Bloomfield, East Orange Will Pay Man $190K For Settlement: Report

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Two municipalities in Essex County recently agreed to pay a combined $190,000 to a man who accused local police of using an “unfair” photo array method and failing to follow up on his alibi prior to an unjustified arrest several years ago, a report says.

Last week, the Transparency NJ blog released a report about a civil settlement involving the Township of Bloomfield and the City of East Orange. Read the full report here.

Under the settlement, East Orange resident Khari Gardner will receive $76,000 from Bloomfield and $114,000 from East Orange. According to Transparency NJ:

“In mid-October 2022, the Township of Bloomfield and the City of East Orange, both in Essex County, New Jersey, agreed to pay $76,000 and $114,000, respectively, to an East Orange man [Gardner] who said that police used an unfair photo array method to get witnesses to identify him, and then incorrectly reported the witnesses’ statements to the court in order to establish probable cause for arrest warrants against him. He also alleged that police failed to contact his girlfriend and work supervisors who could have corroborated his alibi.”

Transparency NJ continued:

“In his lawsuit, filed on September 13, 2018, Khari Gardner claimed that on September 13, 2016 he voluntarily appeared at the East Orange Police Department at the department’s request. When he arrived, he was arrested for multiple counts of armed robbery, along with weapons and conspiracy charges, according to the lawsuit. Gardner claimed that he was held in the Essex County jail for nearly two months under a total of $575,000 bail. Yet, on September 22, 2017, the charges against him were dismissed in their entirety on motion of the Essex County Prosecutor, according to Gardner’s suit.”

Patch reached out to Bloomfield and East Orange municipal officials seeking comment about the settlement. We will update this article with any reply we receive.

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