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When Richard Camel finally reported the racism he said he’d endured for years inside the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office, he expected an investigation. Instead, the 55-year-old corrections corporal says his own department unleashed a campaign of punishment — suspensions, surveillance, trumped-up charges, hostile reassignments — all designed, he believed, to break him for speaking out.
A New Jersey jury agreed that Camel was wronged. And now the cost is $750,000. Camel won $375,000 in damages, with another $375,000 in legal fees awarded by the court — a stunning rebuke of a sheriff’s office he served for 25 years.
For Camel, the verdict was vindication: “I finally got my justice,” he said. But he also calls it something else: the price of telling the truth.
Richard Camel, 55, of Paterson, won $375,000 in his retaliation lawsuit against the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office. Photo courtesy of Richard Camel
Camel filed suit in 2021, arguing that after he complained about harassment from a sergeant in 2016, the sheriff’s office retaliated instead of protecting him.
Jurors concluded the department did not discriminate because of race, but it did retaliate “more likely than not” once he spoke up.
The retaliation wasn’t subtle. Camel was transferred to a worse shift, hit with a five-day suspension for alleged conduct from 2015 just weeks after filing his complaint, and confronted with a barrage of disciplinary charges seemingly designed to force him out.
While caring for his mother during COVID-19, officers in an unmarked vehicle drove past his home, alarming neighbors and prompting a police response. He was later suspended for 35 days for not being home when investigators arrived — even though he was at the hospital with his mother. And at one point, a positive performance evaluation was allegedly ordered rewritten to make him look worse.
Camel said the message was unmistakable: You spoke up. Now you’ll pay.
Camel’s case exposes what civil-rights attorneys argue is a broader pattern inside some sheriff’s offices: don’t challenge the chain of command, don’t expose misconduct, and never accuse a superior.
Camel’s attorney, Leonard Schiro, said the jury recognized exactly what kind of system Camel was fighting.
“He went through a tough time up there,” Schiro said, adding that Camel’s ordeal shows how easily a department can weaponize discipline to crush a whistleblower.
Camel says the retaliation was designed not just to punish him — but to make an example out of him.
He describes:
Leadership closing ranks around abusive supervisors
Supervisors using internal affairs as a threat
A department more focused on silencing complaints than solving them
Camel believes this culture ultimately ended his career.
“I loved being an officer,” he said. “I was robbed of that. And no amount of money can ever bring it back.”
Camel says he reported discrimination informally as early as 2012 but feared retaliation. By 2016, when he finally spoke up, he said the warning signs were immediate: unwarranted scrutiny, discipline for old allegations, and attempts to paint him as a problem employee.
By 2020, after another written complaint, he said the retaliation escalated dramatically.
Internal affairs never conducted a full investigation.
He continued receiving removal-level charges.
Even after receiving a positive performance evaluation in 2021, Camel’s supervisor was reportedly ordered to rewrite it to make him look worse.
He retired in 2023 — only after disciplinary actions blocking his retirement were finally cleared.
“They were basically going after my livelihood,” he said. “They were trying to hurt me and my family.”
Despite the sheriff’s office avoiding a discrimination finding, the retaliation verdict — and its $750,000 price tag — send a clear message:
The department failed Camel.
Camel says the responsibility lies not just with the sergeants who targeted him, but with every commanding officer who stood by.
“Everyone who watched this happen is just as guilty,” he said.
Passaic County officials have not commented on the jury’s findings.
Camel, meanwhile, says he’s relieved the nightmare is over — but still grieving the career he lost, and the department he once trusted.
Camel’s lawsuit was brought under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD), which treats retaliation as a standalone violation. To win, Camel only needed to show that he:
Reported alleged harassment,
Faced adverse actions afterward, and
That the two were connected.
Jurors decided that standard was met. While they did not find racial discrimination, they concluded the sheriff’s office retaliated through suspensions, shifted assignments, surveillance, and downgraded evaluations — all actions NJLAD considers unlawful if they would deter an employee from speaking up.
Because NJLAD also mandates fee-shifting, the $375,000 verdict automatically triggered another $375,000 in attorney’s fees.
Bottom line: In New Jersey, retaliation itself is illegal — and juries take it seriously even when discrimination isn’t proven.
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