Extortion charges brought by the Plainsboro Police Department against one of their own — former officer Nick Procaccini — were dismissed January 4 in Middlesex County Court.
The former officer, a West Windsor resident, characterized the investigation “as an attempt to discredit former officers as witnesses” in a sexual harassment suit brought against the department. At the time of the charges, Procaccini’s lawyer described him as “a whistleblower.” The Plainsboro Police previously had attempted to terminate Procaccini and were engaged in a lengthy legal action with him (The News, January 21, 2011).
Procaccini says he spent all of the past year with his attorneys going over the case and talking to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
“None of us understood why the prosecutor’s office didn’t do the investigation themselves. Having been a police officer for 20 years, I know why they didn’t — Plainsboro wanted to control the investigation so they could decide which way it would go,” he said.
Procaccini says “the way Plainsboro acted during this investigation makes me disenchanted about law enforcement. It was so unethical and so incompetent,” he says.
