Career of Eatontown Police Officer Ends After Admitting He Asked For Sexual Favors

The career of a long-time Eatontown Police Department Officer came to an end today when he admitted that he requested sexual favors from a woman he had arrested after flushing drugs seized from her down a toilet.

Detective Philip Emanuele, 33, of Brick plead guilty to criminal coercion and tampering with physical evidence in a plea bargain that calls for a probationary term.

Emanuele, as part of his plea, was required to immediately forfeit his position as a police officer with the Eatontown Police Department and was also barred from all future public employment in New Jersey. He was suspended, without pay, by the department in June and was making $114,712 a year at the time.

In March, the Professional Responsibility Unit of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation following a complaint made by a 24-year-old woman concerning Emanuele's actions. 

According to documents filed in the case, as well as Emanuele’s statements made in court today before Judge Scully, on December 21, 2011, Emanuele responded to the Monmouth Mall following a complaint made by a Monmouth Mall store that one of their employees had stolen money from the store.

Emanuele placed the female employee under arrest and escorted her to the parking lot where he told her that he would help her in any way possible if she helped him. Once at the car, the woman turned over narcotics to the Emanuele, who then drove her to Eatontown Police headquarters. At headquarters, Emanuele signed a theft complaint against the woman for stealing from her employer and flushed the drugs down the toilet and asked the woman if she would be willing to act as an informant for him.

While driving the woman back to her car, Emanuele asked her to perform a sexual act upon him and she declined. Emanuele later met with the woman on two subsequent occasions.

On one of those occasions, Emanuele began kissing her with the hope and expectation that she would have sex with him. On another occasion, he told the woman that he wanted to help her and said that he had contacted her former employer in an attempt to get her theft charge dismissed.

Emanuele was also charged with two counts of Official Misconduct and one count of Sexual Assault. However, those three charges will be dismissed at his sentencing on Nov. 30.

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