NJ Mayor Asked Cops To Remove Black Resident From City Building: Lawsuit

SPOTSWOOD, NJ — The mayor of a Middlesex County borough is accused of asking police to remove a resident from a municipal building because he was Black and his presence made employees feel unsafe, according to a lawsuit filed in state court.

The accusations were included in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Richard Sasso Jr., a senior police patrol officer who is suing the borough of Spotswood. According to the lawsuit, Sasso claims Spotswood Mayor Jackie Palmer refused to promote him in retaliation for her husband losing his job with the Spotswood Police Department.

The lawsuit filed last week in Middlesex County Superior Court claims the incident happened over several days in April 2022. Sasso was assigned to investigate the incident, court documents said.

According to the lawsuit, the resident was in the Spotswood Municipal Building on April 22 when he was approached multiple times by a "clearly aggravated" Palmer.

After reviewing surveillance footage, Sasso claimed Palmer had been "extremely

antagonistic" and repeatedly told the resident he had to listen to her because she "is the mayor."

According to court documents, the resident returned to the municipal building a week later. Spotswood police officers were again called to the building at the request of employees, who asked for police escorts to their offices because the resident made them feel unsafe, the lawsuit states.

During this time, the lawsuit claims Palmer went on a "verbal tirade" aimed at police officers, who refused to eject the man from the building.

“This is a business place that we don’t need some f------ crazy person who’s constantly around here and the elephant in the room is that he is f------ Black and this is not a diverse town, let’s be honest," Palmer said, according to the lawsuit.

Court documents claim Palmer also said, "I don’t need BLM and the KKK fighting on our front steps over this."

Some of Palmer’s alleged comments were captured on officers’ body-worn cameras during the incident, according to the lawsuit.

The 45-page lawsuit details multiple incidents where Sasso claims Palmer overstepped her authority as mayor and created a hostile environment that subjected him to "severe, continuous, and pervasive humiliation, embarrassment, harassment and abuse." The suit also accuses Palmer of repeatedly breaking laws that "stand between her and her personal desires."

The lawsuit also accuses the borough of Spotwood of "deliberate indifference" to Palmer's alleged behavior.

Sasso is seeking an unspecified financial judgment, according to the lawsuit.