A Bayonne police officer reportedly beat a man with a flashlight and lied on the reports about it, officials say.
Bayonne police officer lied
Police officer Domenico Lillo was charged today with beating a man during an arrest and then falsifying records to conceal the beating, federal authorities said.
NJ.com reports officer Lillo was arrested this morning at his home in connection to the arrest of Brandon Walsh, who later sued the department and Lillo.
Lillo was arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge James B. Clark III in Newark federal court and released on a $100,000 unsecured bond, authorities said.
Officially, Lillo was charged with the deprivation of civil rights under color of law and falsification of records.
Lillo was immediately suspended without pay as soon as city officials were notified that he had been charged.
Brandon Walsh was arrested on Dec. 27, 2013 by Lillo and other Bayonne police officers on a warrant out of Sussex County.
Police said that Walsh resisted arrest and struggled with officers. In his lawsuit, Walsh said that Lillo repeatedly struck him in the face with his flashlight while he was handcuffed, causing permanent disfigurement. Walsh also said in the lawsuit that other Bayonne police officers at the scene did nothing to stop the beating.
Federal authorities said Lillo falsified a Bayonne Police Department Use of Force Report related to the arrest with the intent to impede an investigation into the case.
Lillo “knowingly concealed, covered up, falsified, and made false entries on a Bayonne Police Department Use of Force Report about the arrest … by not checking the box marked ‘Strike/Use of Baton or other object,'” according to the indictment.
Lillo was one of several Bayonne police officers named in a police brutality lawsuit that resulted in a $100,000 settlement for the two men who brought the lawsuit, The Jersey Journal reported in 2011.
The use of excessive force count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, while the charge of falsifying records carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
