EXCLUSIVE: Read racist texts that got Camco guards fired

CAMDEN - Camden County officials on Thursday released more than 5,000 text messages, many racially charged, that led to the dismissal of nine corrections officers at Camden County Jail.

The texts, shared by white officers using cellphones smuggled into the jail, contain so many racial insults that an investigative report noted the use of 10 slurs, then added “etc.”

The texts were released to the Courier-Post through a public-records request.

An attorney for one of the dismissed officers had sought to block the release, but Superior Court Judge Louis Meloni rebuffed that attempt in a ruling Monday. Attorneys for the county and the Courier-Post had argued for the texts to be made public.

Many of the texts are routine, if expletive-laden, messages – gossiping about co-workers, discussing TV shows and asking where stamps are sold. But others include crude, sexist, anti-Semitic and homophobic comments, such as an exchange mocking a young inmate who cried in his cell on Christmas Eve.

And a large number contain disturbing racial imagery – such as a sports conversation that suggested a black Philadelphia Eagle “should be tied to a bumper and dragged.” That exchange went on to suggest the player should be doused with alcohol, set afire and then be urinated on.

Among numerous examples:

• "To me a really good high is stomping the shit out of a nigger for no reason."
• "No matter how they look at things, no matter how dressed up they get.. When they wake up tomorrow morning they're still just NIGGERS.”
• And during a discussion of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, "Don't forget his wife is a colored."

David Owens, the jail's warden, on Thursday said the texts represented the views of a "small minority of rogue officers." He said the insulting commentary "in no way represents the hard work done on a daily basis by the hundreds of employees of the jail."

County spokesman Dan Keashen noted the county freeholders had called for the officers' "immediate termination" after an internal investigation exposed "this repugnant behavior."

"We worked to identify and eliminate these bad actors and ensure the integrity of our operation," Keashen said.

When the investigation was completed, jail employees received training from a consultant on "sensitivity management and sexual harassment," Keashen added.

Investigators learned the officers had personal cellphones, which are not allowed in the jail’s secure area, while looking into alleged misconduct during a shakedown in November 2014.

Michael Jacob, an officer accused of taking photos during the shakedown, was allegedly caught trying to hide two phones during an interview in the jail's Internal Affairs office on Dec. 30, according to the report. Jacob then told investigators he had multiple phones “because he cheats on his girlfriend,” the report said.

When the phones’ contents were downloaded by the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, investigators found “astonishingly inappropriate text messages, photos and videos” shared by Jacob and 10 other officers.

“The contents included thousands of highly inappropriate, crude and racist comments and ‘jokes’ referencing, among others, their African-American co-workers and the warden,” according to the report.

The county terminated Jacob and eight others — Thomas McNulty, Thomas McNellis, Lance McCarthy, William Leister, Daniel Purdy,Thomas Grosmick, and Sgts. Kevin Crossan and Albert Daniels. Two other participants in the chats, Chris Kelly and James Finley, retired from the jail, according to the county.

The officers exchanged text messages from inside and outside the jail for over a year, according to the investigative report. The texts released Thursday, which were presented as evidence at a hearing for one of the officers, covered a period from October to December 2014.

Some of the texts focused on rioting that broke out in November in Ferguson, Missouri, after a grand jury declined to indict a white police officer who shot an 18-year-old black man, Michael Brown.

"Would be awesome if an an F-16 flew over and shot a missile right in the crowd," Jacob texted at one point in an extended conversation.

"Would be pretty awesome if I couldn't get into Camden tomorrow because of riots," said McNellis a short time later.

Some exchanges focused on the men's perception of women at the jail, as well as gossip about sexual activity.

In one conversation, Kelly described a jail employee as "a dusty negress." When Daniels said he was unsure whom they were talking about, Finley said: "OK — filthy dirty, coal black, dumb as a rock, ignorant whore..clear it up any."

"Smells like a jail mop," he added of the woman.

Another exchange disparaged black employees at a holiday-season party at the Camden County Boathouse.

"Crawford just walked in like one of the funkadelics," texted Jacob in an apparent reference to a co-worker.

"Pimp suit?" asked Daniels, who went on to suggest Crawford was wearing "fake alligator shoes."

"Alligator lives matter," Crossan said.

Crossan also commented on people dancing at the party at the boathouse: "Amazing, for a race who likes to break the law, they sure follow directions from a DJ very well."

The state Civil Service Commission in August upheld the dismissal of McNulty, the only officer to complete the appeal process so far. Keashen has said the freeholders anticipate "the same ruling affirming the county’s firing of the additional eight employees.”

The officers earned from about $80,000 to $94,500 annually, according to state pension records for 2014.

In fighting his dismissal, McNulty said the texts were a way "to vent about things going on at the jail," according to a court record. He said the messages were derogatory, but not racist, and asserted a word commonly used by the officers — nigga — meant "someone who is arrogant."

Stuart Alterman, an attorney for Jacob, sought to block the release of the texts, contending they had been obtained through an improper search. He said their release would irreparably harm Jacob's right to due process as he fought dismissal.

Meloni allowed the release after hearing arguments from lawyers for Camden County and the Courier-Post.

"We respectfully disagree with the judge's ruling and we continue to litigate over the issues," Alterman said Thursday night.

"These were private conversations," the Marlton attorney asserted. "The phones were personal cell phones with private information kept in them."

The messages also included “numerous photographs and videos taken inside the jail of both inmates and officers, including screen shots with confidential computer information,” according to the investigative report. The county withheld those items, citing inmate privacy and the need for jail security.

In one video, Jacob used his phone to make a video of a female inmate “with a mental health history,” the investigative report alleges. The officer allegedly asked the woman “if she wanted to ‘make out while he demeaned and humiliated her.'”

A review of the texts found few instances where officers expressed concerns over the offensive nature of their remarks.

But in one message, McCarthy offered a question for the group: "Do you think black people have a text like this where they make fun of white people and put pictures of our weddings?"

Jim Walsh; (856) 486-2646; jwalsh@gannettnj.com