A Newark police officer's courtroom admission last week that he and five colleagues shook down drug dealers for hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for almost two years has left community activists and police brass concerned about the department's image and ability to do its job. But as troubling as the allegations Tyrone Dudley made in Superior Court in Trenton on Thursday may be, the case is only one of several legal headaches the Newark Police Department is experiencing. In addition to the case involving Dudley: The state Division of Criminal Justice is investigating whether one or more Newark police officers is connected to the fatal shooting of a Nutley man near a club on Bloomfield Avenue two years ago. The division also is checking whether a female officer may have protected a drug dealer who was her boyfriend. On Friday, a federal judge in Newark castigated the department's handling of a reputed drug dealer in jail on narcotics charges and set the man free, saying his constitutional rights were severely abused when he was arrested in 2002. [more
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