newjerseynewsroom.com

BY JOE TYRRELL

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Jurors have awarded a former Tinton Falls detective $5 million after an August 2004 traffic stop at gunpoint by a State Trooper left him face down on the side of the Garden State Parkway and then out of a job.

Gary Wade, 37, now of Woodbury, filed the suit maintaining he had down nothing wrong before State Trooper Michael Colaner pulled him over, hit him on the back of the head, pepper-sprayed him and handcuffed him face down.

The two-minute incident launched Wade on a nightmare ride, as he was suspended from his job, then fired after being convicted of obstruction of justice, and finally ordered to reimburse Tinton Falls for pay he received while suspended.

In a case spotlighting police practices as much as legal theories, a U.S. District Court jury this week decisively came down on Wade's side. Jurors voted unanimously that Coalner had used excessive force and disregarded Wade's rights.

They awarded Wade $500,000, plus $4.5 million in punitive damages, well above the $1 million figure he floated when filing the suit in 2006. U.S. Judge Freda L. Wolfson signed off on the verdict on Monday.

"Gary Wade is very pleased with the jury's verdict," said his attorney, Thomas Cunniff. "He's been vindicated. He feels he's finally gotten justice."

Wade argued he was stopped because he violated an unwritten custom: never pass a State Trooper on the right. But State Police claimed Wade, now a substitute teacher, was driving recklessly.

Some facts were not in dispute. Colaner and his partner, David Ryan, were driving northbound in the Parkway's left lane when Wade, driving an unmarked police car, passed them on the right.

They pulled him over, but on an audio tape recorded by Colaner's microphone, Wade, an eight-year veteran of the Tinton Falls department, repeatedly asked the trooper to wait until his supervisor could respond to the scene. "You are pulling me over for no reason in my own town," Wade told the trooper.

More key evidence came from the video tape of the incident recorded by the troopers' patrol car, Cunniff said. "It clearly shows the excessive use of force" as Colaner quickly pulled his gun on Wade while the detective was sitting in his car.

At the time Wade sued, State Police said their report of the incident showed his car came up rapidly behind the troopers' vehicle, tailgated, and then pulled around to pass on the right.

As the two cars came alongside, the officers looked at each other and Wade threw up his hands, mouthing "what the?" at the troopers, who then pulled him over. Colaner later wrote that Wade could have been "a private citizen with a police replica car."

Joe Tyrrell may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it