#NJ cops admit slashing tires on man’s cars in ‘spiteful retaliation’: prosecutor

“#NJ cops admit slashing tires on man’s cars in ‘spiteful retaliation’: prosecutor”

August 26, 2020 | 3:23pm

Two former Asbury Park police officers Stephen M. Martinensen, 31, and Thomas A. Dowling, 27, admitted they vandalized cars belonging to a man last year after he filed a complaint against them.

Asbury Park Press

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Two New Jersey police officers have admitted to slashing the tires of a pair of cars owned by a man who filed an internal affairs complaint against them, prosecutors said.

Asbury Park Police Officer Stephen Martinsen, 31, and former Special Law Enforcement Officer Thomas Dowling, 27, pleaded guilty Tuesday to criminal mischief, admitting they vandalized the vehicles owned by an outspoken city resident critical of the department in September 2019, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni announced.

“Spiteful retaliation from law enforcement officers towards a citizen for any reason is an unacceptable option,” Gramiccioni said in a statement. “This is in no way condoned at any level, for any reason.”

Dowling and Martinsen slashed the tires of a Jeep Liberty and Toyota Prius, and also smashed a window of one of the vehicles, causing $500 in damages, the prosecutor said.

Authorities have said the two officers donned disguises when they rode bicycles to the vehicles, which were parked in Ocean Grove and Asbury Park, NJ.com reports.

The owner of the cars, 70-year-old Ernest Mignoli, had filed an administrative complaint against the cops just days before the vandalism. He told NJ.com last year his “jaw dropped” when he learned the officers were accused of targeting his cars.

As part of a plea deal, prosecutors will agree to recommend probation for Martinsen and Dowling when they’re sentenced on Oct. 16.

Martinsen, an Asbury Park cop since 2013, has been suspended without pay since the charges were filed in September. Dowling, who joined the department in May 2015, was fired, authorities said.

They will forfeit any future public employment in New Jersey as part of their plea, Gramiccioni said.

“These officers were held accountable for their actions and misconduct and we will continue to hold our officers responsible to build upon the trust of the community that we serve,” Asbury Park Police Chief David Kelso said in a statement.

Mignoli, who also considers himself to be a freelance journalist, said he wasn’t satisfied with Tuesday’s outcome, calling the plea deal a “travesty of justice” and saying he fears retaliation, the Asbury Park Press reports.

“We’re on a merry-go-round of victimization,” Mignoli wrote the newspaper in an email. “Especially concerned citizens and press who report, document, witness and investigate.”