Hoboken Reporter
July 23, 2006

BRIEFS:  Hoboken's only female police captain resigns after investigation

Former Hoboken Police Captain Karen Dimonde resigned July 1 after pleading guilty to 220 charges accrued over a 10-day period.

Following a 14-month investigation led by Hoboken's Internal Affairs, police  charged her with insubordination, conduct unbecoming of a public employee, failure to supervise subordinates, and neglect of duty.

Twenty-seven individuals were willing to testify against Dimonde at a criminal trial, 17 of which were fellow officers, the other 10 civilians.

Prior to conducting the investigation, an outside agency comprised of former  FBI agents was brought in for five days to assess the situation.

Dr, Carmen La Bruno, chief of police in Hoboken, recalls those in the agency  saying that they had "never seen anything like it in their career."

Dimonde was suppose to be running the police division at the Hoboken Housing Authority, but allegedly left early or didn"t do her patrols.  Charges include failure to report to work, refusal to wear her uniform, and refusal to patrol  the streets for at least six of her eight hours during her shift, a  requirement for all police captains.

Though there was an evident dereliction of duty on Dimonde's part, La Bruno  said, "At no time were the people of the City of Hoboken in danger, because of precautionary measures taken by police."

La Bruno said that one time, Dimonde went as far as to have a fellow officer  move her car out of view of a camera set up in the parking lot, so that she would not be seen when she left.

According to La Bruno, the reason the investigation took over a year to 
produce results was because of the departmental procedure required them to  build a serious case against the individual.  The process is as follows:  
personal counseling, oral reprimand, written reprimand,and major disiplinary action, which includes suspension, demotion, and ultimately termination.

Dimonde has agreed to reimburse the City $ 36,000 for the time she owed the police department.  In addition, the former captain lost all her health 
benefits and will only receive half of her $ 127,866 annual salary as pension, as compared to the 65 percent she would have received if not for the disciplinary action.

As an outgrowth of the investigation, five other Hoboken police officers are  facing suspensions and others will receive written reprimands in the coming week.