Paterson says radio transmissions in Felix DeJesus missing person case no longer exist
PATERSON — City officials say they do not have the audio recordings of police radio transmissions from the two officers who detained Felix DeJesus on the night in early February when the 41-year-old Haledon man went missing.
Paterson routinely disposes of police radio transmissions after 30 days, a policy that follows state records retention guidelines, city officials said his week in their response to a news reporter's public records request for the recordings.
City officials noted that the Paterson Press request for copies of the radio transmission was not filed until June, well after the 30-day retention period.
But the lawyer retained by DeJesus' family called the disposal of the recordings "very suspicious." The attorney, Jeff Patti, noted that an Internal Affairs investigation into the incident already had begun within two weeks of DeJesus’ disappearance, well before the 30-day disposal timeframe.
Within two weeks, DeJesus family members were raising questions about the police officers’ interactions with the missing man and asking for various recordings and public documents.
“To me, that’s mind-blowing,” said Crystal Garcia, DeJesus’ sister-in-law, when told the city did not have the radio transmissions. “They should have made sure everything was kept. Nothing should have been deleted or erased.”
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Garcia has been part of a contingent of DeJesus family members who have attended city council meetings week after week for almost four months demanding answers about the police role in the man’s disappearance.
City officials previously had refused to make public the police body camera recordings of DeJesus. But a judge last month ordered Paterson to release the recordings as a result of a lawsuit filed by USA TODAY Network New Jersey.
Two Paterson police officers encountered DeJesus on the night of Feb. 2 when they responded to a call about a disturbance at a bodega on Union Avenue. Recordings from the officers’ body cameras show that one of the officers handcuffed DeJesus while he was facedown on the pavement outside the store and put him in the backseat of their patrol vehicle.
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The body camera recordings released by the city end at that point. Patti and the DeJesus family have accused the officers of violating state Attorney General guidelines, which require police camera to continue recording while someone is in their custody until the person is released.
Family members say authorities have told them that the two officers dropped DeJesus off several blocks away from the bodega, near Westside Park.
Garcia said recordings of radio transmissions while DeJesus was inside the police vehicle and shortly afterwards could hold valuable information about what happened to him.
“There could be something to help us find out where he is,” she said.
Authorities have not released the names of the two officers who detained DeJesus. Garcia said she has learned that one of them had about a year’s experience as a Paterson cop and the other had been on the job for a few weeks.
The Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office oversees Paterson’s Internal Affairs investigations. The prosecutor’s office repeatedly has said that the “existence, target, nature and progress of Internal Affairs investigations are confidential,” and has declined to comment regarding the probe.
Meanwhile, Patti said he is sending a letter to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office asking the state’s highest law enforcement agency to take over the investigation, alleging local authorities have engaged in a “cover-up.”
Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Felix DeJesus: Paterson says police audio transmissions don't exist
