Jersey City Mayor Is Firing Police For Off-Duty Marijuana Use As A ‘Ruse’ To Boost His Gubernatorial Campaign, Lawsuit Says

“This constitutional right to possess and consume regulated cannabis is granted to all New Jersey citizens, including Jersey City Police Officers.”

By Sophie Nieto-Munoz, New Jersey Monitor

A lawyer is accusing Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop (D) of terminating cops for their off-duty cannabis consumption so he can get attention for his campaign for governor.

In a new legal filing, attorney Michael Rubas said Fulop’s move to fire cops for using legal cannabis in defiance of state law is a “ruse done solely to bring attention to him and to assist his gubernatorial campaign to the detriment of Jersey City employees as well as taxpayers who are now footing the bill of hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay awards and attorney fees.”

Fulop is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2025.

Rubas’s allegation comes in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Hudson County on behalf of one of the cops, Mackenzie Reilly, whom Jersey City fired in August 2023 when he tested positive for cannabis after a random drug screening. Last week, the state Civil Service Commission ordered the city to reinstate Reilly.

Jersey City officials have fired or suspended multiple cops for using regulated cannabis off duty, arguing that officers who use cannabis are violating federal law and cannot carry a firearm or ammunition.

The city has lost this battle involving three different cops, but the city has refused to relent. The Civil Service Commission has also ordered the city to rehire officers Norhan Mansour and Omar Polanco, who were also terminated for using regulated cannabis while off duty, but the city has not done so.

Under the state’s recreational marijuana legalization law, signed by Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in 2021, police officers are allowed to use cannabis if they’re not on duty, per a 2022 memo from Attorney General Matt Platkin (D).

But Jersey City’s public safety director, James Shea, sued the state over this issue, arguing that it flies in the face of a federal law that bars people who use cannabis from owning guns or ammunition. 

According to the latest complaint, before the city implemented its “unlawful policy,” city officials had a conference call with the state Attorney General’s Office where they were told that cops can’t be disciplined for using legal cannabis. During that call, Jersey City officials “openly conspired to violate the law,” the complaint states. 

Six days after Fulop announced Jersey City’s policy that cops cannot use cannabis, Fulop received an email from a political operative who sent him a Politico New Jersey article about the issue—“South Jersey Democrats request ‘clarification’ from Platkin on cannabis and cops memo”—and five minutes later, Fulop sent an email to Shea saying, “Little revolt we started.” 

Rubas’s legal filing calls that comment “flippant.”

City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione said it is “silly” to accuse Fulop of playing political games, adding the city is following federal policy.

“Most people would agree with the administration that police officers should not be coming to work stoned,” she said in a statement. 

Reilly was first suspended without pay in March 2023 and fired August 25, 2023, the complaint says, in an “arrogant and condescending” disciplinary order from Shea, who failed to acknowledge the state constitution, the state’s marijuana legalization law, or the attorney general’s memo. 

At one point, Jersey City officials announced to the entire department that Reilly was guilty of serious misconduct that warranted termination, which the complaint says gave Reilly’s coworkers the false impression he was “derelict in his employment.” 

By not rehiring Reilly, the city is acting in a “willful and malicious manner with immoral purpose to injure and cause harm,” the complaint says.

“This constitutional right to possess and consume regulated cannabis is granted to all New Jersey citizens, including Jersey City Police Officers,” it says. 

This story was first published by New Jersey Monitor.

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