The Village Voice tells the story of Gail Lawrence, 46, of Brooklyn, who complained about officer Vincent Roberson of the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Department, a small agency that patrols an 11-mile stretch of the New Jersey’s Palisades Interstate Parkway. When her allegations were proved, Roberson resigned, but Lawrence was charged with filing a false report and lying to investigators–a charge that hasn’t been dropped.
“The story here is the egregious nature of the way this department ran itself,” says Israel Fried, Lawrence’s Manhattan-based lawyer. “I worked for the Brooklyn D.A. and the FBI, and I have the utmost respect for law enforcement. Nevertheless, our citizens are protected under the Constitution. Gail is a handful, but this police department is the ‘Blue Wall of Silence.’ They cover things up and try to bury things.”