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Officer suspended without pay
(by Megan Burrow - April 09, 2008)
Westwood Police Officer Neela Maharaj has been charged with a violation of N.J.S. 2C: 20-25, a third degree offense, and has been suspended without pay. The charges are pending an Internal Affairs Investigation within the Westwood Police Department and an investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.
According to an April 3 press release issued by the Westwood Police Department, Officer Maharaj, a 10-year veteran of the department, allegedly accessed the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), a state law enforcement computer system, without authorization and used it for non-law enforcement purposes.
The charges are related to an earlier July 12, 2007 domestic incident in
Lincoln Park in which officer Maharaj was charged with aggravated assault. Those charges are still pending and are part of an ongoing investigation by the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office.
Both the Westwood Police Department and the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment.
Megan Burrow's e-mail address is burrow@northjersey.com.
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