Edison’s mayor overruled a hearing officer’s recomendation and dismissed the officer.
A New Jersey cop was fired this week for lying to investigators about allegedly pressuring a woman to model lingerie for him in her hotel room.
Officer Anthony Sarni was dismissed from the Edison Police Department Tuesday, after an administrative investigation revealed he lied to internal affairs about the Sept. 2012 incident.
Sarni was sent to the Extended Stay America hotel in response to a complaint about a fire extinguisher being sprayed under a guest’s door. Sarni arrived at the room and spoke to the guest, a young woman.
According to a complaint the woman sent to Edison police, Sarni saw marijuana in her room, which he allowed her to flush down the toilet.
Noticing a Victoria’s Secret bag on the floor, he allegedly asked her to model lingerie for him, using a potential narcotics arrest to pressure her, and suggesting her fate “was in his hands.”
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Sarni initially denied the woman’s version of these events during an interview with internal affairs investigators, but later admitted that he went back to her room at 2 a.m. — off duty but in full uniform — and asked her to model the lingerie for him.
“There was outfits,” Sarni said, according to a transcript of the interview. “I did ask her to try them on.”
It was then, according to the woman’s complaint, that she modeled the lingerie for him at his request. He maintianed that he never saw any marijuana.
No criminal charges were filed in relation to the 2012 incident.
According to the complaint, after the woman refused to allow the situation to progress into a physical encounter, Sarni left. But he began texting and calling her, prompting her to contact the Edison police.
In July 2013, the county prosecutor’s office refused to charge Sarni with official misconduct, but the charges of lying to investigators remained. It was over those charges that he was dismissed this week.
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Despite the investigation, an independent hearing officer recommended reinstating Sarni because of issues with the department’s internal affairs department.
Mayor Thomas Lankey disagreed with the hearing officer.
“Allegations against this police officer are so egregious and the evidence so pervasive that I cannot in good conscience abide by the hearing officer’s decision,” said Lankey, in a statement.
Sarni’s attorney has vowed to appeal the mayor’s decision.
cstoffers@nydailynews.com
