Glen Rock police detective accused of sexting teen girls moves a step closer to release with ankle bracelet
A Glen Rock police detective charged with sending sexually explicit text messages to two teenage girls he was supervising as the borough’s juvenile officer, and exchanging nude photos with one of them, on Monday moved a step closer to being released on bail with an electronic ankle bracelet.
During a hearing in Hackensack, Superior Court Judge Susan Steele heard testimony from Jacqueline Gill, a mental health technician who conducts suicide risk assessments on inmates coming into the Bergen County Jail. The judge also heard from Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Daniel Marro, who discussed the county’s enhanced bail program with electronic monitoring.
Gill testified that Sgt. Eric Reamy was placed on suicide watch by a nurse when he entered the jail last week, based solely on “standard protocol,” due to the sexual nature of the charges and his high bail, which was set at $250,000.
Asked by Reamy’s attorney, Richard Potter, if the officer did or said anything to warrant his placement on the suicide watch, she said no. Gill said she took Reamy off the watch after she conducted an assessment on Thursday and found that he did not pose a risk to himself or others.
Marro said he had concerns about two guns that Reamy once owned because records have not been found that would conclusively prove he sold the guns, as Reamy claims. According to the state police registry,
Reamy had purchased 11 guns over the years, nine of which have been accounted for.
Potter said the two unaccounted for weapons were sold on consignment some years ago, through a business that is no longer operating. Even if they can’t be accounted for, he said, there are sufficient safeguards that can be imposed to allow Reamy to be released on bail.
Potter also asked Marro if he was aware that two weapons were recovered from Reamy’s home after his arrest. He said he didn’t know that.
Marro said there are currently 12 people in the county who are being monitored by a GPS ankle bracelet. Before they are admitted to the program, he said, their homes are inspected for weapons and they must undergo a mental health screening.
Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Keitel expressed concern that there has not been an evaluation by a medical doctor that Reamy is not a danger to himself or others.
Steele continued the hearing to Wednesday, but said she was tentatively ordering that Reamy be entered into the monitoring program with the condition that he receive a mental health evaluation.
Reamy, 51, was arrested last Wednesday and charged with five counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
He is accused of sending two photos of his “private part” to a 14-year-old girl and encouraging her to send him naked pictures of herself, authorities said. He is also charged with possession of child pornography for allegedly receiving a photograph of the juvenile’s breasts over the Internet.
The charges allege he also engaged the girl and another girl, who is 17, in explicit sexual conversations in text messages.
Reamy, a father of three who has been a decorated member of the Glen Rock police force for 27 years, has been suspended without pay since his arrest.
He was due to retire at the end of August and had been on leave since the beginning of July, using up accrued time, authorities have said. He is head of the borough’s two-man detective squad as well as a firefighter in Fair Lawn.
The two alleged victims had been the subject of complaints in juvenile matters that Reamy had been investigating and were considered to be under his supervision, authorities said.
