NORTH BERGEN, New Jersey (MN) — A New Jersey police chief is accused of extensive workplace misconduct that includes defecating on the floor, sticking an officer’s genitals with a needle, shaving body hair onto staff desks, and adding prescription drugs to office coffee.
North Bergen Police Chief Robert Farley, who became chief in February 2024, is accused of harassing and mistreating officers and other employees through extreme measures, including multiple incidents that harmed staff, an officer’s pets and another officer’s 1-year-old son, according to legal documents.
The accusations are made by four North Bergen police officers and a former officer who says he was wrongly fired after reporting “blatant corruption” within the department. They filed separate notices of claims against the township, which are filed before a lawsuit.
The North Bergen Police Department didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment March 27.
A North Bergen spokesperson told NJ.com that the accusations are “false and outrageous,” adding that the township has “full confidence in Chief Farley’s leadership.”
The township has referred the matter to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, according to the spokesperson, NJ.com reported.
Attorney Patrick P. Toscano Jr., of the Toscano Law Firm in Fairfield, New Jersey, represents the officers in their claims against Farley. He believes the chief should be removed from his position, Toscano said in an emailed statement to McClatchy News on March 27.
“As a trial attorney for some 39 years I have made my living with words, yet I cannot find the precise word which would adequately describe this entire situation,” Toscano said.
Accused of exposing himself, spiking coffee
One of the officers who filed a claim, a lieutenant whom Farley assigned as his administrative aide when he became chief, said he’s worked with Farley for the past 20 years.
“Farley has fostered a workplace environment characterized by inappropriate behavior and so-called ‘practical jokes’ that are demeaning, demoralizing and targeted,” the officer wrote in his claim. “These actions not only fail to meet the standards of professional conduct but also appear intended to humiliate me and other victims.”
The officer’s claim lists specific examples of misconduct. He describes Farley repeatedly exposing his genitals to employees after using the bathroom, dropping his pants and defecating “on the floor in front of his entire office staff,” and defecating in a trash can and on the bathroom floor.
Farley left feces in the trash can for several days, then cleaned it after the officer and a police captain kept urging him to do so, the claim says.
The officer also wrote that Farley used medication to cause harm.
Farley added Adderall and Viagra to coffee that was available for staff, drugging them “without their consent” as a result, according to the officer.
Farley also once used medication to poison a police corporal’s fish, killing all of his pets, the officer wrote in the claim.
Chief caused officer to bleed, claim says
In the claim filed by the former North Bergen officer, who says he was illegally fired, he details how Farley caused him to bleed in August 2024.
After Farley assigned the man to work as another one of his administrative aides, Farley chased him around his office with a hypodermic needle in August 2024, he wrote in the claim.
After “cornering me in the filing area with no further room for retreat, he sticks a … (hypodermic) needle through my jeans into the tip of penis,” the claim says.
“The incident draws blood and further humiliates me when I later had to explain the incident to my wife,” the claim continues. “When I told chief Farley I was unhappy with his actions, he told me that I didn’t know how to take a joke.”
Harassment against family members
According to the officer who’s worked with Farley for years, Farley has harassed and harmed his family.
Farley mailed “inappropriate items,” including sex toys and masturbation cream, to his home, where he lives with his wife and children, his claim says.
The officer wrote that Farley made his 1-year-old son become “very ill” during an incident witnessed by other officers.
He accused Farley of hiding a ghost pepper inside a burger that his son then ate, causing him to get sick.
This officer’s claim details several more incidents of misconduct, including vandalism and outbursts.
Farley has damaged officers’ personal property, ripped a TV off an office wall, broke pens and stained officers’ uniforms with ink, according to the claim.
“On several occasions, he has thrown eggs in fits of anger,” the officer wrote in the claim.
“I have photos documenting many of these incidents as evidence,” the claim says.
Another officer’s claim attaches multiple photos as exhibits.
One of the images shows Farley shirtless, leaning over a person’s desk with his arm extended.
“Chief Farley shaving himself,” reads a handwritten note accompanying the photo, with an arrow pointing to Farley.
In his statement to McClatchy News, Toscano said, “Let’s just say that it certainly would be in the best interests of the citizens of North Bergen and the North Bergen Police Department if Mr. Farley was relieved of his duties and disarmed, effective immediately.”
By JULIA MARNIN/McClatchy News
Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.
