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PATERSON - Police officer Kevin Patino remains on the city payroll collecting his $61,185 salary almost a week after he pleaded guilty to civil rights crimes in federal court.
During the past six years, the city immediately terminated eight other cops when they were convicted of crimes involving their jobs.
Neither Mayor Andre Sayegh nor the Paterson police department has provided an answer as to why Patino’s situation is being handled differently from the other cases.
Misdemeanors versus felonies
One possible explanation is that the other officers were convicted of felonies, said multiple sources familiar with New Jersey’s police officer employment laws.
The United States Attorney’s Office originally accuses Patino of felonies, but eventually allowed him to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of deprivation of civil rights.
Federal authorities have not disclosed why the charges against Patino were downgraded to misdemeanors. The judge noted during last week’s proceeding that it was rare for someone to be convicted of misdemeanor charges in federal court.
Law enforcement sources said New Jersey’s police officer employment laws treat misdemeanor convictions for cops differently from felonies.
New NJ licensure regulations may also be a factor
Another factor in why Patino remains on the payroll, law enforcement sources said, may be the state’s new police licensing regulations, which took effect Jan. 1. The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to questions about Patino’s police license status.
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In his guilty plea on Feb. 8, Patino admitted in court that in separate incidents several weeks apart in 2020, he assaulted two civilians and continued to strike them when they posed no threat to public safety.
Patino’s lawyer in the criminal case, Todd Spodek, declined to comment about his client’s job status. Spodek issued a statement over the weekend calling Patino “a decorated police officer” who “deserves to put this matter behind him.”
More from Paterson Press: What do Paterson cop’s convictions mean for pending lawsuits?
What's next for Patino?
Patino, who has been on paid administrative leave since May 2021, faces a maximum of one year in prison for each conviction. But court records in the previous FBI cases against Paterson cops showed all of them ended up getting prison sentences that were substantially shorter than the maximums cited during their plea hearings.
For example, Frank Toledo - the robbery squad rogue cops who proclaimed “Everything we do is illegal” - faced a maximum of 40 years for his three crimes, according to his plea agreement.
Federal sentencing guidelines then reduced Toledo’s maximum to a range between 30 months and 37 months. The judge eventually imposed two years and Toledo served less than 15 months in prison before being released, according to federal corrections records.
In one high-profile case, the Sayegh administration fired police officer Spencer Finch while criminal charges were still pending against him. Sayegh administration officials cited body camera video footage of the incident as part of the basis for Finch’s termination.
Finch in 2021 filed an appeal to get his job back, which is still pending. In December, a Passaic County jury acquitted him of the criminal charges, prompting speculation among Paterson law enforcement officers that he eventually would get hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay from the city.