The chief of police, William Pepe recalls, ordered him into his office to chastise him for not writing enough traffic tickets after a year of troubles. Pepe, the lone Black officer in the Pompton Lakes Police Department, said the meeting was part of Chief Derek Clark's discriminatory treatment of him at work.
In a court notice declaring that he intended to sue the borough, its council, and police department, Pepe, 41, claimed that his career “came to a grinding halt” after he complained to his union about his supervisors. Pepe claims that a hostile and vengeful workplace caused “work-related mental health issues” and led to his “constructive termination,” which is when an employer forces an employee to resign.
“The race and disability discrimination and harassment were so severe, and the ongoing retaliation was so intense, that he had no option but to quit,” his attorney wrote in a notice of tort claim.
Pepe, an Army veteran, joined the department in 2015 and was elevated to the detective bureau four years later, he said in an interview in the tort claim notice. He was a police firearms instructor and a Passaic County Prosecutor's Office narcotics task force member.
He claims that he was reassigned to the patrol division in 2021 in retaliation for saying that he wanted to file a grievance with the department's union because he had twice been “forced” to stay home from work for an extended period and use sick days when his son was sick, even though both had tested negative for Covid-19.
Pepe alleged Clark's "right hand man," Lt. Anthony Rodriguez, tried to prevent him from filing a grievance at a spring 2021 union meeting. Then a “extremely aggressive and intimidating” Clark told him the department would defend the claim.
Pepe claimed Clark pushed him to discuss his emotional health with the department's resiliency program officer after the demotion. Clark cautioned other officers that they may be disciplined if they had similar conversations with the officer, who is a confidential resource for cops to discuss professional or personal concerns, according to Pepe.
In another incident, he was written up for giving away department property after handing his Velcro badge to a 4-year-old boy whose mother told Pepe he wanted to be a police officer. Pepe and the tort claim notification indicated anyone can buy the badge at a police uniform store.
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