A Trenton police officer was charged with falsifying his job application to hide his connection with a street gang member and helping to plot an attack of a suspected witness, prosecutors said Monday.
Rudy Lopez faces charges of official misconduct, conspiracy and tampering with public records, according to New Jersey Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin. Lopez, 36, was already suspended from the Trenton police after being charged in June with making unrelated threats at a Hamilton public school, officials said.
Lopez, who joined the force in September 2020, denied on his application for the job that he was associating with gang members, according to the attorney general’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability. In fact, the officer was allegedly “regularly communicating” with an imprisoned member of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation street gang.
“Police officers who betray their oaths erode the public’s trust in law enforcement, undermining the image of the vast majority of upstanding public servants who wear the badge and risk their lives to uphold the law,” Platkin said in a statement. “We expect our police officers to be above this kind of behavior, and those who engage in criminal conduct will be held accountable.”
Prosecutors alleged that Lopez had “regular contact” with a prisoner, who is a gang member, before being suspended from the Trenton police.
The officer and the unnamed gang member discussed an assault as revenge against a person who they suspected of providing information to authorities that was used to put the inmate in prison, according to prosecutors. Lopez allegedly offered to track the target’s whereabouts and give it to the inmate.
“Instead of serving his community and making it safer, we allege Officer Rudy Lopez was colluding and sharing sensitive information with a convicted felon,” said Thomas Eicher, executive director of the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability, which is handling the case. “We will have no tolerance for suspected gang associates infiltrating the ranks of New Jersey’s police agencies.”
Trenton Police Director Steve Wilson said Monday such conduct by police officers would not be tolerated.
“I am disgusted by the allegations,” the police director said. “If these allegations are true, this conduct will not be tolerated, Wilson said. “The city of Trenton deserves better from their officers.”
Lopez was suspended with pay following the June charges against him. He is now suspended without pay, pending future court appearances, internal discipline and possible termination from his job, according to Wilson.
A defense attorney for Lopez, Jack Furlong of Furlong and Krasny in Trenton, criticized the attorney general’s office for “irresponsible and needlessly inflammatory rhetoric” in announcing the charges.
“I never cease to be amazed by prosecutors who violate the Rules of Professional Conduct in condemning the accused without giving them a chance to defend themselves,” Furlong said in an email Monday night.
“Perhaps you should ask the Attorney General if he has released the information he’s described to the defendant (he hasn’t), or why he feels the need to exaggerate allegations, reporting information that was well known within the Trenton Police Department long before Rudy applied to be a police officer: that he was related to a man serving time for his involvement in a gang. Rudy withheld nothing, and a trial will show that,” the defense attorney said.
The attorney general’s office case is the second time in recent weeks Lopez faced criminal charges. Mercer County prosecutors previously charged Lopez, of Hamilton, with two counts of harassment for a recent alleged incident at a township school. Lopez made verbal threats against two people June 15 at Lalor Elementary, on Barnt-Deklyn Road, according to charges in that case.
Lopez received his police academy class’ Police Training Commission Merit Award at the swearing-in in February 2021. Records show he was paid a $54,575 annual salary.
Staff writer Kevin Shea contributed to this report.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism