PRINCETON: Town, cop settle lawsuit

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Princeton will have to foot less than half the $87,500 settlement that a Princeton police officer received to end his whistle-blower lawsuit.
   Administrator Robert W. Bruschi said Monday that the municipality’s portion comes out to $33,500, based on an arrangement with its insurance carrier to pay the first $20,000 and then 20 percent of the balance. The carrier, Municipal Express Liability Joint Insurance Fund, settled the case on behalf of the town, which had given its permission to take that step. The settlement required no admission of liability by the town, said municipal attorney Edwin W. Schmierer.
   Police Sgt. Kenneth Riley, who filed the suit as a member of the Princeton Borough Police Department, did not return a message left at Princeton Police Headquarters on Monday. His lawyer, B. David Jarashow, said Monday that the settlement agreement prevented him from commenting on the case.
   Sgt. Riley sued in September 2011 alleging retaliation for reporting in 2008 that a fellow sergeant had improperly allowed a suspected drunken driver to urinate in public.
   After making the allegations, Sgt. Riley was targeted for an internal affairs investigation related to his accessing and showing police video footage of the 2008 incident to others in the department. He was suspended from his $104,000 a year job. And the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office even obtained an indictment against Sgt. Riley, who lost his job, according to court papers.
   Eventually, the criminal charges were thrown out and Mr. Riley got his job back with around $400,000 in back pay and legal fees.
   Sgt. Riley began working as a borough police officer in 1991.