Legal cases linked to New Jersey Police

Police officers and corrections officers, who obtained anabolic steroids from Jersey City physician Joseph Colao, have been named in at least five lawsuits related to alleged brutality or violations of civil rights.

Other officers, accused of getting steroids from the doctor, were fired, suspended or arrested for allegedly engaging in bad conduct on or off the job.

From NJ.com:

In August 2007, Jersey City resident Mathias Bolton called police to report a possible break-in at his apartment building. Bolton, 37, claims the first officer on the scene, Victor Vargas, mistook him for a burglar and, in a rage fueled by steroids, repeatedly punched him, threw him against the wall, dragged him from the building’s vestibule and pushed him down a flight of stairs to the sidewalk.

Other officers, among them Michael Stise, continued to beat Bolton as he lay on the ground, the suit states. The officers charged Bolton with resisting arrest and aggravated assault on a police officer. The counts were later dropped.

Court documents filed in the case show Vargas, 33, and Stise, 30, were taking anabolic steroids and human growth hormone prescribed by Colao. The officers deny in legal papers doing anything wrong, saying they identified themselves and repeatedly ordered Bolton to stop resisting.

“Given the broad hostility to athletes who abuse steroids — Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Manny (Ramirez) are widely hated — a jury that hears steroid evidence could readily misfire,” the lawyers of Vargas and Stise wrote.