Administrative hearing clears Hammonton chief

A hearing officer ruled yesterday that administrative charges filed against Hammonton Police Chief Frank Ingemi were baseless, bringing an end to a long-running drama in this small Atlantic County town.

The town's mayor and one of its council members had accused Ingemi last fall of insubordination, incompetence and other transgressions.

"We're just glad to get this over with," Ingemi said. "I can go back to my routine."

The hearing officer, Richard J. Williams, a retired Superior Court judge, dismissed four charges, saying there was "no basis for disciplinary action" against Ingemi. Williams had dismissed two other charges during a series of hearings in February and March.

The accusations against Ingemi, a member of the police force for 36 years, sparked grassroots support from some residents, who decorated their lawns with "Support Our Chief" signs.

The hearings, opened to the public at Ingemi's request, were packed with supporters, who gave the chief a round of applause when he entered the room for the first hearing.

"I just wanted the community to know the truth," the chief said. "I had nothing to hide."

The trouble began, according to testimony, after a political party called Hammonton First won three council seats and the mayor's race in the 2005 elections.

Ingemi said his relationship with newly elected Mayor John DiDonato and Councilman Rocky Colasurdo, the chair of the Law and Order Committee, were almost immediately strained, possibly because he disagreed with their position on the building of a new town hall.

The Hammonton First group helped to approve the construction of the new building downtown. The chief believed that the site was not large enough for the town's needs.

The relationship worsened after a series of confrontations over various issues, until DiDonato and Colasurdo signed off on allegations that Ingemi had threatened DiDonato and been abusive to him. They also accused the chief of offering to fix a traffic ticket.

Colasurdo said yesterday that he went down to the police station and congratulated the chief.

"I told him that from now on we'll work together for the betterment of the police department," the councilman said. "It's over, as far as I'm concerned."

Ingemi also said he was willing to bury the hatchet.

"I'm a professional," he said. "I'll do whatever I need to do to continue to make the community safe."

In his ruling yesterday, Williams said the strained relationship between the mayor and Ingemi might have led DiDonato to believe that he had been threatened. But, Williams said, the mayor's "subjective reaction alone is not enough to meet the required burden of proof."

Williams also referred to a curse word the chief used in a telephone conversation with the mayor that "might be more appropriately used in a barnyard."

"If the use of that term alone were to warrant disciplinary charges, the halls of government would be filled with contested disciplinary matters," Williams wrote.

Williams also found that the chief never told DiDonato and Colasurdo that he could fix a traffic ticket given to another Hammonton First council member.

That "would suggest that the chief offered to commit a crime in the presence of two men who he thought, at that time, were looking for a reason to remove him from his job," Williams wrote.

"That is a scenario that is difficult to believe," he said.