Cops Admit Putting on Disguises, Destroying Elderly Man’s Cars for Filing a Complaint Against Them

 On a daily basis, individuals contact the Project and ask us how they are going about exposing cops who have violated their rights.

TFTP often responds to those individuals by advising them to collect evidence and hunt down an attorney or file a complaint with another department.

Because of the character of numerous of our stories that we cover, many of those folks tell us that they're scared to file complaints with the departments out of fear of retaliation.

As the following incident illustrates, this retaliation is real and is administered by cops on innocent people for attempting to carry them accountable.

Two Asbury Park cops Stephen Martinsen, 29, and Thomas Dowling, 26, were charged last year with conspiracy, criminal mischief and weapons offenses.

The officers were caught dressing up in disguises and vandalizing two vehicles belonging to 70-year-old Ernest Mignoli.

This week, they both pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal mischief and as a part of their plea deals they need to forfeit any future public employment within the state, consistent with a press release from Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

"Spiteful retaliation from enforcement officers towards a citizen for any reason is an unacceptable option. this is often in no way condoned at any level, for any reason," Gramiccioni said within the statement.

"All members of the enforcement community must maintain the public's trust by conducting themselves at the very best level of integrity and decency."

The officers also will need to buy the damage they caused to the man's car and can likely be placed on probation after they're sentenced in October.

As TFTP reported at the time, last September, Mignoli found his Jeep Liberty and Toyota Prius with their tires slashed and their windows smashed in.

Mignoli told reporters that his "Jaw dropped" when he acknowledged that the perpetrators of those crimes were cops.

Earlier within the week, Mignoli filed complaints against the 2 officers who have now pleaded guilty to the crime.

"I just wouldn't think it might be within the scope of cops to try to to something like that," Mignoli said.

"I'm a concerned citizen, outspoken critic of Asbury Park local department . But this goes behind the pale."

Mignoli explained to NJ.com that his police accountability activism has put a target on his back and has led to him constantly being harassed.

Although he wouldn't elaborate on the character of the complaints, Mignoli explained that he has been keeping a watchful eye on police within the area since he moved there 12 years ago.

"I'm constantly harassed by police wherever i'm going ," he said.

"It's just the character of my work."

The department released a press release praising the work they did in holding these cops accountable.

"The cooperative efforts of the Asbury Park Police Department's Internal Affairs Unit and therefore the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office's Professional Responsibility Unit may be a clear example of how effective our current internal affairs policies are," Asbury Park captain David Kelso said during a statement.

"These officers were held in charge of their actions and misconduct and that we will still hold our officers responsible to create upon the trust of the community that we serve."

The idea that two police officers-whose ostensible duties include serving the citizens of Asbury park-would dress up in disguises and destroy a man's cars for filing a complaint against them, is shocking.

As we previously reported, a deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office was allowed to quietly resign last month amid an investigation into his retaliatory actions against an innocent family.

Deputy Lance Chambers was caught on video throwing nails into a family's driveway over a series of complaints they filed against him.

Former officer William Dukes Jr. of the Providence local department was sentenced to four years during a cage for the horrifying treatment, abuse, and kidnapping of an innocent man-all for filing a complaint against him.

According to the DoJ, upon arriving at the victim's home after 1 a.m., Dukes attempted to arrest the victim based solely on the phone calls he had made complaining about Dukes.

When the victim insisted he had done nothing wrong and retreated into his home, Dukes entered the victim's home without a warrant.

Dukes then tased the victim, sprayed him within the face with aerosol , struck him repeatedly with a police baton, and punched him within the face, breaking the victim's nose.

Next, Dukes handcuffed the victim and charged him with four crimes, including a charge of property damage because blood from the victim's broken nose got onto Dukes's police uniform.

How many other innocent people have had their property vandalized, been arrested, and had their lives ruined by cops retaliating for a complaint? We're betting that number is probably going pretty high.