Garden State Times

A years-long battle between Long Beach Township officials and former police Sgt. Gerard Traynor has come to a head, with Traynor filing a federal lawsuit against Mayor Joseph Mancini and Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office officials over allegations of retaliation of his right to free speech.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in March, Traynor is represented by Markowitz & Richman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Traynor, who also worked as a real estate attorney while employed as a Long Beach Township Police Department officer, alleges in the action that Mancini and his realty company interfered with Traynor’s work as a real estate attorney.

The suit also names Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer, former prosecutor Joseph Coronato, and Vincent Petrecca, former chief of detectives with the prosecutor’s office, and alleges they violated Traynor’s “federally protected civil rights as well as his civil rights under the New Jersey constitution.”

Traynor, 54, of Brant Beach, told the Garden State Times that the lawsuit stems from years of alleged mistreatment by the mayor, the police department and the prosecutor’s office, and finally his April 2019 arrest on fabricated charges that led to surrendering his job in September 2019 as part of a plea deal.

Traynor alleges in the suit that the bad blood with the township began after he spoke, in his role as president of the local police union, at a forum on disaster preparedness in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which hit Ocean County hard in 2012. The suit states Traynor spoke at the November 2013 panel at Ocean County Community College at the request of the president of the State Fraternal Order of Police. Traynor alleges in the suit that he was speaking as a representative of the State FOP lodge, not as a member of the LBTPD.

The suit states Traynor was called into the mayor’s office after a story appeared in the Asbury Park Press/Beach Haven Times reporting that Southern Ocean County was unprepared for the hurricane. Traynor alleges the mayor blamed him for the bad press.

“I told the mayor that the reporter never even contacted me about the story,” Traynor said. “But he started screaming at me like a raving lunatic. He told me ‘You’re done. Your career’s over. Don’t ask for another fucking thing. You’re fucking done.’ I never ever heard screaming like that even in my time in the Air Force.”

From that point on, Traynor alleges in the suit that he was passed over for promotions, even though he scored the highest on qualifying tests. Petty incidences, such as not immediately exiting his car to back up a younger office making a routine stop, were characterized by the department as major offenses. The lawsuit also claims that the mayor contacted Traynor’s law office clients to offer them incentives to find another lawyer as a real estate attorney.

The suit states in April 2019, Traynor was arrested for running his daughter’s license through the Department’s computer system, which he said he did a year earlier as a check on the system. He was threatened with a misconduct charge but later agreed to a charge of unlawful computer access under the plea agreement he agreed to in September of that year. His employment with LBTPD was terminated in September 2019. He alleges he was not paid accumulated overtime and vacation pay.

“I know a police officer who fought a charge of misconduct and was found not guilty,” Traynor said. “But he lost his home, everything. I have five kids, three in college at the time. I had to keep putting bread on the table.”

Traynor also filed a federal action in April 2018 against Mancini and the Department charging that he had been retaliated against for exercising his free speech, and for discrimination at the workplace.

For his part, Mancini has faced charges of sexual harassment, and that he oversees a “culture of corruption” in the township.

Mancini’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Traynor seeks a declaration that the defendants violated his First Amendment rights, compensatory and punitive damages and any other relief the court deems appropriate.