Woodbridge Police Dept. Sued In Police Brutality Lawsuit

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — A Carteret man is suing Woodbridge Township and thirteen Woodbridge police officers, saying police threw him to the ground and severely beat him outside a local QuickChek in 2019, in a case of what he says involves police brutality and mistaken identity.

This is also not the first time the Woodbridge Police Department has been sued for a false arrest: An African-American man from Paterson sued the department earlier this year, after he said he was arrested by Woodbridge Police and held for 10 days in the county jail in another alleged case of mistaken identity.

This latest lawsuit was filed March 31 by Jeremiah Daniels-Porter, of Carteret.

The incident happened April 2, 2019 at the QuickChek at 475 Rahway Avenue in Woodbridge. He is also seeking financial damages from QuickChek Corporation.

On that day, Daniels-Porter said multiple QuickChek employees mistakenly identified him as a man who had been banned from that QuickChek location. The store workers called police and as he was walking out of the store, Daniels-Porter said he was detained and interrogated by two Woodbridge police officers.

He said he objected to being detained and at that point, the two officers "proceeded to violently use force upon Plaintiff, tackling him to the ground and striking him repeatedly."

While he was held incapacitated on the ground, Daniels-Porter said more Woodbridge police officers arrived "and began to pile onto and brutalize (him)."

Daniels-Porter said he had to be taken by Woodbridge Police to a hospital after the incident, and that he suffered serious and permanent injuries to his head, limbs and body.

Daniels-Porter said his injuries and emotional distress continues to this day, and that his injuries are so severe that it prevents him from earning a living. He is seeking monetary damages and also wants the Woodbridge Police Department retrained in its use-of-force policies and use of unreasonable and excessive force.

Also, Daniels-Porter said the Woodbridge Police Dept. had previously received "notice of police-citizen encounters similar" to his, where those specific officers he named in his suit "frequently subjected citizens to excessive force, recklessly and/or negligently misrepresented the facts of arrests and/or other police-citizen encounters and/or falsified police and/or other official records."

As Patch reported, in January of this year, an African-American man who lives in Paterson sued the Woodbridge police department after an incident at the Woodbridge Hampton Inn. He said he was wrongfully arrested and held in the county jail for 10 days because his face came up as a match in facial recognition technology.

He said the facial recognition software was wrong, and that he was not the suspect Woodbridge Police were looking for. All charges against him were later dropped. Related: Man Sues Woodbridge Police After Facial Recognition Arrest (Jan. 2021)

The Middlesex County prosecutor and the Middlesex County Jail were also named in that suit. In that case, the Paterson man wants Woodbridge Police retrained in how they use facial recognition software and how they make arrests.

A spokesman for Woodbridge said the Township is prevented from commenting on any lawsuits.

Daniel-Porters' lawsuit was filed by Juan Cervantes of the Rahway law firm Forman, Cardonsky and Tsinman.

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