Disgraced officer gets five years probation

Former Eatontown detective barred from public employment in N.J.

BY KEITH HEUMILLER
Staff Writer

I t was a highly emotional day in court on Nov. 30 as former Eatontown police detective Philip Emanuele was sentenced to five years probation for criminal coercion and evidence tampering in a case that involved drugs, abuse of power and a 24-yearold woman.

As Emanuele’s tear-stricken wife and family members looked on, the distraught eight-year police veteran accepted his sentence from state Superior Court Judge Thomas Scully at the Monmouth County courthouse in Freehold.

“I accept responsibility for this,” Emanuele said, his voice barely audible while he stared at the floor. “I just want to move on with my life.”

Emanuele, 33, of Brick Township, agreed to the charges as part of a negotiated plea deal with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. He was immediately terminated from his position in Eatontown and has now been permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey.

The charges involved a two-month chain of events between Emanuele and a young woman, identified in court records as L.A.H., which began when the officer responded to a theft complaint from the woman’s employer at the Monmouth Mall in Eatontown in December 2011.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, L.A.H. was taken into custody by Emanuele and the woman voluntarily surrendered drugs that were in her possession. Emanuele purportedly then used the arrest and potential charges against the victim to coerce her into providing sexual favors to him.

Prior to Emanuele’s sentencing, the victim explained her experience with the detective to the court, in sometimes graphic detail.

Pausing frequently to catch her breath between sobs, L.A.H. said Emanuele recruited her to work with him as a confidential informant. The detective destroyed the confiscated drugs in front of her, she said, to earn her trust.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Emanuele used the threat of the pending theft charge and the prospect of it being dismissed to unlawfully coerce the woman into engaging in sexual relations with him.

L.A.H. said she decided to file a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office and subsequently had a phone conversation with Emanuele while investigators listened in, she said, during which the detective apologized to her.

The investigation, which began in March, led to Emanuele being suspended from the Eatontown police force without pay in June. In November, he agreed to a plea deal, which according to Assistant Prosecutor Gregory J. Schweers included charges of third-degree criminal coercion and fourth-degree evidence tampering, but dropped potential charges of official misconduct and sexual assault.

Emanuele received probationary sentences of five and three years for the charges and the sentences will run concurrently. Schweers said although the former detective will not serve prison time, he is still being punished severely.

“He is not going to jail today. Some people might have an issue with that,” Schweers said in court. “[But] Mr. Emanuele is no longer a police officer. That is not something to be taken lightly. … He will no longer ever be in a position where he is going to take advantage of another woman by virtue of his position as a police officer.”

L.A.H. originally agreed with the plea deal, saying she knew it would keep Emanuele from repeating his actions with another woman, but later changed her mind.

“I do not feel I will ever fully recover, and prison is the only way to stop him. It would be a mistake to simply place him on probation,” she said.

Schweers, however, said the woman had agreed to the proposed sentence, and that even though his office had considered withdrawing the plea deal, it would be “very unusual” to do so.

After testimony from both sides, Scully handed down the negotiated sentence, adding a longer period of supervision than was previously agreed upon, but declining to levy fines on Emanuele out of concern for his family.

“I am not going to impose any additional fine, because to do so would be to deprive your family — those who have already been so negatively impacted by your incredibly poor judgment — further financially,” the judge said.

Emanuele’s sentence, he said, would be punishment enough.

“In many respects, given what your childhood dream was, you are going to be in jail for the rest of your life,” Scully said. “Your hideous actions, your incredibly poor judgment, has cost you a promising career.”

Scully said he was amazed at the amount of support Emanuele still had, the rows of family members and friends filling the courtroom who had shown up on his behalf and sent letters to the court prior to the sentencing arguing for leniency.

Ordering Emanuele to look at him, Scully said the former detective should not take such unconditional love for granted.

“You make it your business to repay that loyalty, to earn that love and support and respect every single day for the rest of your life,” the judge said