By Tom Haydon
The Star-Ledger
Copyright 2007 Newark Morning Ledger Co.
All Rights Reserved
EDISON, N.J. — An Edison firefighter accused of taking a fire department rescue truck while on duty to a home he owns in Metuchen to confront his niece over a family dispute is under investigation by township authorities.
Although no criminal charges were filed against firefighter Jerry Pepin, Metuchen police filed a harassment report after the March 28 incident and Edison officials said an investigation is under way to determine if a fire department vehicle was taken and whether Pepin’s supervisors knew about it.
“That is all part of a fact-finding investigation,” Edison Township spokesman Jerry Barca said. “If there was any misconduct, it will be addressed under the mayor’s zero tolerance policy for misconduct in public safety.”
The police report filed by Metuchen officers called to the dispute at 48 Hickory St. states that Pepin and fellow Edison firefighter Don Gunther were both in uniform and apparently on duty when Pepin showed up at the house to order his niece to move out.
Pepin told the officers he went to the house twice that day, according to the police report. On the first visit at 2 p.m., Pepin’s niece, Sandra Pepin, was not home, but he broke open the padlocked door to her bedroom and left a note for his niece to call him, the police report states.
Sandra Pepin called her uncle when she got home at 7 p.m. and he came to the house a second time, sparking a confrontation that led Sandra Pepin to call Metuchen police, according to reports filed by officers Wayne Karalevich and Steven Wilczynski, who both went to the house.
When Wilczynski arrived, Jerry Pepin and Gunther were standing outside and there was an Edison Fire & Rescue truck parked in front, the report states.
Jerry Pepin, 50, who has been a firefighter for over 19 years, told police his mother lives at the Hickory Street home and she signed the house over to him two years ago. Pepin said his niece had been living in the house and that he objected to his niece’s treatment of his mother, according to the police report.
Pepin told officers he wanted Sandra Pepin to leave by April 1.
Sandra Pepin told police she found the door to her bedroom broken and a small refrigerator in the room tipped over with the contents spilled on the floor when she arrived home, and called her uncle to discuss it with him.
Sandra Pepin told the officers that when he arrived, her uncle “was acting all crazy,” the police report states. Jerry Pepin told the officers he opened the refrigerator, but denied knocking the contents to the floor, the report states.
Metuchen police called Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Judson Hamlin seeking his advice about the damage to the house and the confrontation. Hamlin told the officers that Jerry Pepin had committed no crime, but told them to complete an incident report citing harassment, according to the police report.
Officials became aware of the situation and ordered an investigation, which is being conducted by the Edison police, Barca said.Jerry Pepin did not return messages left at his home. Gunther declined to comment. Attempts to contact Sandra Pepin were unsuccessful.