Former FDU professor with neo-Nazi ties files lawsuit alleging police brutality
Friday February 22, 2013, 8:59 PM
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER
The Record
A former Fairleigh Dickinson University professor with purported ties to a neo-Nazi group has filed a federal lawsuit alleging police brutality during his arrest two years ago on charges that he sent threatening emails to the head of the Anti-Defamation League.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Newark last month, Jacques Pluss alleges that state police and Ridgewood police officers violated his civil rights by using “excessive force” when he was arrested at his Ridgewood home on Jan. 26, 2011.
He alleges that he and a woman, Jessica Stephens, who was not arrested, were thrown into a pile of snow after being dragged through the front door of the home they shared in Ridgewood. The suit, which was filed Jan. 25, also alleges that Pluss was burned by a cigarette he had been smoking when he was thrown to the ground.
At the time, the state police said Pluss had ties to a neo-Nazi organization, the National Socialist Movement, and had sent threatening emails to the head of the national director of the ADL, Abraham Foxman, who lives in Bergen County.
Pluss was charged with bias intimidation, harassment, and illegal weapons possession after authorities said they found several rifles in his Ridgewood home. He pleaded guilty to a fourth-degree bias crime with the purpose to intimidate and was sentenced to three years of probation on July 27, 2012, according to Superior Court records in Hackensack.
Pluss and his attorney, William Rush of Carlstadt, could not be reached for comment Friday.
A spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office, Lee Moore, declined to comment on the lawsuit. Ridgewood’s mayor, Paul Aronsohn, said he did not know about the suit but added, “I’m sure it’s baseless.”
Pluss, 59, a former adjunct professor of history at FDU’s Teaneck campus, has said the school fired him in 2005 after learning of his involvement in the National Socialist Movement, which bills itself as America’s Nazi party. FDU officials cited numerous absences at the time of the firing.
After his dismissal, Pluss described FDU as a “Jewish plutocratic university” during an appearance on a National Socialist Movement radio program called “White Viewpoint.”
The following year, he disavowed the National Socialist Movement in an article he wrote and that was posted on George Mason University’s History News Network. He wrote that his involvement with the neo-Nazi movement was just research for a book he planned to write on “the wacky White Power movement.” Six months later, according to the History News Network, Pluss once again proclaimed to be part of the neo-Nazi movement.
Email: koloff@northjersey.com
Source http://www.northjersey.com/news/Former_FDU_professor_with_neo-Nazi_ties_files_lawsuit_alleging_police_brutality.html?scpromo=1
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITER
The Record
A former Fairleigh Dickinson University professor with purported ties to a neo-Nazi group has filed a federal lawsuit alleging police brutality during his arrest two years ago on charges that he sent threatening emails to the head of the Anti-Defamation League.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Newark last month, Jacques Pluss alleges that state police and Ridgewood police officers violated his civil rights by using “excessive force” when he was arrested at his Ridgewood home on Jan. 26, 2011.
He alleges that he and a woman, Jessica Stephens, who was not arrested, were thrown into a pile of snow after being dragged through the front door of the home they shared in Ridgewood. The suit, which was filed Jan. 25, also alleges that Pluss was burned by a cigarette he had been smoking when he was thrown to the ground.
At the time, the state police said Pluss had ties to a neo-Nazi organization, the National Socialist Movement, and had sent threatening emails to the head of the national director of the ADL, Abraham Foxman, who lives in Bergen County.
Pluss was charged with bias intimidation, harassment, and illegal weapons possession after authorities said they found several rifles in his Ridgewood home. He pleaded guilty to a fourth-degree bias crime with the purpose to intimidate and was sentenced to three years of probation on July 27, 2012, according to Superior Court records in Hackensack.
Pluss and his attorney, William Rush of Carlstadt, could not be reached for comment Friday.
A spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office, Lee Moore, declined to comment on the lawsuit. Ridgewood’s mayor, Paul Aronsohn, said he did not know about the suit but added, “I’m sure it’s baseless.”
Pluss, 59, a former adjunct professor of history at FDU’s Teaneck campus, has said the school fired him in 2005 after learning of his involvement in the National Socialist Movement, which bills itself as America’s Nazi party. FDU officials cited numerous absences at the time of the firing.
After his dismissal, Pluss described FDU as a “Jewish plutocratic university” during an appearance on a National Socialist Movement radio program called “White Viewpoint.”
The following year, he disavowed the National Socialist Movement in an article he wrote and that was posted on George Mason University’s History News Network. He wrote that his involvement with the neo-Nazi movement was just research for a book he planned to write on “the wacky White Power movement.” Six months later, according to the History News Network, Pluss once again proclaimed to be part of the neo-Nazi movement.
Email: koloff@northjersey.com
Source http://www.northjersey.com/news/Former_FDU_professor_with_neo-Nazi_ties_files_lawsuit_alleging_police_brutality.html?scpromo=1
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