Photo courtesy of Leroy Truth.
Editor’s Note: This article mentions allegations of sexual relations with minors.
An arraignment of an independent investigative journalist—who has been locked in a 28-month legal battle with the mayor of Union City—came before the Essex County Superior Court on May 14.
At face value, video footage circulated online showing a physical altercation ployed out by the officer against Leonard Filipowski, who is better known as his reporter name, Leroy Truth.
The court date is centered on Filipowski’s third-degree aggravated assault charge against Union City Police Department (UCPD) officer Glen Gaston, who has since then been promoted to lieutenant.
While some critics may undermine the efforts of the self-claimed first amendment arbiter, Leroy Truth has been seen throughout Hudson County as one to go against the grain of typical Hudson County politics.
“He was filling out an open records request and then harassed for no reason,” read one social media user on the video showing him being tackled down by Gaston.
Another post read, “Leroy is a thorn in their side.” The video was circulated on the account Garden State Accountability, an online grassroots organization focused on government accountability in New Jersey.
Filipowski was arrested in the hallway of the Union City Board of Education (UCBOE) building, which was captured in video footage seen on his YouTube channel, an account which has garnered over 60,000 subscribers.
He describes himself as a First Amendment arbiter.
Who Is Leroy Truth?
For over two years, Filipowski has documented his encounters with Union City school officials streaming on YouTube, raising questions about the school administration’s use of public funds and the conduct of local government, he told Slice of Culture.
“I want to finish this,” said Filipowski on the video, as he was filling out documents to request under the Open Public Freedom Act (OPRA).
“Disengage, remove yourself from me, I have no interest in talking with you,” Filipowski said in the video as Gaston could be seen getting closer until he forcibly arrested him.
While in the building, Filipowski encountered the mother of a student whom he was inquiring about an alleged sexual assault case.
He asked the mother about the alleged assaults.
At that point, two police officers—including then-officer Gaston—intervened, asking Filipowski to lower his voice and be more respectful given that a child was present. What followed was a plight between Filipowski and Gaston.
By multiple accounts, including Filipowski’s to Slice of Culture, a back-and-forth ensued in which Filipowski told Gaston he did not wish to speak with him and eventually told him to “shut his mouth.”
The confrontation escalated. Gaston grabbed Filipowski. Both men went to the ground. Filipowski was handcuffed and arrested.
In the over 2-minute verbal altercation between Filipowski and the two Union City police officers, things took a turn when Gaston forcibly grabbed Filipowski in the hallway of the city’s BOE building.
Filipowski told Slice of Culture the records he was requesting at the time—for which he did not get to finish the OPRA request for them—were documents related to the timesheets from members at the BOE.
One person of interest to Filipowski is Justin Mercado, the current BOE secretary who has served in the role for 15 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. Slice of Culture reached out to Mercado on the phone, advising on the story, to which he added that he would not provide any statements due to pending litigation.
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Filipowski’s Claims
Filipowski said he turned his attention to Union City two years ago, after sources began approaching him about Mercado.
“People came to me,” he said, starting with alleged retaliation against a detective named Jorge Haber by UCPD as an early focal point, and eventually amounting to allegations of sexual assault and related cases, as reported by NJ.com.
Slice of Culture could not independently verify the claims, but did reach out to UCPD for comment on this article. None have been provided since the time of this reporting.
Slice of Culture reached out numerous times for a statement but was not provided one with the disclaimer of the article.
Additionally, SOC has also reached out to Union City Mayor Brian Stack’s office a series of times on this story; the mayor called back but did not want to comment citing pending litigation.
“At this time we cannot comment due to pending litigation,” said Ralph Passante, who works as a coordinator of data and community engagement for the Superintendent of Schools for Union City. He told Slice of Culture this on a phone call when inquiring about a statement related to the nature of the allegations; most of the teachers have since retired.
Filipowski claims the following teachers follow a pattern of alleged sexual misconduct, who were all employed at Emerson High School in Union City.
At the time of the alleged offense, the school was a high school, and is now a middle school.
- Francisco Lindo, was arrested by the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office in 2009 for allegations of sexual assault of a 17-year-old, according to reporting by NJ.com.
- Edwin Marinez, the former assistant principal at Union City Board of Education
- Robert Fazio, the former principal and Steve Hanak, former teacher. Both are no longer employed in the Union City Public Schools, according to the Superintendent of Schools for Union City.
- Mark Ryan, an English teacher who now teaches at Union City High School
- Dennis McMullen, a professor of psychology at Hudson County Community College but does not appear on the Staff/Director page of HCCC
- Craig Lapierre, a teacher at Union City Public Schools and the Head Coach at Dwight-Englewood School
- Greg Campbell, a current biology teacher at Union City High School
- George Morales, a history teacher at Union City Public High School
Slice of Culture spoke to an anonymous source—who requested anonymity due to privacy reasons—who grew up in Union City and went through the Union City Public Schools system. The person disclosed “inappropriate relationships” between male staff members and students at Union Hill and Union City High School, where they attended.
“If it’s happened before and you got away with it, you continue,” said the source, who noted that friends were minors at the time having sexual relations with teachers employed at the Union City Public Schools system.
A recent civil lawsuit against the Union City School District and the BOE was filed on March 11 by a former student of the former Emerson High School who was only identified as G.R. to conceal her identity due to privacy and safety concerns.
She is alleging she was sexually groomed and abused by her math teacher, Lindo, starting when she was approximately 16 years old, as reported by HudPost.
Slice of Culture reached out to Union City’s BOE in relation to the sexual allegations matter but no comment has been provided at the time of this reporting.
“Police officers, people working for Stack, started coming to me with all these allegations. This is a papertrail of gross sexual misconduct in the Union City Board of Education,” Filipowski said.
At the arraignment, which Slice of Culture attended, Judge Michael Ravin confirmed that all discovery in the case had been exchanged and confirmed with Filipowski’s attorney Louis Acevedo and no plea offer had been extended to his client, though the defense retains the option to apply for pre-trial intervention.
Ravin ordered that any outstanding discovery be turned over and noted that Acevedo may file a motion to dismiss the indictment no later than two days before the next hearing, scheduled for June 29 at 9 a.m. in Newark.
