Does my situation make me elegible to file an abusive police officer report?

[Cleaver97]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey

The other day my brother had a warrant out for his arrest. It turns out that he lied to police and said his girlfriend was driving when actually he was. Although he won't confess, I believe this is because he was drunk and she was not. In any event, I find what he did to be despicable.

About one day after he was questioned by police and lied, a police officer showed up at my door. He said that they had a warrant out for my brother's arrest. I told him that my brother was not home. He continued to ask where my brother was, so I was wondering if maybe he was home. I went upstairs and looked around for him.

He was not home. I came downstairs and the police officer said he saw somebody upstairs. He said said a few comments about somebody being upstairs and I told him nobody was. SOon, he stopped asking about it. Only after asking about it only a few times, he left. THis hinted that he obviously wasn't too confident that he saw somebody.

Next, the investigating officer came to the door. He began yelling at me telling me that I cannot lie and cover for my brother by saying that he was not home. He repeatedly began raising his voice at me to get me to tell him that he was home. He began yelling at me and talking down upon me. After he began to really yell loudly at me trying to get me to admit that he was upstairs, I told him that I will go look upstairs. I told him this because I thought that maybe that officer really did see somebody who I did not see. By the way, I would love to see nothing more than my brother being arrested.

I told him that I will go look upstairs. He then asked, "DO you mind if I come upstairs and look around?" I said yes. Then he began to walk towards the door, and I made myself even more clearer by saying "I mind" and I closed the door on him. He then opened the door and stood outside while I looked around upstairs.

I looked upstairs for my brother but he was not there. I then came downstairs and told him nobody is up there. HE continued to tell me that somebody was up there and that I was interfering in his investigation. He began yelling louder and louder at me saying that my body language was deceitful which, by the way, it was not.

I then repeatedly told him that he needed to leave. He would not leave, and he kept yelling at me trying to get me to tell him that my brother was upstairs even though he was not. Now, I was being yelled at for about 5 minutes. Finally, I told him he is not home and that he needs to leave, and I closed the door on him. He then OPENED UP MY DOOR. I told him he cannot do that. He then continued to yell at me and told me that he was conducting an investigation. HE began to try and take down my name in an effort to obviously intimidate me. I chose to ignore him since he had no right to that information. I picked up the phone, and called my father, who is the owner of the house. I said, “Hey dad, there is a cop here who won’t leave.” My father and the cop both wanted to talk to eachother so I gave the phone to the cop. The cop began to tell my father how rude I was, when in actuality, he was being incredibly disrespectful to me, and would not leave me alone. My father informed him that infact my brother was not home. The police officer then left.

Of course, the story is a lot better when you hear all of the rude things the cop was saying to me. I know my rights. I know that I do not have to talk to the cop. So, after repeatedly telling him to leave and that my brother was not home, I closed the door on him. BUT, he chose to open up my door. The officer was yelling at me. He also OPENED MY DOOR after I repeatedly told him to leave. I feel as if this violated my rights. I know that since I do not own the house that I cannot tell him to leave my property, but I feel as if he had absolutely NO RIGHT to open up my door even after I told him to leave.

I am going to file a complaint against him, but first I want to know whether he was right to talk to me the way he did. What I really want to know which is bothering me extremely, is if he was RIGHT to open my door after I told him to leave repeatedly.

Also, how do I go about filing an asbusive police report? I live in Ocean County, New Jersey.

[The Occultist]

Submit a complaint with the personnel department.

[CdwJava]

In most states (not sure about NJ, though) if you have an arrest warrant, you can make entry to the suspect's home if you have reasonable suspicion to believe the suspect on the warrant is at home.

But, if you believe the officer9s) acted inappropriately, file a complaint with the agency. Or, if you have a claim for damages, make a claim, hire an attorney, and sue them.

- Carl