Eileen O’Toole — sister of Kevin O’Toole, the influential former lawmaker and current chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — sued the Township of Cedar Grove and its manager, its council and his police department, accusing him of denying him the position of chief of police because of his brother’s interference and gender discrimination.
Eileen O’Toole is a captain with the Cedar Grove Police Department, where she has worked for 18 years. She became officer in charge after the chief of police retired last year and also served as the township’s acting superintendent when current superintendent Thomas Tucci was on vacation.
She alleged that Tucci “didn’t plan to interview her and that she was going to be the next police chief” and that two city council members also told her, according to the lawsuit. She was the first woman to be promoted to a supervisory position with the Cedar Grove Police Department, according to court documents.
The 18-page lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Essex County State Superior Court and first reported by NBC News, details how she allegedly lost her promotion after a family dispute with her brother the day before the wedding. his daughter in November 2021. Kevin O’ Toole is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
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The ensuing text messages between family members reportedly included bogus suggestions from Kevin O’Toole that Eileen O’Toole has a drinking problem, that her boyfriend, Michael Kraynanski, should quit his job which was to him.” secure” and which he could face an internal investigation, according to the lawsuit.
In January, Eileen O’Toole had a meeting with Tucci, who reportedly said “it’s not going to be a good meeting” and explained that she wouldn’t get the police chief job because “the city council is disgusted with you”. says the lawsuit. She says there were no “written accusation of insubordination” in her personal file and that she received “exceptional job evaluations”, including from Tucci, who negotiated her salary for her current position, according to the lawsuit.
Matthew J. Giacobbe, the attorney representing the township and Tucci, wrote in an email that the “most qualified candidate” had been selected to serve as police chief, a candidate with “the longest service and highest degree”, who had previously been offered the job in 2017 but turned it down.
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“Township and Township Manager Tucci looks forward to vigorously defending this frivolous lawsuit,” Giacobbe wrote.
Along with the allegedly false account of why she wasn’t promoted, including insubordination and misuse of the chief’s vehicle, Eileen O’Toole was stripped of her captaincy and ‘ostracized’ , according to the lawsuit. She claims Tucci “discussed” with her brother why she wasn’t promoted, according to the lawsuit.
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The O’Tooles’ father, Robert O’Toole, former mayor of Cedar Grove, allegedly confronted Kevin O’Toole about his sister’s non-promotion, and he repeated the alleged false reasons, including one that didn’t bother him. was not disclosed during the meeting with Tucci, according to court documents.
In an interview with NBC News, Robert O’Toole called his son an “evil person”.
Kevin O’Toole said in an emailed statement that he was “saddened” to hear about the lawsuit and his family in the news. He said arguments in the family have erupted over opinions on vaccination.
“Whether it was on vaccination policy or policy, the family had various disagreements. Without going into specifics, some time ago I sought assistance from the Essex County District Attorney’s Office regarding the fact that I was being harassed/harassed,” O’Toole said. wrote. “Needless to say, the allegations against me are baseless. As this matter is now the subject of legal proceedings, this will be the last time I will comment on this matter or my family.”
The Essex County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kevin O’Toole served as a councilman and mayor of Cedar Grove from 1989 to 1996, and in the New Jersey Legislature from 1996 to 2017, first as an assemblyman and then as a senator. .
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He was appointed by the governor at the time. Chris Christie on the Port Authority board in 2017, three years after the political retribution scandal known as Bridgegate, in which a former agency executive, David Wildstein, admitted to realigning the lanes at the entrance to the George Washington Bridge at Fort Lee to punish the mayor of that city.
O’Toole, a Republican close to Christie, served several years earlier on the legislative committee that investigated the realignments. He now writes political columns for Wildstein’s news website, the New Jersey Globe.
In addition to his role as head of the Port Authority’s board of directors, O’Toole is managing partner and founder of the Cedar Grove-based law firm O’Toole Scrivo, LLC.
