Hackensack Officers Reinstated, City Still Wants Them Fired After 2016 Incident: Report

HACKENSACK, NJ — Lawyers for the city of Hackensack continue efforts to fire two police officers who were part of a warrantless search in 2016 and have been reinstated, according to a report.

Detective Rocco Duardo and Officer Victor Vazquez have been back on the force for months after an appellate court ruled they should not have been fired for their role in the December 2016 search, NorthJersey.com reported. The city is still trying to get lawsuits filed by both men off the docket, the report said.

Hackensack Police suspended seven officers in 2017, accusing them of unlawfully searching an apartment on Prospect Avenue and then faking a police report to cover it up, the Associated Press reported.

The officers said they arrived at the apartment complex to conduct a weapons investigation, when a resident told them there may be an unattended child in one of the apartments, court records show.

An internal investigation found the officers made up the story so they could search the apartment, according to the AP. Surveillance footage also called their accounts of what happened into question, according to state appellate court records.

The state Civil Service Commission imposed a six-month sentence on Duardo and Vazquez and fired another officer, Mark Gutierrez, in 2021, records show. Three Superior Court appellate judges upheld the commission's decision in October, the AP reported.

A fourth officer, Justin De La Bruyere, was also fired, two more senior officers retired, and a seventh officer resigned, according to NorthJersey.com.

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office did not seek charges against the officers, court records show. However, records show the BCPO dismissed eight pending criminal cases in 2017, claiming the officers' credibility as witnesses had been undermined by their actions.

The city has filed to dismiss lawsuits brought by both Duardo and Vazquez, the report from NorthJersey.com said.

The city is also appealing a decision from last year in which a state judge ruled the prosecutor's office denied the officers due process, as NorthJersey.com reported.

More information is available on NorthJersey.com.