A now former police officer
stationed at at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital has been charged with using
excessive force on a patient.
Jamal Hogan, 41, of East
Orange, was indicted Tuesday after an investigation into his actions on March
6, 2013, when he was a sergeant with the Department of Human Services police.
The investigation revealed that
while responding to an incident in his official capacity as a police officer,
Hogan allegedly used excessive force with his officially-issued police baton
upon a patient at Greystone and subsequently tried to hinder the investigation
into his actions, according to a press release from Acting Morris County
Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp.
A complaint filed in the case
states that Hogan struck the patient in the back of the head with his baton
“without justification.”
The alleged strike caused “pain
and injury” to the patient but the extent of injury was not detailed in the
complaint. ASP batons, normally expandable, are police-issued tools for
subduing people under appropriate circumstances.
A spokeswoman for the Human
Services Department said that Hogan was hired in December 2003 but has been
terminated from his $77,108-a-year position.
