A disgraced New Jersey police chief who was forced to retire after a drunken brawl with one of his officers was caught on camera has been accused of misconduct, including racial profiling, assaulting subordinates, drinking on duty and violence. A damning report has been revealed that says this has been repeated for many years. From the prosecutor’s office.
Numerous charges against Bradley Beach Police Chief Leonard Guida have been uncovered in an investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. The incidents included one incident in which a drunken and enraged police chief spat on a man over a political disagreement at police headquarters.
Monmouth County Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago went so far as to say that there were so many allegations that Guida yelled at, belittled, and berated subordinates that it would be a daunting task to investigate them all.
“The findings outlined in this report make clear that over the past year and a half, Chief Guida has actively sabotaged the very law enforcement agency he was tasked with leading. “It shows,” Santiago said. said in a statement.
“The picture the report paints is not pretty, but that’s why we felt it was so important to make it public,” Santiago said. “Transparency becomes meaningless if ugliness remains opaque.”
Guida resigned Friday, six months ahead of schedule. Local news station TAPINTO releases body camera video Footage shows an intoxicated police chief obstructing his own officers during the investigation of a drunk driving accident dating back to November.
The scene turned ugly when Guida made a move on a frustrated police sergeant. William Major, in turn, threw Guida into the hood of the police cruiser and told her to get lost before he was arrested.
Guida has since been suspended and has been removed from his job since December.
But the high-profile standoff, which essentially cost Guida his $202,000-a-year job, was just one in a long series of violations, Santiago wrote. .
In the prosecutor’s report, What the office has posted on its websiteinvestigators found the chief was at fault in seven of the nine suspicious incidents investigated. According to the Asbury Park Press
The chief, who worked for the small Jersey Shore town south of Asbury Park for more than 40 years, violated department rules and regulations 24 times and violated the state attorney general’s guidelines twice, among other things.
Some of the allegations that prosecutors have found to be true are particularly ugly. For example, in an incident on September 18, 2022, Guida, who was helping with preparations for the town’s Latin festival, yelled at a police officer because the officer smiled at a woman. She told her to have her nice day.
“Mr. Guida berated him for approximately 15 minutes, telling him that he would never promote him, that he was the worst officer we ever had, and that he should never have been hired,” the report said. .
The former police chief once yelled at a patrol officer in front of his children, and when the officer complained about it, he said, “Maybe the kids need to see their dad get yelled at.”
Guida told investigators that he later regretted this.
Also, on August 14, 2023, around 9 p.m., the police chief suddenly appeared at police headquarters smelling of alcohol.
As Fox News was playing on the station’s televisions, an anonymous employee asked the station about whether Hillary Clinton should have been prosecuted years ago for improper use of her email account. I complained about the conversation.
Santiago said Guida became enraged and took the man into a conference room, where he berated him with profanities for more than an hour.
“Guida was so excited that she spat.” [the employee] The report added that Guida pushed the man into a chair twice.
Someone told the chief to calm down, but the chief responded even more harshly.
“Damn, I’m the chief,” Guida replied. “I’m going to handle things the way I want to handle them.”
When questioned by prosecutors about the crash, Guida said he did not know whether he had been drinking before the incident, but said it was “very likely,” according to the report.
However, he denied being drunk. And when he was asked why he was messing with his employees, he replied, “I’m Italian. What do you want me to do?”
Two weeks earlier, Guida violated a black man’s civil rights by ordering him to be detained simply because he was walking near a tire shop on Main Street, according to the report.
Guida and other officers allowed the man to leave only after dispatchers advised him that he did not have a warrant.
“During the interview, [the man] Santiago said he walks that road every day and that Bradley Beach police vehicles routinely pass him and this is the first time he’s been stopped. “He believed he was stopped by Chief Guida because of his race.”
Prosecutors agreed, arguing that Mr. Guida violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Additionally, there was a Nov. 9 drunk-driving incident in which prosecutors alleged that Guida was drunk and obstructed, even though he was on duty at the time.
The sergeant told investigators that Guida had been coming to work beaten for the past six months. And he became increasingly physical towards his subordinates.
Guida responded to the allegations by telling prosecutors that his own officers were trying to arrest him, but that they were also “untrustworthy, unfriendly and incompetent.”
However, the prosecution sided with the public.
“We will consider the sergeant.” The major’s actions are discussed in a separate letter, but it is important to note the conflict between the sergeants. The conflict between Major Guida and Chief Guida occurred when Chief Guida arrived at the scene inebriated, claimed to be under his command, and argued with Sergeant Guida. The major was talking about his jacket, and the sergeant said: “The major tried to do his job,” Santiago wrote.
“What this investigation has made clear is that the relationship between Director Guida and his subordinates is irreparably broken.”
