Oches v. Township of Middletown Police Department

This appeal requires us to determine whether a provision of the Civil Service Act, and an implementing regulation, authorizing the award of counsel fees to a police officer exonerated in a disciplinary proceeding involving conduct not in furtherance of his official duties, can be reconciled with a provision in the statutes regulating municipal police forces that does not authorize such a counsel fee award.

Respondent Middletown Township, a civil service municipality, filed disciplinary charges against petitioner Robert Oches, a police officer in Middletown Township. In the course of those…