Waterford
police sergeant suspended after being charged with threat
A
Waterford police sergeant has been suspended from the force after he was
charged with threatening a resident with whom he has had a long-running dispute
in the eastern Camden County township.
According
to police accounts and court records, Sgt. Joseph McNally was off-duty at
Starky's Pour House in nearby Winslow Township on March 15 when he confronted
Tracey Miller.
Miller
had sued the Waterford department last summer, claiming McNally and other
officers beat him and his father during a stop for alleged drunken driving.
McNally,
who also lives Waterford, challenged Miller to a fight and threatened to
"kick his ass," according to a criminal complaint filed by Miller.
McNally's
attorney, Leo B. Dubler III, declined to comment Friday. Miller's attorney,
Charles Fiore, also declined to comment.
The
police department suspended McNally without pay Thursday night after a municipal
court judge found sufficient evidence to charge him, said Waterford Lt. Daniel
Cormaney.
The
alleged barroom stand-off followed a series of lawsuits and countersuits
involving Waterford elected officials and police officers in what the former
mayor last year likened to an old-fashioned family feud.
On
one side is a group of self-proclaimed whistleblowers who say that a clique of
Waterford police has harassed and intimidated residents, including Miller, for
at least a year.
On
the other is a small group of officers led by McNally, who says he has been
defamed by a website launched in 2010 that makes claims of police brutality and
posts photographs of police out drinking. In one instance, an officer was
hanging upside down from what appeared to be a stripper's pole.
When
McNally sued last summer to have the site taken down, he named Maryann Merlino,
now the mayor of Waterford, as a conspirator. The anonymously maintained site
is still active.
"There's
quite a bit of litigation going on," Merlino said. "I pray that it's
going to come to an end soon."
Set
amid farms and orchards on the edge of the Pine Barrens, the town of 10,500
residents is filled with towering oaks and front-porch swings. It looks like a
Norman Rockwell painting.
But
between personal gripes and hardball campaigns for local political office, life
in Waterford has been far from serene, say residents.
"It's
been a mess back and forth," Cormaney said. "It's a real shame."