After criminal charges were lodged against him, Rockaway Township suspended Clifton Gauthier, a police officer, without pay. Gauthier successfully completed the pretrial intervention program (PTI), N.J.S.A. 2C:43-12 to -22, and the charges were dismissed. The Township reinstated him, and paid him withheld wages from the date of the PTI dismissal to the date of reinstatement. The Township refused to pay him wages from the time the charges were filed to the date of dismissal. The Civil Service Commission affirmed.
The court affirmed the Commission, as Gauthier's successful PTI completion was not one of the favorable dispositions of criminal charges which mandate payment of back wages enumerated in N.J.S.A. 40A:14-149.2. The statute predated the PTI scheme by years. The Court further held that the adoption of N.J.A.C. 4A:2-2.10(c), which exempts municipal police from its scope, was not thereby intended to require back wages to be paid.
