A former Jersey City police officer who was convicted of stealing money while questioning a man will likely face prison time when he is re-sentenced next month.
Denzel Suitt was scheduled to be sentenced Friday, but the hearing in front of Hudson County Superior Court Judge John Young was postponed until Feb. 9 because of a scheduling conflict.
Suitt initially was sentenced to five years probation after he was convicted in February 2020 of fourth-degree theft and third-degree official misconduct stemming from an incident in 2018. The sentence was overturned in a 34-page appellate court ruling last June after both Suitt and the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office filed appeals.
Suitt’s appeal of the conviction at trial was rejected.
The prosecutor’s office argued, and the appellate panel concurred, that mitigating factors did not rise to the level that Suitt should not serve a mandatory minimum prison sentence related to the official misconduct conviction.
“While we do not dispute that the trial court correctly described the test for waiving the mandatory term of imprisonment, we believe the trial court erred in concluding that such extraordinary and unanticipated circumstances exist in this case,” the appellate decision said. “The fact that defendant has until now led a crime-free, indeed exemplary life is neither extraordinary nor unanticipated for a police officer entrusted with the responsibility to protect and serve the public.
“The need to deter the kind of official misconduct that occurred in this case is of paramount importance and outweighs the substantial hardships that defendant and his family will endure from imprisonment.”
Authorities have maintained that Suitt, while on duty, stopped a man who had been convicted at least nine times since 1993 and stole $600 from the man’s wallet. The jury found him guilty of theft of $500 or less.
The appellate panel dismissed the argument by Suitt that numerous errors were made and guidelines were not followed when Suitt and his partner were identified by Palms during an internal affairs investigation into the possible theft.
“We do not believe that the identity of the officer who rifled through (the man’s) wallet (on March 25, 2018) was a critical disputed issue at trial and so any error in admitting identification testimony was harmless,” the judges wrote.
The decision noted that Suitt’s partner that early morning, Kevin Osorio, testified that he and Suitt did in fact approach the man and his friend and then decided to “cut them a break.”
“It was Osorio’s testimony, ultimately, that removed mistaken identity from the menu of plausible defenses.”
A group of people who say Suitt was wrongly convicted signed a letter to Young, the judge, prior to the scheduled hearing last week, asking him to “direct the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General to review the internal affairs investigation, trial, evidence, and testimony used to convict Suitt.”
“... Based on what’s publicly known about the case at this time, incarceration is an injustice to the defendant and serves no public purpose. Mr. Suitt’s reputation has already been destroyed and his life turned upside down forever,” says the letter by Anthony Smith, President of Blacks in Law Enforcement Serving the Community; Bill O’Dea, Hudson County Commissioner for District 2; Frank Gilmore, Jersey City Ward F Councilman; Chris Gadsden, former Jersey City Ward B Councilman; the Rev. Mario Moody, Cotton Temple Church of God in Christ; and Lonnie Wiggins, vice president of the Jersey City PAL.
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