Bloomfield Cops Convicted: Caught On Dashcam Beating Suspect On Garden State Parkway

Two Bloomfield police officers face mandatory five-year sentences after being convicted for their roles in an unjustified beating of a suspect on the Garden State Parkway in 2012.

An Essex County jury convicted Sean Courter, 35, of Englishtown, and Orlando Trinidad, 34, of Bloomfield, of official misconduct and other charges in Superior Court on Thursday.

According to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, the incident took place in June of 2012, when Courter was among the responding officers called to the home of Bloomfield resident Marcus Jeter for an alleged verbal dispute between Jeter and his girlfriend.

During the encounter, Jeter voluntarily left the premises in his car, but Courter followed him onto the Garden State Parkway and pulled him over. The officer attempted to get Jeter to leave his car, but Jeter refused, later alleging that he feared for his life.

At this time, Courter called for backup. Soon, Trinidad arrived on the scene and struck the front of Jeter’s car.

Courter then broke the vehicle’s window and with the help of Trinidad, dragged Jeter out, prosecutors said.

In an act of violence that was captured by one of the patrol cars’ dashcams, one of the officers then repeatedly struck Jeter, even though the suspect’s hands were “up in a surrender position throughout the encounter,” according to prosecutors.

Following the incident, Courter and Trinidad wrote police reports stating that Jeter attempted to grab Courter’s gun and that he struck Trinidad. Based on those reports, Jeter was charged with eluding, resisting arrest, aggravated assault and attempting to disarm a police officer.

After Jeter’s attorney successfully argued for the release of the dashcam video via an OPRA request, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the charged against Jeter and opened an investigation into the officers.

An Essex County Grand Jury indicted the two in January of 2014.

• See related article: Dashcam Shows Police Beating, Exonerates Bloomfield Man

After a five-week trial, the jury found Courter and Trinidad guilty of conspiracy to commit official misconduct, official misconduct, tampering with public records, falsifying public records and false swearing.

In addition, Trinidad was also found guilty of simple assault.

A third Bloomfield police officer, Albert Sutterlin, pleaded guilty in October of 2013 to falsifying and tampering with records and resigned from the police department, prosecutors stated.

“These officers give a bad name to all the good, honest, decent police officers,” Assistant Prosecutor Berta Rodriguez stated. “Justice was finally served for Marcus Jeter… He was facing five years in prison. But for the dash camera in the police vehicle, he might be in prison today.”

After the verdict was announced, bail for the two men was immediately revoked and both officers were remanded to county jail.

Sentencing is scheduled for January 11.

Both officers face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in New Jersey State Prison, according to prosecutors.

An initial internal affairs investigation found no wrongdoing by the officers, a decision that Bloomfield Mayor Michael Venezia blasted in 2014 after the dashboard camera footage was released.

“I am outraged by the police dashboard video and the fact that these charges were initially dismissed by our internal affairs division,” Venezia said. “This behavior is unacceptable.”

• See related article: Mayor ‘Outraged’ Over Video Showing Cops Hitting Man, Failed Internal Probe