N.J. investigators say Mount Laurel police may have violated state discrimination law against Black residents in Edward Mathews case

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced Wednesday that investigators found “evidence supports a reasonable ground of suspicion” that police in Mount Laurel Township violated state discrimination law in how they handled complaints from Black residents against Edward Mathews in a case that made national headlines in 2021.

The “finding of probable cause” is a step in the process that now proceeds to an opportunity for the state and Mount Laurel Township to negotiate a voluntary resolution, Platkin said. If that fails, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights will appoint a prosecutor in the case.

In a statement, Mount Laurel Councilman Stephen Steglik said the township had been notified by the attorney general’s office about the findings and would address the matter with counsel assigned by the Burlington County Joint Insurance Fund. He declined to comment further.

In late 2023, Matthews pleaded guilty to four counts of bias intimidation and a drug charge under an agreement with the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Mathews had been harassing his neighbors in the Essex Place condominium complex in Mount Laurel. Authorities said he called Black residents “monkeys,” put feces on their property, sent threatening emails and letters, and shot BB pellets at their cars.

Prosecutors said Mathews had a pattern of terrorizing Black neighbors, as well as condo association board members, dating back to 2020. Residents complained to police, but no criminal charges were filed against Mathews until after a viral video showed him verbally attacking a resident with racist rants and challenging neighbors to “come see me” and giving out his address.

The challenge led to protests outside his home. Mathews was arrested soon afterward.

Steglik was the township’s mayor when the incidents with Mathews occurred. He said at the time that he was threatened by Mathews, about a week before the incident with the Black resident went viral. Steglik said Mathews left a message at the township office demanding to see him and he perceived it as a threat.

Platkin said the civil rights division determined that the Mount Laurel Police Department may have denied Black residents of Essex Place of a legally required response to Mathews, violating the state Law Against Discrimination, which prohibits discrimination based on race and other protected characteristics.

“Bias incidents targeting residents based on race tear at the very fabric of our communities. They create fear, undermine public safety, and inflict lasting harm on our residents,” Platkin said in a statement.

“It is deeply concerning to me that the Mount Laurel Police Department allegedly failed to recognize or respond appropriately to dozens of incidents of race-based harassment. Law enforcement agencies must protect our state’s residents from race-based harassment, and I am committed to ensuring that all of our state’s law enforcement agencies discharge their responsibility to investigate and respond promptly to reported bias incidents,” Platkin said.

Tyrus Ballard, president of the Southern Burlington County branch of the NAACP, said the announcement by the attorney general was “pretty validating.” Concerns about the police raised by the civil rights organization and residents were ignored, he said.

“It confirms what a lot of people were suspecting: The police did not do their due diligence in protecting and serving,” Ballard said. “This man was a domestic terrorist, and despite the many people who reported it, nothing was done.”

Ballard said he hopes the case sets a precedent for police departments and changes how such cases are handled.

“I hope this is a wake-up call to make sure true justice is served,” Ballard said.

Platkin said the state investigation was launched after two Black residents of Essex Place filed complaints with the civil rights division alleging the Mount Laurel police discriminated against them based on race.

According to the finding of probable cause, Mount Laurel police received approximately 40 reports from Essex Place residents of color about Mathews. The residents said Mathews targeted them with repeated verbal and written harassment, including racial slurs. They alleged Mathews vandalized their homes and vehicles. His behaviors caused some residents to move away to escape the harassment.

State investigators interviewed Mount Laurel police officers, including a retired police chief, the residents who filed the complaints with the civil rights division, and the attorney for the Essex Place homeowners association. Investigators also reviewed internal police communications regarding Mathews.

None of the officers interviewed by state investigators indicated they had interviewed Mathews prior to July 2021, “with some officers stating that they did not do so because they did not want to anger or incite Mathews,” the attorney general’s office said.

The investigation further revealed that several Mount Laurel officers “did not believe that race was a factor in Mathews’s harassing conduct even though a number of Black residents raised repeated concerns that Mathews’s conduct was based at least in part on race,” the attorney general’s office said.

The alleged failure by police in Mount Laurel to respond adequately “allowed Mathews’s conduct to escalate over the course of several years, and particularly over the 14 months before his arrest,” the attorney general’s Office said.

In October 2021, the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office released a report on the Mount Laurel Police Department’s response and found no wrongdoing by the police.

However, the report said, “A more holistic approach by MLPD to the problems Mathews was causing in Essex Place would have made more apparent the racist theme behind Mathews’ harassment of minority HOA board members, and also might have yielded alternate solutions for MLPD to consider.”