers on the night 41-year-old Felix DeJesus went missing after an alleged encounter with city cops.
In responding to a public records request from Paterson Press, the city on Wednesday said it would not release the two videos because they are part of a confidential Police Department Internal Affairs investigation.
Members of DeJesus’ family said they also have been unable to get copies of the videos from city officials. DeJesus has been missing since Feb. 2, the family said.
“If they didn’t do anything wrong,” Giovanni DeJesus, brother of the missing man, said about the officers, “why can’t we get the footage?”
DeJesus made that plea during Tuesday night’s Paterson City Council meeting. He also complained that authorities have not revealed the two officers’ names.
“Why are they still working?” he asked.
Municipal police officials referred questions about the case to the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office, which took control of Paterson’s IA division last April after the FBI arrested two city cops in an unrelated matter.
“The missing persons investigation into the disappearance of Felix DeJesus is ongoing,” said Peter Foy, senior assistant prosecutor in charge of the public integrity unit.
Schools and COVID: Paterson schools removing partitions — but will keep mask mandates
City Hall: Paterson council rejects $5.7M Sayegh plan for parks revitalization
Neither the Prosecutor’s Office nor Paterson police have officially confirmed that DeJesus interacted with officers just before his disappearance.
But three members of the missing Haledon man’s family said IA investigators and other witnesses have told them DeJesus was taken by two cops from a Union Avenue bodega on the night of Feb. 2 after he was involved in a disturbance with a woman shopping in the store.
Family members said witnesses at the bodega told them the officers handcuffed DeJesus and took him away in their patrol vehicle. Family members said IA investigators told them the officers dropped off DeJesus several blocks away, at the corner of Preakness Avenue and Front Street, near the Passaic River.
“Why didn’t they take him someplace safe?” said DeJesus’ sister-in-law, Crystal Garcia, during Tuesday’s council meeting.
Five sources familiar with the details of the case — including three law enforcement officers — confirmed the family’s account.
Foy has said DeJesus was not arrested or charged with any crime on Feb. 2.
City officials cited the New Jersey attorney general’s policy on IA confidentiality in partially denying Paterson Press’ request for body camera video from the night in question. The attorney general's policy cited by the city listed four situations in which IA investigation records could be released.
Under two of those scenarios, the policy said, accused officers could get IA records if the officers were facing administrative charges or the target of a lawsuit. Otherwise, the policy said, IA records would be released only at the request of the county prosecutor or attorney general, or under a court order.
In response to Paterson Press’ records request, the city said it had six video recordings for Feb. 2 during the hours when DeJesus’ family says he encountered the cops. The recordings were from cameras worn by two officers assigned to unit No. 111, which multiple police sources said was the patrol vehicle that responded to the call about the disturbance at the bodega.
The city released two videos — one from each cop’s body camera — involving a separate and unrelated call for police assistance on that same night. The city said two other videos could not be made public because they involved a juvenile case and that the fifth and sixth videos would not be released because of the IA probe.
Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press.
Email: editor@patersonpress.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Missing Haledon NJ man: Paterson won’t release police bodycam footage
