Caldwell Settles $30K Lawsuit With Local Family Over Police Searches

CALDWELL, NJ — Caldwell town officials have agreed to pay a local family $30,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that municipal police repeatedly entered their home to conduct unwanted and illegal “welfare checks” of one of the children in the household, reports say.

The NJ Civil Settlements blog – which first reported news of the settlement on Sunday – shared court documents for the case online which can be seen here.

According to the court documents, the lawsuit was launched at the behest of a local father, mother, their daughters, their son-in-law and their two grandsons, all of whom live together in the same home. The lawsuit alleged that on at least five occasions from October to November of 2012, Caldwell police entered the family’s home to conduct checks on one of the grandsons at the request of his biological father, a Toms River resident, who was engaged in a custody dispute with the child’s mother.

Although the family eventually requested that all future police visits come pursuant to a court order, a Caldwell patrol officer later entered the family's home "without knocking or ringing the bell” in an attempt to conduct an allegedly warrantless welfare check, the lawsuit claims.

Despite continued warnings from the family, a Caldwell police sergeant allegedly came to their door on Mother's Day to conduct another welfare check on the grandson, pushing the homeowner aside and searching the house without consent, the lawsuit claims.

The July 19 settlement agreement doesn’t admit wrongdoing or culpability on the parts of the Borough of Caldwell or any of the named police personnel.

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