Drug case linked to trainer at vulgar ‘Street Cop’ conference is dismissed

Brad Gilmore, an instructor at Street Cop Training, a private police training company at the center of a far-reaching investigation by the New Jersey comptroller, was seen in videos made public Wednesday bragging about his success in seizing large amounts of drugs. .

“I have gained 15 kilos. I made $300,000,” said Mr. Gilmore, a detective with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey, said in footage included in the comptroller’s report, which found that instructors taught unconstitutional police tactics in classes filled with obscene, sexist and discriminatory language.

Then, on Thursday morning — as a New Jersey judge seated jurors for a drug trial that would likely hinge on Detective Gilmore’s testimony — prosecutors abruptly dismissed charges against the suspect, who faced 20 years in prison if convicted.

The man’s attorney, Brian J. Neary, stood and said prosecutors had correctly acknowledged that the allegations of bias and illegal police techniques detailed in the report had undermined the matter irreparably.

“The credibility and credibility of this officer were so suspect that the government could not support a prosecution based on his conduct,” Mr. Neary said in an interview.

The case, he said, would likely be the first of many in New Jersey to unravel as a result of conduct uncovered in the investigation by Kevin D. Walsh, the state’s acting comptroller.

“It will open a floodgate,” said Mr. Neary, a longtime criminal defense attorney and former assistant prosecutor in Bergen County.

Detective Gilmore did not respond to calls or messages left on his social media accounts seeking comment. He is described on a podcast and on social media as the “nation’s leading expert on hidden compartments and drug trafficking.” His biography Street Police website states that while working as a “small town cop,” he became “extremely adept at intercepting large amounts of contraband at criminal motor vehicle stops.”

Thursday’s case stemmed from a 2017 arrest in which Detective Gilmore, then a police officer in Ridgefield Park, N.J., stopped a car on Route 95 and discovered two kilos of heroin in a hidden compartment in the car, according to the criminal complaint and Mr. Neary. .

The driver, Francisco A. Paulino-Edua, did not own the car, had no prior criminal convictions and was expected to claim he did not know there were drugs in the vehicle, Mr. Neary said.

After the assistant prosecutor, Christine Gorzelany, announced that the government had dropped the charges, Mr. Paulino-Edua began to cry and then hugged his grandmother, who was in court with him for jury selection, Mr. Neary said.

Elizabeth Rebein, a spokeswoman for the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, said she “couldn’t discuss the reasons why we dismissed the case.”

But she said the office was investigating the allegations related to Detective Gilmore, who appears in videos the belittling of police supervisors And provide tips on how to extend interviews during motor vehicle stops in ways that the comptroller’s office determined were likely unconstitutional.

“We take this report and allegations very seriously and are investigating the matter,” Ms Rebein said.

Street Cop, a New Jersey-based company, is one of the largest private police training companies in the country. Classes are given to law enforcement officers throughout New Jersey and in 45 other states, and much of the training is paid for with taxpayer dollars, according to the report.

A six-day seminar in Atlantic City, N.J., in October 2021 drew 990 attendees and featured speakers who called women “whores” and appeared to mock the LGBTQ community, certain religions and even dwarfism, the investigation found. Several instructors referred to the size of their genitals and glorified violence, and one showed a picture of a monkey on the screen while talking about a 75-year-old black man. show videos.

Christopher Porrino, a former New Jersey attorney general who now represents Street Cop, could not be reached for comment.

Mr Walsh said the training threatened to undermine years of police initiatives aimed at de-escalating tense encounters and building trust within vulnerable communities. He recommended that New Jersey law enforcement officers who attended the event retrain.

The report also suggested that the seminar’s guidance could pose problems for prosecutors who rely on testimony from officers who attended Street Cop instructors – Some of them are current or former employees of New Jersey police departments.

The report said an officer’s presence at the event may have to be made public during the discovery process in criminal cases because “many comments” related to the “protected categories of color, race, ethnicity and/or national origin.”

Alain Delaqueriere research contributed.