WOODBRIDGE, NJ—On May 6, a grand jury sitting in New Brunswick indicted three officers in the Woodbridge Police Department for covering up the truth about a one-car crash caused by Officer Brian Joseph, one of the three to be indicted.
According to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, two officers unsuccessfully tried to cover up the crash by “failing to file a report and changing computer records that had documented the crash.”
Joseph, a 33-year-old Perth Amboy resident who was off-duty at the time, was exiting Route 9 North onto West Pond Road, according to the MCPO statement, “when his Mitsubishi sport utility vehicle jumped the curb, was damaged and could not be driven.”
All three of the officers in this case have been suspended from their jobs at the Woodbridge Police Department.
New Brunswick Today learned of the indictment depite an ongoing MCPO media blackout targeting this newspaper for our adversarial coverage.
The MCPO had previously identified the two officers who were dispatched to the crash, when it filed charges against them in February, but did not reveal the identity of Joseph, the officer whom they had covered up for.
Officer David Hughes, a 31-year-old resident of Woodbridge, and Amanda Felices, a 30-year-old resident of Fords, were allegedly responsible for the cover-up.
“The investigation determined that Officer Hughes filed a false report on May 23, 2015 to protect Joseph,” the release continues, without saying what exactly it had protected him from. Â “Officer Felicies subsequently provided false information under oath on January 19, 2016, the grand jury charged.”
All three were charged with official misconduct and conspiracy.  Hughes was also charged with falsifying public records and tampering with public records, while Felicies was charged with false swearing for allegedly lying under oath after the cover-up came under scrutiny.
​Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey and his office are currently prosecuting police officers in Woodbridge and Edison, as well as the now-suspended Police Chief in Perth Amboy.
The Woodbridge case was investigated by the prosecutor’s Special Investigations Unit, and presented to the grand jury by Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Christine D’Elia.
Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.
