The Associated Press
ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) - A Springfield police officer has admitted he faked his own shooting earlier this year, claiming he had been ambushed.
Christopher LaFragola, 39, pleaded guilty in state Superior Court to official misconduct. He will avoid jail time, but must resign his job and pay a $7,500 fine when he is sentenced Nov. 5.
“The whole thing is very sad,” Bruce Bergen, the town attorney for Springfield Township, told The Star-ledger of Newark.
Investigators were able to dispute LaFragola’s story because a surveillance camera at an office building near the reported attack showed no evidence of any other car in the area where LaFragola claimed he was ambushed while making a motor vehicle check.
They determined that he shot himself with an old, unregistered .22-caliber pistol. The slugs were stopped by his bulletproof vest and he was only slightly injured.
The officer later admitted he made up the story because of personal problems, said his lawyer, Joseph Spagnoli.
LaFragola had moved out of his home in Brick, where his two boys, ages 10 and 7, live with their mother, Karen. He divorced his wife in May, and shortly afterward, a relationship with another woman ended abruptly.
“He was despondent over it,” said Spagnoli. “That caused him to do something fairly spontaneously and, unfortunately, criminal. He did something stupid looking to receive attention and rekindle the relationship that ended.”
The lawyer said LaFragola suffered a mental breakdown and was hospitalized for 17 days at the Carrier Clinic in Somerset County.
The incident with LaFragola was one of two unrelated shootings involving police officers that occurred within hours of each other on July 14. A Newark police officer who was shot later that day is recovering.