Chief Deeley, Mayor/ Police Commissioner Mancini,

2016

10/ 1/

I have patiently waited until my son, Edward Santolla was safely back at college and
away from what is in my opinion to be the continued police harassment and retaliation that he
has faced by the Long Beach Township Police Department and the Municipality; before and after
my previous email sent to both of you and the supposed Internal Affairs investigations that
ensued. At that time, early in March of this year, I had alleged aggressive ticketing and searching
on behalf of the LBTPD. The aggressive nature in which he was treated over the first 6 months
of this ordeal became much worse, more recently.
In mid July, Edward was stopped and ticketed for the third time over the past year by the
LBTPD. This was one of 3 stops while he was on the job as a lifeguard for LBT. In what would
appear to be continued targeting of my son, Edward was, once again, aggressively ticketed for
nonsense. The officer who pulled up behind his parked car in the LBT municipal building
parking lot, issued him a traffic summons for failure to put his directional on 100 feet before the
stop sign where he had previously turned. Even though my son stopped at the sign, let a
pedestrian cross, put his directional on and safely turned right, he was issued a moving violation
along with two tickets for tint and his state PBA card was confiscated with no attempt to return it
to the issuing officer. Once again, and as before, the officer also claimed that he had the right to
search Edward's car. This time, because the officer felt that my son's movement through the turn
seemed suspicious. As in the February stop, in which the officer wanted to search my son's car
without reasonable cause, my son, once again, respectfully refused. In both events, he was held
against his will for close to one hour, the ticketing officers called for backup and claimed that a
county investigation was opened, requesting a drug-sniffing dog. In both attempts to search
without reasonable cause, no dog was brought to the scene and no search was conducted. The
next day the two officers who were involved with this latest stop approached the LBTBP
leadership with a demand that Edward be fired from his job as a lifeguard for LBT for failure to
comply with an officers request to have his car searched. At that time the leadership of the
beach patrol refused. I am now in receipt of a second letter from Internal Affairs that was mailed
to my home and addressed to my son. This was in response to the fact that my son immediately
contacted the LBTPD to lodge a complaint in regard to his third stop. The officer who took the
call indicated that someone would be getting back to him. The letter indicates that the I.A. unit
had completed its investigation into the matter and found that officer Petrone's actions were
"justified, legal and proper."
Now I ask both of you, how is it possible for an internal affairs unit to do a proper and
thorough investigation into any matter in which someone lodges a complaint without first
contacting the complainant and identifying themselves as someone from internal affairs? To this
date, not you Chief Deeley, nor anyone else from internal affairs ever contacted Edward and
gathered information regarding the unprofessional manner in which my son was stopped,

interrogated and ticketed. That is, unless you feel that receiving a moving violation for
something that was perfectly legal, held against your will for close to one hour for an
unreasonable cause to search, had your State PBA card confiscated and had your job threatened
the next day is considered justified, legal and proper. Furthermore, both I.A. letters that my son
had received are not dated. There is no mention of who has done the investigations nor are the
specific allegations noted or addressed. One letter appears to be a complete forgery based upon
missing contact information at the top along with other significant factors that make the
authenticity suspicious and I'm not certain if the outgoing chief ever signed either, considering
that there are two different signatures from the chief on each letter.
The fourth time my son was stopped by the LBTPD, the third time while on the job,
involved parking his car in a spot clearly designated and posted "Parking for Township
Employees Only". The officer insisted that only police use those spots. My son felt that since he
was a township employee and many others had often parked there, that he had the right to park
there as well. He suggested to the officer that the signs should indicate that the parking spaces in
question should be changed to read, Parking for Police Only. My son complied with the officers
unreasonable demand anyway and moved his car. The next day that officer approached the
LBTBP leadership insisting that my son be fired from his job for questioning the officer. Wow!
Really? Tell me that these officers are not working together to target my son and have him fired
by applying pressure upon the LBTBP? And what did you do Commissioner Mancini? You went
along with the police department's repeated, unreasonable, and unethical treatment of my son and
with administrator, Kyle Ominski, agreed to the firing of my son. In your words, "He was not
being a team player." Then within two weeks of the incident, you took my son's previous advice
to the officer and had the parking signs changed to indicate, "Parking for Township Vehicles
Only."
I find it very interesting that whenever Edward was stopped there was never any
professional courtesy or consideration given to him over the fact that he was actively working for
the same township that was ticketing and harassing him; yet, when he decided to stand up for his
civil rights not to have his car searched without reasonable cause or when he dared to suggest a
solution over a parking issue, the police, township administrator, and you as commissioner, felt
that it was OK to go after his township job. It sounds like a double standard to me. It is clear that
he had a valid point since you approved changing the signs which now read differently. The
police stops had nothing to do with his job for which, in my opinion, he was wrongfully
terminated.
So let's recap what has taken place over the past year; Set up and ticketed for careless
driving (tailgating the officer) on a deserted back Boulevard at 15 MPH at 7:30 AM on his way
to his township job; Ticketed for failure to keep right on a deserted North Beach Blvd 8:30 at
night in mid-February, and held against his will for close to one hour during an attempted,
unreasonable cause to search; Ticketed for failure to use his directional 100 feet before stopping
and turning at a stop sign along with 2 tickets for tint, held against his will for close to one hour

for another unreasonable cause to search, and had his job threatened the next day; Stopped for
parking in a legal spot, forced to move his car and had his job threatened the following day and
finally terminated from his job for having too many personal issues with the police and not being
a team player. So let's see if I have this right; 5 tickets over the past year, 4 stops, 2 unreasonable
causes to search, 2 attempts against his job and finally, wrongfully terminated. Most of the time,
on the job and simply lumbering along a back road on his way to work for the township. He was
never speeding, never under the influence, always wearing his seat belt, always trying to drive
safely and never once made any attempt to deliberately disregard the law. All this, while I
question the authenticity and legality behind two seemingly fraudulent IA investigations; but
according to you gentlemen, my son was never targeted and there was no reason to suspect
aggressiveness within your police department or the township. I have indicated that I make it my
business to talk to people and get to the bottom of any problem that I am dealing with. I have
discovered that there is an apparent and troubling issue between the LBTBP and the police
department along with the Mayor/ Police Commissioner's office. I have also been made aware of
many disturbing circumstances regarding what would appear to be in some peoples opinion, all
types of political corruption within your township.
On a personal note, let me state for the record that Edward was a six year veteran
lifeguard for Long Beach Township, who was willing to put his life on the line to help and save
others, and has in fact, done so. He was respected by his peers and was looked upon as a
live-saving hero by appreciative members of the LBT community and his entire family. Edward
is a senior at the University of Delaware, where he majors in Political Science. While some
cannot appreciate, nor have benefited from higher education, Edward learned about protecting
his civil rights along with community leadership. He was on the right path to making a career out
of working for LBT, first as a guard and then perhaps working his way into the administration.
Instead of appreciating the value in having someone like my son working for the township and
becoming a role model for him to look up to, you Mayor Mancini, along with your administrator,
and in my opinion, corrupt police department, for no apparent reason, decided to target him and
cut him down. I now have to explain to my completely discouraged son, that from my
perspective and in my opinion, the type of behavior that has been displayed by both of you men
and your departments is exactly how a corrupt township is run. A mayor whose only agenda
seems to be some sort of self-serving cause while destroying other people's lives and careers and
robbing them of their pride and self- esteem, is disgusting and demonstrates the worst that a
politician can be. If you men need a good example of when there is reasonable cause to consider
an investigation, it is right now, with your own administration and police department. The
appropriate outside agencies have been contacted.
Frank X Santolla
Barnegat Republican Municipal Chairman