Middlesex County sheriff's officer can keep job after road rage conviction

NEW BRUNSWICK - A Middlesex County sheriff's officer does not have to forfeit his job after he was found guilty of criminal mischief in a road rage incident in East Brunswick, a state appellate court ruled on Tuesday.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office had appealed a Superior Court ruling that Neil Raciti, 50, a former borough councilman in Milltown, did not have to forfeit his job as a sheriff's officer and be permanently barred from holding a government job in New Jersey.

Raciti had been placed on a year's probation after he was found guilty of the disorderly persons offense of criminal mischief. He had been acquitted on counts of falsely incriminating another and unsworn falsification to authorities.

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The appellate court on Tuesday also upheld Raciti's conviction on the criminal mischief charge.

The incident began four years ago on the evening of March 29, 2015 when Raciti's wife was driving slowly on a dark road in East Brunswick. The driver of a car following hers, identified in court papers as A.M., admitted in court that he was tailgating the car Raciti’s wife was driving in hopes of having it speed up.

When the car Raciti’s wife was driving came to a stop at an intersection, court papers say, Raciti got out of the car and charged at the other vehicle, screaming and cursing at the driver. "Afraid for his life," A.M. decided to drive away and slowly drove to the shoulder to avoid hitting Raciti.

However, at this point, Raciti punched and cracked A.M.'s windshield, according to court papers. A.M. got out of his car and confronted Raciti who then attempted to put A.M. in what witnesses called an "arrest position." The passengers in A.M.'s car then got out to help A.M. and Raciti identified himself as a cop, prompting them to back away. Police arrived about a minute later.

In his defense, Raciti said he accidentally hit the windshield as he was trying to get out of A.M.'s way.

In denying the prosecutor’s office request that Raciti forfeit his job, the court ruled that Raciti's actions, who was off-duty at the time, were not related to his duties as a sheriff's officer.

The appellate panel agreed with the lower court, writing that the dispute Raciti and the other driver was "private."

"It is (Raciti's) act of punching A.M.'s windshield that is at issue here and that occurred before (he) advised A.M. and his passengers of his occupation," the court wrote.

Staff writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com