Ex-Parsippany Chief Could Be Charged With Misconduct: Judge

PARSIPPANY, NJ — There is probable cause to charge former Parsippany Police Chief Paul Philipps with official misconduct after he allegedly refused to release documents to the public, a judge in Montville ruled this month.

Municipal Court Judge Joseph Deming ruled on July 5 that there was probable cause to issue a complaint-summons for official misconduct against Philipps, who retired from the Parsippany police force in early 2018, after about five years on the job. Official misconduct is an indictable offense.

Philipps was issued a notice to appear at the Morris County Courthouse the morning of July 24, where he will have a first hearing.

It was not clear based on the court documents, which were provided to Patch by Parsippany Focus, what specific records Philipps is accused of not providing.

The documents were eventually provided in Oct. 2018, after they were requested in July of an unspecified year.

In a letter accompanying the documents, Lt. Paul Schulze of the Internal Affairs Section wrote that "the PTHPD was required to make the reports available to the public, and erred when it failed to release them at your request."

The letter was provided to Patch in a partially redacted form; the year the documents were first requested and the name of the person who made the request were both redacted.

The complaint against Philipps was brought by former Parsippany Police Captain James Carifi, who previously brought the police department to court in 2014 when Philipps denied him a firearms permit; a judge overruled Philipp's decision.

Carifi has filed three suits against the township in seven years, the Daily Record reported, most recently in Sept. 2018, when Carifi accused Philipps of lying about department practices and refusing to release information on internal affairs investigations.

The township has also sued Carifi, accusing him of downloading and stealing 1 million police documents at the time of his retirement. That lawsuit was withdrawn when then-mayor James Barberio was ousted by current mayor Michael Soriano.