Pubdate: Wed, 05 Apr 2006
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2006 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: David Kocieniewski
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/John+Hogan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/racial.htm (Racial Issues)

A FORMER TROOPER'S TAKE ON HIS RACE PROFILING CASE

HAMILTON, N.J. - Twice every workday, John I. Hogan drives past 
Milepost 63 on the New Jersey Turnpike and feels his pulse begin to quicken.

These days, he makes the trip as a civilian, just another commuter, 
as he heads between his home in Bordentown and his job as a salesman 
in Jamesburg. Eight years ago, though, Mr. Hogan was a decorated New 
Jersey state trooper who patrolled the turnpike and called himself 
"King of the Big Road," when a brief encounter near Exit 7A changed 
his life, the lives of others and police policy.

It was late one spring night in 1998 when Mr. Hogan and a trooper 
named James Kenna maneuvered their police cruiser alongside a minivan 
carrying four young men, three of them black and one Hispanic, and 
ordered the driver to pull over. It was supposed to be an ordinary 
traffic stop, but then the van rolled backward and the troopers fired 
11 shots, wounding three of the four men inside.

Because the young men were unarmed and the State Police had long been 
accused of stopping and searching drivers solely because of their 
skin color, the shooting set off a political uproar about the use of 
racial profiling in the war on drugs.

Mr. Hogan and Mr. Kenna were seen as national symbols of police 
discrimination and were indicted for attempted murder and aggravated 
assault. Those charges were eventually dropped, but the troopers were 
forced to resign after pleading guilty to lying to investigators 
about the shooting and repeatedly falsifying documents to conceal the 
fact that they stopped minority drivers because of their race. They 
each paid a $280 fine.

Now, after years of living with that case as a stigma "that just 
won't go away," Mr. Hogan, 37, is trying to put the experience in a 
different perspective by publishing a book, "Turnpike Trooper." Mr. 
Hogan writes that he and Mr. Kenna were victims -- of fate, which 
placed them at the scene of the shooting, then of a long line of 
elected officials, civil rights leaders and law enforcement officials 
angling for political gain.

Mr. Hogan's book contradicts so many statements he made to 
investigators in 1998 and in court when he pleaded guilty in 2002 
that he had difficulty finding a publisher, and he finally decided to 
pay to have it published. Since the book's publication several months 
ago, he has also struggled to find an audience for it.

"I'm at peace with what happened," he said last Wednesday in an 
interview outside his office. "Sometimes, though, I think people just 
want this whole thing to go away."

In "Turnpike Trooper" Mr. Hogan writes that he was raised in a small, 
predominantly white town, loved sports, saluted the flag and 
considered troopers the equivalent of "Greek gods." He excelled once 
on the force, winning a prestigious assignment to the turnpike, and 
was nominated for trooper of the year.

In the book, Mr. Hogan says no one encouraged him to pick out 
minority drivers, flatly contradicting his own court testimony in 
2002. Although New Jersey has since stiffened its guidelines against 
racial profiling and many experts say it is both unconstitutional and 
ineffective, he defends the practice, arguing that while drug use 
cuts across racial lines, his experience led him to believe that drug 
trafficking was dominated by blacks and Latinos.

Mr. Hogan also writes that he found it useful to his work as a 
trooper to listen to rap performers like Nas, N.W.A. and Notorious B.I.G.

"Staying cool, composed and speaking to individuals in a language 
they understood, and even began to trust, helped me be successful," he writes.

That was of little assistance on the night of April 23, 1998, when he 
and Mr. Kenna stopped the minivan.

Mr. Hogan writes that he fired only after the driver had backed up, 
struck his leg and knocked him over, and that he feared the young men 
were drug dealers trying to kill him and Mr. Kenna. (The driver said 
the minivan slipped into reverse.)

When he pleaded guilty in 2002 he acknowledged that he had lied to 
investigators about the circumstances that led to stopping the 
minivan and about crucial details of the shooting. He also testified 
that 75 police officers had urged him to lie and that some even took 
him back to the scene so he could prepare a more plausible story.

Mr. Hogan, who maintains the same close-cropped hair and chiseled 
build that he had as a trooper, explains the contradictions between 
the book and his earlier statements by saying he no longer has any 
motivation to lie.

"This is, every word of it, the truth," he said. "I just want the 
truth to come out."

"Turnpike Trooper" may be a bid for redemption, but it offers little 
in the way of remorse.

It makes acerbic references to the state's payment of $12.9 million 
to the four young men to settle the case, and it makes little mention 
of the injuries three of the men suffered. In the interview, he 
suggested that he felt as much sympathy for himself and Mr. Kenna as 
he did for them.

"There were a lot of people whose lives were affected that night," he 
said. "It's unfortunate that it happened, but there's no way to 
change the past."

Peter Neufeld, the lawyer who represented two of the shooting victims 
in their civil suit, said it was outrageous for Mr. Hogan to portray 
himself as a victim.

"These young men still have bullets in them," Mr. Neufeld said. "And 
it happened because Hogan and Kenna stopped them for no reason other 
than the color of their skin. Then they lied about it."

The omissions and discrepancies in Mr. Hogan's book seemed of little 
concern to the people who appeared on Thursday at a book signing in 
Hamilton Township, about five miles from where the shooting occurred. 
Sitting with his fiancee as he autographed a few dozen copies, Mr. 
Hogan said he appreciated the friendly welcome, especially after the 
indifference he had encountered while trying to promote the book.

Taking a microphone, Mr. Hogan asked if there were any questions from 
the 60 people in the audience, all of whom were white and several of 
whom wore New Jersey State Police T-shirts or hats. A man in a Nascar 
shirt asked whether he had made any television appearances. (A few 
local cable programs, but no luck with the networks or affiliates.)

Then a retired trooper, Walt Catlidge, asked his former colleague 
whether he planned a sequel.

"No," Mr. Hogan said, shaking his head. "I think this was enough for me." 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake