The Paterson police chief just sued the mayor. Here's why

PATERSON — Police Chief Ibrahim Baycora has accused Mayor Andre Sayegh of trying to force him out of the job by unfairly blaming him for Paterson’s spike in shootings and by degrading him with verbal tirades and scathing emails.

In a lawsuit filed in New Jersey Superior Court on Friday, Baycora also claimed that an unidentified City Council member threatened to shoot him during the March 5 council meeting and that he was the only member of the Paterson police department who did not get hazardous duty pay earlier this year for working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, Baycora accused the Sayegh administration of trying to set him up for failure last February by only providing him with half the 30 officers he asked to have assigned to a special overtime unit that was supposed to combat violent crime.

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Baycora’s lawsuit reflects the cataclysmic break that occurred between the mayor and his hand-picked choice for police during the past year. Just 30 months ago, Sayegh picked Baycora for the job, showering the new chief with praise and celebrating the fact that he would be Paterson’s first Turkish and first Muslim chief. At the time of his appointment, political insiders noted that Baycora was backed for the job by Sayegh's political supporters in South Paterson.

But within a year, Baycora came under criticism from council members and community leaders for his lack of responsiveness and from rank-and-file cops for personnel changes they said seemed like retaliation against allies of the previous chief, Troy Oswald. Baycora took a month-long vacation at the end of the summer of 2021 as Paterson’s homicide body count towards what would become a new record.

Baycora said in the lawsuit that Sayegh deliberately humiliated the chief by copying police department subordinates on an email in which the mayor described Baycora’s job performance as “deplorable.”

“Mayor Sayegh subsequently began badmouthing Plaintiff and informing members of the PPD (Paterson Police Department) and influential members of the community that Plaintiff was deplorable, his time was limited and falsely suggesting that Plaintiff was the cause of high crime rates in Paterson,” said Baycora’s lawsuit.

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Baycora did not respond to a message seeking additional information about the council member’s alleged threat to shoot him. The Sayegh administration also declined comment, citing its policy not to comment on pending litigation.

Baycora filed his lawsuit under New Jersey’s whistle-blower law, claiming that Sayegh retaliated against the chief as retribution for Baycora’s complaints to the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office and New Jersey Attorney General’s Office about Paterson PBA President Alex Cruz. Baycora claimed Cruz committed “fraud” or “wage theft” by getting paid by the city for allegedly working on the warrant squad at the same time he was getting money for off-duty work such as traffic control.

Cruz did not respond to a message seeking his response to those allegations.

Baycora claimed that Cruz and Sayegh are “politically aligned,” citing as evidence Sayegh’s participation at a PBA event in May and the mayor’s alleged assertions in February that he was holding the city’s police unions back from taking action against Baycora.

The PBA and Paterson Superior Officers Association already had filed a federal lawsuit against Baycora in November 2020 accusing him of retaliating against them for successfully blocking some job reassignments by investigating the working hours of their president. That lawsuit is still pending.

Cruz has been a longtime supporter of Sayegh’s long-time archrival, former and convicted mayor Jose “Joey” Torres. Cruz ran against Sayegh in the 2018 election with the support of some of Torres’ backers.

Cruz currently is running on the Republican ticket for Passaic County Commissioner, along with Oswald. Sayegh has a long track record of backing Democrats in countywide political races.

Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson NJ police chief files lawsuit against mayor