Cop's arrest for DUI sparks probe of the cop and arresting officers

A witness questioned whether officers dragged their feet arresting the Camden police recruit.

WATERFORD TWP. -- The alleged drunk driving arrest of a Camden County police officer in Waterford Sunday has led to not one but two police internal affairs investigations.

Nicholas Gagliardi, a new recruit with Camden police, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. Now he is suspended without pay and facing an internal affairs inquiry, according to a county spokesman.

And in Waterford, internal affairs will be looking into the actions of the officers who responded to the 911 call about Gagliardi allegedly nearly causing a serious accident.

Tim Scurria, the man who called police, said he was irate that it took an hour for officers to administer a field sobriety test and arrest Gagliardi.

"It's an active internal affairs investigation based on allegations from Mr. Scurria," Waterford Police Chief Daniel Cormaney said Wednesday. He declined to discuss the incident and arrest, and said he could not name the involved officers.

Scurria, of Waterford, said the incident took place Sunday afternoon in front of the Town Center plaza on the White Horse Pike in Atco.

He said that while waiting for the police to respond, the man "kept saying, 'I'm a cop...nothing's going to happen to me.'"

Scurria was concerned that Gagliardi was right and that he wouldn't be arrested because he was an officer. He let officers know how he felt about what he perceived to be a delay.

"They did their job, it just took some time," he said. "If that was any of us, we would have been in handcuffs in 15 minutes."

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Gagliardi referred comment to his attorney, Nancy Valentino. She said that her client maintains his innocence.

"There is a process that will determine whether Mr. Gagliardi is guilty of any offense, and we are in the very early stages of that process," she said. "He will have his day in court."

She also said that she has no reason to believe police officers weren't doing their jobs correctly at the scene, and suggested Scurria's behavior may have "impeded" officers.

"It it my understanding from the account that I have received so far that the Waterford Township Police Department was acting appropriately at all times and that my client was compliant at all times," Valentino said.

Scurria said he was driving west on the White Horse Pike near Atoc Brewing Company with his wife around 5 p.m. when a car coming the opposite direction turned left in front of him. He slammed on the brakes.

"There's 25 feet of skid marks. I was going 45 mph," Scurria said.

The erratic driving worried him so he followed the car into the plaza and approached it when it stopped. He asked the driver if he was OK and after getting no answer, opened the door. The man got out of the car with some difficulty, he said.

"He stumbled," Scurria said. "I grabbed him by the back of his belt and walked him to the end of his vehicle to hold him up."

The man denied drinking and told Scurria he was a cop, producing an ID card saying as much, Scurria said. He told the man he had called the police and he was going to be arrested, the man said that wouldn't happen because he was a Camden County police officer.

"I said, 'you almost killed me and my wife," Scurria said.

There was a male passenger in Gagliardi's vehicle, he said.

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Scurria called 911, but when five police officers arrived they told him they were responding to a report of a fight. Scurria said it's possible someone else saw him interacting with Gagliardi -- he admits he was upset -- and called it in.

Either way, police had a lot of questions for him and his wife, as well as Gagliardi, he said. And as time passed, Scurria said he became more and more upset because he couldn't understand why officers were not giving the man a field sobriety test. He ultimately called the State Police, but was told it would be an hour before they could be there.

He said that at 6 p.m., an hour after the near-miss accident, Gagliardi did a field sobriety test and was arrested.

Scurria said he was not the only witness who stayed around to give a statement to police. A second driver followed them into the plaza and told Scurria that he had been following the man's vehicle from Berlin and had seen it swerve and even hit a curb, Scurria said.

The county spokesman, Dan Keashen, said Gagliardi will remain suspended while the department conducts an internal affairs investigation and until the outcome of his court case.

He said the Gagliardi had graduated in August with the most recent class of recruits from the Camden County College Police Academy.