Allen v. Passaic Cty.

530 A.2d 371, 219 N.J. Super. 352
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedJune 23, 1986
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 530 A.2d 371 (Allen v. Passaic Cty.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. Passaic Cty., 530 A.2d 371, 219 N.J. Super. 352 (N.J. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

219 N.J. Super. 352 (1986)
530 A.2d 371

HANNAH ALLEN AND FELIPE CLEMENTE, PLAINTIFFS,
v.
COUNTY OF PASSAIC AND EDWIN ENGLEHARDT, SHERIFF OF PASSAIC COUNTY, DEFENDANTS.
JOHN TURI AND JESS MONZO, PLAINTIFFS,
v.
COUNTY OF PASSAIC; PASSAIC COUNTY BOARD OF CHOSEN FREEHOLDERS; EDWIN ENGLEHARDT, SHERIFF OF PASSAIC COUNTY; BERNARD KERIK, DEPUTY WARDEN OF THE PASSAIC COUNTY JAIL, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT; JOSEPH A. FALCONE, PROSECUTOR OF PASSAIC COUNTY, DEFENDANTS.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division (Civil), Passaic County.

Decided June 23, 1986.

*354 Johnson, Johnson & Murphy, attorneys for plaintiffs Allen and Clemente (Jeffrey M. Kassover, on the brief.)

Kalman Harris Geist, attorney for plaintiffs Turi and Monzo (Linda B. Sinofsky, on the brief).

Raymond P. Vivino, Passaic Cty. Counsel, attorney for defendant Passaic Cty. (Michael H. Glovin, Assistant County Counsel, on the brief).

Joseph A. Falcone, Passaic Cty. Pros., (Dante P. Mongiardo, on the brief).

Diamond, Afflitto & Raimondi, attorneys for defendant Englehardt (Joseph T. Afflitto, on the brief).

MANDAK, A.J.S.C.

On January 6, 1986 Edwin Englehardt, the Sheriff of Passaic County, issued a directive (Appendix A) requiring all personnel employed in the Sheriff's Department to undergo mandatory urinalysis for the purpose of testing for the use of controlled dangerous substances. Prior to the institution of the present action, most of the employees in the Sheriff's Department had already submitted to urinalysis pursuant to the directive.

The procedural history of the instant matters has been relatively uncomplicated but still deserves mention. Both matters were initiated by the filing of a verified complaint and the entry of an Order to Show Cause providing for interim restraints temporarily enjoining the Sheriff from implementing or enforcing the directive. On the return date of each Order to Show Cause the court heard further argument and continued the *355 restraints pending final determination of whether the restraints should be made permanent.

The four plaintiffs in the two actions now consolidated are all officers employed in the Sheriff's Department and all are assigned to duty at the Passaic County Jail. The pleadings describe the job title for plaintiffs Turi and Monzo to be correction officers. No specific job title is provided for plaintiffs Allen and Clemente, nor is the court made aware of their assigned duties. Unfortunately, no party offered to present any testimony or produce any evidence at the hearing other than the certifications of parties and therefore the facts are not well developed.

All plaintiffs fall under the umbrella of the directive and consequently are required to submit to the urinalysis or, as the directive provides, be subject to "disciplinary action and/or dismissal." If the tests are taken and a positive result is obtained, the officers are provided with three options, namely: (1) resign; (2) agree to participate in a program that would correct any drug abuse problem; or (3) failing the acceptance of options (1) or (2) the information from the drug test would be turned over to the Passaic County Prosecutor. These options are not part of the directive, nor are they incorporated in any official document presented to the court or promulgated to the employees. Rather the options originate from a certification of Sheriff Englehardt wherein he recites how he handled those situations where urinalysis proved positive.[1]

A brief recount of predirective background information will be of benefit. In the past there have been instances where drugs and other contraband were found in the possession of inmates at the Passaic County Jail. Although security measures were apparently put in place to minimize, if not eliminate, the delivery of drugs to inmates, it was determined in the spring of 1985 that the problem still persisted. The problem *356 appeared twofold. Information was received from various sources indicating that correction officers were involved in providing drugs to inmates and that a "small" number of correction officers were drug users. An undercover investigator was thereafter assigned to the jail and with the assistance of agents from the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency one correction officer was arrested and charged with distribution and use of cocaine, to which he eventually pleaded guilty.

The investigation continued by local staff personnel and led to the detection of other correction officers involved in the possession and use of controlled dangerous substances, among them the plaintiffs Monzo and Turi. As many as ten officers are named in the statements of witnesses provided to the court as being so involved. Possessed with this information the Passaic County Sheriff issued the directive in question to insure that correction officers were not using controlled dangerous substances.

The plaintiffs challenge the directive on a number of grounds contending that the implementation and enforcement of the directive would violate the search and seizure provisions of Article I, par. 7 of the New Jersey Constitution and the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. More pointedly, the plaintiffs argue that the compelled submission of a urine sample to determine the existence or non-existence of controlled dangerous substances constitutes an impermissible search and seizure and is intrusive of the right to privacy and violative of the safeguards provided to citizens under the United States and New Jersey Constitutions. Moreover, it is urged that the New Jersey Constitution has been interpreted by the New Jersey Supreme Court to provide even greater protection for individual rights than provided by the Federal Constitution. Plaintiffs contend further that the blanket nature of the search is per se unreasonable, and that equally unreasonable is the failure of the directive to provide standards for its implementation such as the type of tests to be used, the control and disposition of the *357 test results and the effect of the test results on employment status.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution reads as follows:

Search and seizures
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Article I, par. 7 of the New Jersey Constitution is almost identical, the difference being the use in two instances of alternative words that are not relevant to the issues before this Court.[2] The consistently recognized purpose of these constitutional search and seizure provisions is to insure and safeguard the privacy and security of individuals against arbitrary invasion of governmental officials. Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U.S. 523, 87 S.Ct. 1727, 18 L.Ed.2d 930 (1967).

The threshold issue of whether urine testing is a search and seizure within the perimeters of these constitutional provisions is not in dispute. The defendants acknowledge that drug testing by means of urinalysis is considered a "search" under the aforesaid constitutional provisions and that compelled submission of a urine sample to determine the presence of a controlled dangerous substance constitutes a search and seizure.

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Bluebook (online)
530 A.2d 371, 219 N.J. Super. 352, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-passaic-cty-njsuperctappdiv-1986.