Bad words to combine: NJ State Police, Lords of Discipline, secrecy and retribution

[Lobster Martini]

(LM: Welcome to New Jersey.)

N.J. trooper hazing controversy lingers

The state's costs hit $1 million with a recent settlement. A deceased trooper's lawsuit could go on trial next year.

Its foreboding name evokes a code of medieval justice to match its reputation for secrecy and retribution.

Its alleged victims are members of the New Jersey State Police, and so are the people they accuse.

Its very essence is the subject of dispute: In the eyes of top state officials, the group said to call itself the Lords of Discipline doesn't exist.

But allegations of harassment by troopers who say they were victimized by a cabal of comrades for blowing the whistle on questionable police procedures have just sent New Jersey's legal tab past the $1 million mark.

A $400,000 payout to ex-trooper Justin Hopson was made public this week, settling claims that so-called Lords brethren in South Jersey barracks harassed him after he questioned an improper arrest by a colleague in 2002.

The settlement - the third involving Lords of Discipline lawsuits since 2005 - came at a time of both good and bad news for the beleaguered state police.

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The settlement also came a few days before the fifth anniversary of the suicide of a young trooper named John Oliva, who took his life on the steps of an Absecon church in October 2002 after being tormented, his attorney says, by the Lords of Discipline.

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(Link: http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20071006_N_J__trooper_hazing_controversy_lingers.html