Bergen drug charges dropped after detective's mention in scathing comptroller report

Prosecutors dropped the charges in a Bergen County drug case linked to a detective included in a scathing report from the state comptroller's office about a private police training conference.

Francis Paulino-Edua cried and hugged his grandmother when the prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday amid jury selection it was dropping the drug charges against him, said his attorney Brian Neary.

Paulino-Edua was arrested after he was pulled over on Route 95 in Ridgefield Park and 2 kilos of heroin were found in a hidden compartment within the car. He was charged with possession of heroin and possession with intent to distribute, which carries a penalty of 10 to 20 years.

Former Ridgefield Park police officer and current Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Narcotics Task Force Detective Brad Gilmore was the arresting officer and he was mentioned numerous times in the comptroller's report.

The report pointed to several problematic practices including pretending to conduct a computer look-up to "illegally but surreptitiously" continue an investigation during a motor vehicle stop that should have already been finished.

According to Neary, Gilmore told his client that he was going too slow and his behavior contributed to the stop. Neary said Paulino-Edua had no criminal history, no drugs were found on him or in the car besides the hidden compartment, and no weapons or large sums of money were discovered.

"The car didn't belong to him," Neary said, noting it belonged to someone who lived in Philadelphia. "He was driving it back down there, he was going from the Bronx to Philadelphia, at least that's what the police report says."

Neary said after the comptroller's report was released, he planned on asking Superior Court Judge Christopher Kazlau to redo a motion to suppress or move to dismiss the case on outrageous government conduct.

"The prosecutor's office simply agreed and announced that they were dismissing the case," Neary said.

Bergen County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman, Liz Rebein, said she couldn't speak to the state's reasons for dismissing the case.

NJ news NJ bear hunt in December on highest pace in six years, but extension still seems likely

Neary said it was his opinion that the prosecutor's office knew Gilmore's "believability and credibility were so damaged that they would not be able to prove any case because of his behavior."

Gilmore was set to testify next week in Paulino-Edua's case. Neary said he didn't have the opportunity to cross-examine Gilmore during the original suppression motion hearing years ago, which challenged the constitutionality of his stop.

Neary said it is "just the tip of the iceberg" and that there will have to be an effort to reexamine every case Gilmore is involved in and repeat motions for dismissal.

"We're going to look to see what police officers, whether they're county prosecutor, county detectives or local police officers, attended these Street Cop seminars."

Neary said the things he read in the comptroller's report "were chilling" and there were terrible things said about "women and minorities."

In his professional opinion, Neary said the fallout from this will require "responsible law enforcement" such as the Attorney General's Office and county prosecutors to "examine whether or not these were rogue cops doing rogue activities on the roadway."

"They're going to want to know who participated, they're going to want to know the level of participation," Neary said. "They're going to want to know whether or not they can retrain these guys."

He said he thinks they will believe that they have an obligation as part of discovery and changing information who went to these courses.

The NJ comptroller report

Gilmore is an instructor for the New Jersey-based Street Cop training program, an independent police training consultancy. The organization held a six-day conference in Atlantic City in October 2021 which was the topic of a report released by the Office of the State Comptroller this week.

After investigating, the OSC found that hundreds of law enforcement officers from across New Jersey attended a private police training conference that taught unconstitutional policing tactics, glorified violence, denigrated women and minorities and likely violated a myriad of state laws and policies.

The event drew 240 New Jersey officers from 77 municipal police departments, six county agencies, one interstate agency and four state agencies, including the New Jersey State Police, officials said. The comptroller's office independently confirmed that three county agencies, 48 municipal police departments, one interstate agency, and two state agencies including the New Jersey State Police, spent public funds on the conference.

The report also alleges that instructors, including some active New Jersey police officers, advocated stopping motorists for no reason or illegally prolonging stops, which could violate people’s civil rights and be unconstitutional under both federal and New Jersey laws. It says some instructors promoted a “warrior” approach to policing and dehumanized civilians, referring to them as “the pieces of [expletive] of society” or using offensive memes.

Cited in the report as “one of the most serious examples of this behavior,” Gilmore, who currently serves on the Narcotics Task Force for the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, allegedly endorsed a practice of pretending to conduct a computer lookup so an officer can illegally but surreptitiously continue an investigation during a motor vehicle stop that should have already concluded.

Gilmore also allegedly made comments about how officers get “kicked in the (expletive deleted) one too many times” or “get in trouble by [internal affairs]” which causes them to “lose their motivation.”

Rebein said the prosecutor's office is investigating the matter and the report.

"I can't speak to potentially what could be done," Rebein said. "We have to conduct an investigation first."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bergen County NJ drug charges dropped after comptroller report