Posted on 01/29/2004 10:43:52 AM PST by SAJ
Posted on Wed, Jan. 28, 2004
RUNNEMEDE - Borough officials suspended Police Chief James Martin Leason without pay yesterday, a day after he was arrested outside an alleged brothel and charged with promoting prostitution.
In a news release, Runnemede officials said Leason was off-duty when he was arrested Monday afternoon in Maple Shade.
"The mayor and council are shocked and disappointed by Chief Leason's arrest," the statement said. "However, the safety of the residents will not be affected by this incident."
Lt. Mark Diano, a 28-year veteran, will take the reins as interim chief. Mayor Frank Hartman was not available for further comment.
No one answered the door at Leason's home in Sewell yesterday. Former Burlington County Prosecutor Steve Raymond said he expected to represent Leason, but he said he could not comment because he had not been officially retained.
In Runnemede, a 2-square-mile, blue-collar town in Camden County, news of the chief's arrest seemed slow to reach the borough's roughly 8,500 residents.
Few people interviewed yesterday at businesses along the main commercial route - the Black Horse Pike, which splits the town in half - had heard about the arrest.
But lifelong borough resident Dawn Coulter, 27, said all her friends wanted to discuss it.
"Even my grandma was talking about it. She thinks it's disgusting. I think it's disgusting, too," she said while eating lunch at the Phily Diner. "It's hard to believe. I mean, the guy is the police chief, and he gets arrested for prostitution. It's very shameful."
Leason joined the Runnemede force in 1973 and has served as chief of the 20-officer department since 1987.
The alleged brothel at the Arbors Apartments in Maple Shade had been in operation since at least July 2003, Burlington County authorities said. Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi said officers had been investigating the brothel, not the chief.
Leason was arrested as he left the apartment after "engaging in various sex acts with one of the two female employees," authorities said.
After the arrest, Maple Shade police, along with a New Jersey State Police team, searched the apartment and arrested the reputed "madam," 66-year-old Dolores Crozier, along with two women suspected of prostitution and two men suspected of being customers, authorities said.
In addition to promoting prostitution, Leason was charged with misconduct in office. He could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. He was released Monday on a $5,000 bond.
Bernardi would not say whether Leason is the subject of other investigations in Burlington County.
Robert Del Sordo, a lawyer who has known the chief since his days as a patrolman, said Leason had a reputation in the community for "being fair and square."
"He's been a very, very good friend of mine and my family's - and the community's - for 30 years," he said. "He deserves the benefit of a doubt."
If there were only 2 ho's, does that make it a brothel?
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