By Jim Lockwood
Star-Ledger
RANDOLPH, N.J. — Two Randolph police officers admitted in court yesterday that they freed a drunken driving suspect and deleted a computerized record of the arrest after learning the person was related to a fellow cop.
Patrolmen Stephen Kepler, 49, and Shawn Boyhan, 31, avoided prosecution in the case by enrolling in pretrial intervention, a diversionary court program that will result in the dismissal of charges against them if they stay out of trouble for a year. Both men also forfeited their jobs.
Kepler, a 26-year veteran who made $102,571 a year, and Boyhan, a five-year veteran with an annual salary of $89,583, faced up to 18 months in prison if convicted of removal or concealment of official records, a fourth-degree crime.
“Police officers are not at liberty to “unarrest’ individuals simply based upon who that defendant knows or is related to,” Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi said in a statement. “They have an obligation to continue with the arrest and treat the offender as they would any other citizen. They also know that altering and manipulating official records to cover up any fact is wrong and constitutes a violation of law, as well as ethical police practices.”
Authorities said the officer whose relative was arrested had no role in the cover-up. Neither the officer nor the relative was identified.
The incident unfolded the night of Aug. 21 and the morning of Aug. 22, after Boyhan stopped the driver of a 1995 Chevrolet on South Salem Street on suspicion of driving under the influence. The driver failed field sobriety tests, leading Boyhan to arrest the person.
Capt. Jeffrey Paul, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said the suspect then told Boyhan about the family relationship to another Randolph police officer.
Boyhan, authorities said, soon contacted Kepler, who was a senior officer and shift supervisor, and asked if he could “undo the arrest,” according to court proceedings and the prosecutor’s office.
Kepler agreed, and he and Boyhan then put “considerable pressure” on a female police dispatcher to delete any reference to a DUI in a computerized record of the arrest. The record was altered to show the car had been stopped and impounded because of a suspended registration, though no ticket for that infraction was issued.
The suspect, meanwhile, was released without charges.
Copyright 2009 Star-Ledger