Cop Watch

Monday, September 12, 2005

Ex-cop is given 18-month probation

FREEHOLD — Dennis Smith, a Keansburg cop for more than two decades, made one mistake that cost him his career, his attorney told a judge Friday.

"He stands before you with regret and remorse and asks you for leniency," Michael Pappa told Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mellaci during Smith's sentencing Friday. "His punishment is the loss of his career and the embarrassment this has caused him."

The 57-year-old officer was ordered by Mellaci to serve an 18-month probationary term for touching a woman in a sexual manner in his squad car last year, which he admitted to in June.