Fearful Thibault claims police harassed him

Mayoral hopeful supporting cop takeover says agencies are probing

By: Vic Monaco – Managing Editor
HIGHTSTOWN – Republican mayoral candidate Rob Thibault, a vocal supporter of disbanding the Police Department and outsourcing those services to East Windsor, has filed complaints with the Mercer County prosecutor’s office and other law enforcement officials claiming the local police force has harassed him.
Mr. Thibault says both that office and the state police have launched an investigation after a series of incidents that included Detective Ben Miller waiting for him outside his home the morning the Herald published a story highlighting his police takeover stance and criticism of the PBA, pulling him over and issuing him two tickets.
Neither law enforcement agency nor Police Chief James Eufemia would discuss the situation. But the chief confirmed the prosecutor’s office is involved, and a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office acknowledged the prosecutor’s office had contacted the AG’s office on the matter.
Meanwhile, Mr. Thibault, a 13-year borough resident, said he fears for the safety of his wife and 10-year-old daughter, along with his own.
He spoke of the alleged incidents after the Herald received an anonymous tip that he was in trouble with police.
Mr. Thibault said he was leaving his South Main Street home in his wife’s car the morning of Aug. 6 when he realized a police car was parked across the street. When he pulled out, he said, the police car followed him and eventually pulled him over.
Detective Miller then told him that he had already run his driver’s license and found that it had been suspended as a result of an incident in North Carolina, Mr. Thibault said. Detective Miller issued Mr. Thibault two tickets, one for driving while suspended and the other for failure to surrender his license while under suspension, Mr. Thibault said.
"I had never gotten a ticket from North Carolina, and then I wondered when did he run my license. The car I was driving was not mine," Mr. Thibault said.
"If they ran my license previously, why wasn’t I pulled over then?
"I also had an uneasy feeling about the nature of the stop and the police being right outside my house, before 8 a.m., the same time I leave for work every day," he added.
Mr. Thibault said he later found out that the earlier failure-to-appear citation had been issued in North Carolina in 2007. He said his driver’s license number was affixed to it but the car listed was one he had never owned or drove and the license plate number was "not even close to the two vehicles I own." He said he is hopeful an attorney he hired will be able to quickly prove it to be a clerical error.
Mr. Thibault said he then got a call from a Herald reporter who had received an anonymous tip about him being in trouble with local police.
Subsequently, on Monday, Aug. 9, he got a call from Hightstown Municipal Court alerting him that the court appearance date on both of his local tickets was Aug. 12 and that there was no court session scheduled for that day; that he was due in court a day earlier, Aug. 11, he said.
"My first concern was why is my license suspended and I want to clear that up, but when I got that call from you (about the anonymous tip) and then heard from several other people they had heard Friday or over weekend that I had been involved with police in some way, it heightened my level of concern," Mr. Thibault said.
"When I got that call letting me know about the wrong court date on both tickets and that a warrant could have been issued for my arrest and police would be taking me in in handcuffs, that was the final red flag that there’s something wrong here.
"Clearly, all this appeared to be a potential retaliation of my vocal support on the proposed police contract with East Windsor." "It was, in my view, an effort at intimidation," he added.
So he decided to call the prosecutor’s office and the FBI.
"I did several interviews with the FBI, and they believe there is enough there that it warrants referring the case to state police," Mr. Thibault said.
"The prosecutor’s office reviewed some official records related to the (traffic) stop and it raised concerns," he said. "I was told yesterday (Tuesday) that the state police are looking into additional records related to the stop and that there is an ongoing investigation."
Chief Eufemia declined to comment, but did say he spoke to an assistant county prosecutor.
"I cannot comment. Any information must come from the prosecutor’s office," he said.
The assistant prosecutor in question declined to comment as did a spokesman for the state police.
Detective Miller could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Thibault was asked how he feels about what has transpired.
"When all of those things came together – the anonymous tip, the wrong court date that could have led to my arrest – it was a combination of fear, indignation and outrage. … The level of coincidence was astronomical.
"I had already been told by a lot of people they feel the same way – that they are afraid to speak up – and I was crazy to be so vocal. It went through my mind that they were right. Maybe I was naive that I thought this is America, where not only is there the right to free speech – particularly the right of a citizen to speak about an issue about the government in the town in which they live is one of the things that sets the United State apart.
"I wondered was this somewhere in the South in the ’50s? My sense of outrage grew, tempered by a real fear for my family."
Mr. Thibault, senior director of corporate communications for Dow Jones, stressed that he doesn’t want this situation to distract voters.
"I don’t want this to become the issue or an issue in either the campaign or the discussion about the Patriot (police takeover) report and ongoing negotiations with East Windsor," he said.
A two-year independent study by Patriot Consulting says the 1-square mile borough that spends more than $2 million a year on police-related expenditures can save $802,000 a year by outsourcing to the township. "The real issue is whether Hightstown can continue to afford to continue to do things they way it has," said Mr. Thibault.
His campaign manager, Councilman Mike Theokas, agreed.
"We want to stay focused on his platform," he said. "It (police outsourcing) is an emotional issue on a lot of levels but the reality is we’re looking at it from a financial perspective. … It’s not about the competence and professionalism of the members of the Police Department. We want to keep this discussion about what it really is: the financial viability and sustainability of the Borough of Hightstown, of which the police have been a big part."
Mr. Theokas finds himself in a strange situation because he also is the Borough Council’s liaison to the police force and sits on the borough committee trying to negotiate a new contract with the department. He said he didn’t feel comfortable commenting much on the situation.
"Rob has some concerns and he’s taking some steps to address them," he said.
"To make a judgment on the motives behind what happened, I can’t make it."
But he added, "Rob is a man of his word."