By Kevin Shea
nj.com
TRENTON, N.J. — Anthony Villanueva finds himself in a municipal legal quandary.
The former Trenton police officer, fired in 2018 for using excessive force, was acquitted earlier this year in federal court of the very actions that cost him his job.
But because of how the allegations unfolded against him in two separate legal systems, he has little recourse to rejoin the force, and wonders if he’ll ever work again as a police officer in New Jersey.
“It’s just upsetting, knowing I got fully exonerated at the highest level, federal court,” Villanueva said recently.
A former police director, though, did the firing, not a judge or jury, he noted.
He’d willingly return to the Trenton Police Department, but he’s unsure if he is welcome or able. His police academy certifications expired as he fought to clear his name during his seven years off the force.
The city’s current police director, Steve Wilson, Mayor Reed Gusciora and Law Director Wes Bridges, all said Villanueva remains a personnel issue – and they could not comment about his employment with the city, or if there is a way back.
Complicating matters, for him, New Jersey now requires police officers to be licensed, which went live on Jan. 1 of this year. All current officers have licenses, which they then must renew.
He’d go to the academy again, even at another agency, but how will they view his past? He’s not finding many answers.
Here’s how it happened, according to Villanueva and multiple court and administrative records.
Villanueva was pulled from street patrol in April 2017 due to his actions in a police chase involving several officers.
The department gave him an inside job, in the police lockup, and in November of 2017, he was embroiled in a fight with an inmate during which he pepper-sprayed the man inside a cell.
The next year, On June 19, 2018, the police department fired Villanueva due to the lockup incident. They said his use of the chemical spray was excessive.
Villanueva, through an employment attorney, started fighting for his job in the administrative arena. He went to the state Civil Service Commission, which scheduled hearings in the Office of Administrative Law in the fall of 2018.
On April 5, 2019, an OAL judge affirmed the firing, and the CSC adopted it the next month.
Villanueva appealed the decision. That goes to the state court system’s Appellate Division, and it does not happen right away.
On April 23, 2019, FBI agents arrested Villanueva and another officer, Drew Inman, on civil rights charges accusing them of using excessive force during the police pursuit and filing false reports. They additionally charged Villanueva with the lockup incident.
Inman was still on the job and suspended pending the trial or outcome.
Meanwhile, Villanueva’s OAL case was awaiting the appellate division.
He now sees a misstep by his prior attorney, who did not file a lawsuit against the city of Trenton, alleging wrongful termination. Statute of limitations on such cases are two years, and the lawyer implored Villanueva to believe in the administrative system.
The clock on that likely started at his June 2018 termination.
As the coronavirus pandemic wore on in 2020, Villanueva, now working for a staffing agency, waited for the appeals decision, and how the federal government would prosecute him.
In January 2021, the appellate division upheld Villanueva’s firing. He was unaware, at the time, the clock had likely run out on suing the city.
In early 2022, frustrated by nearly five years of being off the force, he spoke out to NJ Advance Media in a lengthy interview and did not tell his criminal lawyer, Jerome Ballarotto.
Villanueva said department politics led to his ouster and made a bold prediction: he would not take a plea bargain; he would go to trial and clear his name in court.
He did.
In the first trial, which concluded in May 2023 , Villanueva was acquitted of all charges, and Inman was acquitted of one, and the jury hung on another. The judge later dropped the other charge against Inman, and he returned to the police department.
Federal officials tried Villanueva on the lockup incident in early 2024. He won again, acquitted of excessive force on March 1. The jury was hung on a false report charge and the judge dismissed it month later.
His attorney, Ballarotto, said facing federal prosecutors and a jury in court is a vigorous process compared to an administrative hearing, and that should count.
“We took it to the Justice Department, and they threw everything at us,” Ballarotto said. In the end, a jury of Villanueva’s peers cleared him of his actions on the job.
He got the feeling, from facing the jury, that they felt, “What are we doing here, why are we doing this to this kid?”
At the time, he said, “The fact of that the matter is, there are times when police officers should be prosecuted for violating citizens’ rights. It just so happens that these were not those cases.”
For five months now, Villanueva has been examining ways to get back on the job, to no avail.
Ballarotto thinks they should take him back. First, the city has already paid to defend Villanueva, and Inman – to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Police contracts call for the city to reimburse the legal tab, and while the city has not paid Ballarotto yet – they are haggling in court over the hourly fee – they will eventually.
Second, he said Villanueva was a good cop, and the city needs them. “I don’t know if he can ever go back,” Ballarotto said. “But if they could make any exception, this is an exception to make.”
Villanueva said he would have lived with the jury verdict, had it gone the other way. But he believed he acted in accordance with his training and won in court.
Other than his freedom, he has little to show for it.
“Just a long seven years,” he said.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com
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