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Press Release

Former Camden Police Officer Sentenced To 46 Months In Prison For Conspiracy To Deprive Others Of Civil Rights

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey



CAMDEN, N.J. – A former Camden police officer was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for conspiring with fellow officers to deprive others of their civil rights, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Jason Stetser, 34, of Waterford Township, N.J., previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler in Camden federal court. He admitted he conspired with Antonio Figueroa, 36, of Camden; Dan Morris, 49, of Mount Laurel, N.J.; and Kevin Parry, 32, of Brooklawn, N.J., to deprive others of their due process rights and their right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

“The punishment handed down today is a just response to Jason Stetser’s betrayal of his oath of office,” U.S. Attorney Fishman said. “He also betrayed the trust of those whose rights he violated, the public he was sworn to protect, and all of the honest police officers who risk everything to keep us safe.”

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

From May 2007 to October 2009, while on duty as a uniformed police officer with the Camden Police Department, Stetser engaged in a conspiracy with other Camden Police officers to deprive individuals of their due process rights by charging them with planted evidence; threatening certain individuals with arrest using planted evidence if they did not cooperate with law enforcement; conducting illegal searches without a search warrant or consent; stealing money during illegal searches and arrests; paying for cooperation and information with illegal drugs; failing to report found drugs and stashing them to use as planted evidence; and preparing false police reports or testifying falsely in court to conceal his actions.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Kugler sentenced Stetser to two years of supervised release.

Morris previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deprive others of civil rights and was sentenced Dec. 11, 2012, to eight months in prison. Parry was sentenced Oct. 10, 2012, to 20 months in prison. Figueroa was convicted following a three-and-a-half week trial before Judge Kugler and was sentenced on Sept. 7, 2012, to 120 months in prison.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI’s Resident Agency in Cherry Hill, N.J., under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge John J. Brosnan; investigators and prosecutors of the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Warren W. Faulk; deputy attorney generals from the N.J. Attorney General’s Office, Division of Criminal Justice, under the direction of Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa; and the Camden Police Department, under the direction of Chief John S. Thomson, with the investigation leading to today’s sentence.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys William E. Fitzpatrick and Matthew J. Skahill of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Camden.

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Defense counsel: Frederick W. Klepp Esq., Cherry Hill, N.J.

Updated March 18, 2015