When Cops Go Bad

Harry Tower, a commercial artist turned painter, had visited Sea Girt from the 1940s with his wife’s family. His Sister-in-law, Jane Gross, was on the Lighthouse Citizens’ Committee, and they partnered with the Sea Girt Gallery on Washington Ave. and its owner, Allison Terlizzi Rupprecht, to sell prints and postcards of his Sea Girt paintings.

The watercolor images were iconic. The boardwalk is busy with patrons and their kids. The badge checker is sitting under an umbrella with 90s the pavilion and lighthouse in the background. Another showed a Philadelphia Beach scene, and another had the lighthouse decorated for Christmas. They auctioned one of the originals off during the Signing of the Lease Party, and the cards and prints sold briskly and required multiple printings.

One noticeable item is the closeness of the sunbathers to the boardwalk. The beach had gotten narrower each year since the 1944 storm. The permanent opening at the Manasquan Inlet was perfect for boats, but the inlet rock jetty stuck out 1,000 feet east of the Sea Girt jetties. The northward flow of sand to the Monmouth beaches was halted. Point Pleasant had a great accumulation of sand, and the Point Pleasant Canal connecting Barnegat Bay took much of the Manasquan River Sand. Without the supply of new sand, Sea Girt’s beaches were getting dangerously thin. The ocean at Neptune Blvd. was threatening the road on high tides. Mayor MacInnes looked for help from the Army Corps and the Federal Government, whose inlet project created the problem. Beach replenishment technology had advanced to allow pumping of offshore sand onto beaches. But this was way too expensive for the Borough to cover. The Federal Government offered only 65% of the money. The state of New Jersey finally funded a program to supplement the process. $50 million was set aside.

The Philadelphia boardwalk was at the edge of the ocean (Harry Tower Print)

The vulnerability extended up the coast. Sandy Hook had added over 1.5 miles of sand north of the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, which was built in 1764 at the water’s edge.

Sandy Hook’s lighhouse, now far from the shoreline

One of the unfortunate developments of the late 1970s was the glamorization of cocaine. Not as addictive as heroin, users were able to party with it on weekends and function during the week. Celebrities partied at Studio 54 in New York. By the end of the ‘80s, Studio 54 was shuttered, and crack, a more potent form of the drug, was cheaper, and its use spread to all corners of the country. The glamor was gone, but the drug trade soared. The Medellín and Cali cartels in Colombia had fleets of planes and mules smuggling drugs all over North America. They worked with local organized crime and had networks of salespeople all over the shore.

A sting, set up to nab some of the dealers, netted two dozen, including two Sea Girt policemen. Lt. Robert Hindman and Sgt. Joseph Beaumont. When the Monmouth County prosecutor told Chief Joule, he indicated that Captain Guy Cavaleri was also a suspect in the conspiracy. Cavaleri, who had lectured SGES students on the dangers of drugs, tested positive in a drug test and was suspended. He was arrested a few weeks later, charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana, and was later implicated by Hindman’s guilty plea.

Police Chief William Robert Joule was the only supervisor left on the force. He quickly regrouped the 10 patrolmen and restored trust in the department. There was a brief exploration by the borough council of merging with the Spring Lake Heights Police Department.

Frontline, the PBS Documentary series, was doing an exposé entitled “When Cops Go Bad”. It outlined the scandal and also recorded shocked Mayor MacInnes and the emergency meeting to inform the citizens. Clip from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io7tOYHw1Xg&t=2191s

Joule was rocked by the betrayal.

“Biff,” as his friends called him, was well known. He grew up in town, went to the Mountz school in the 1950s. His brother Kip (Jim) was a track star at Manasquan. Biff was on the force since 1968, and before that was a Sea Girt lifeguard, and served in the Army during Vietnam. He was a member of the Fire Company, the Elks, and the Masons. He looked the part of a police chief at the beach. Tall, blond, handsome, broad-chested, he was a father of three children.

He described his feelings in an interview with the Asbury Park Press in November ‘91 after Howell had a veteran officer arrested for multiple bank robberies.

“It's hard, really, for me to put into words a lot of things," he said. "The disappointment, the heartbreak. It kind of blindsides you. When you're an officer, you trust your colleagues. To think one of you is out there doing everything you know in your heart you're against, that's rough."

The ordinance requiring Sea Girt residency for police officers was rescinded in 1965, as houses became less affordable on a patrolman’s salary. Police still lived within a few miles of town, and Chief Joule felt he was stabbed in the back.

To his credit, Chief Joule never wavered, hired new officers, and restored confidence in the SGPD. He credited his neighbors. His family also had strong roots in town. When people grow up together and then raise their family in the same community, there is a resilience that develops.

William’s wife, Jackie, also grew up in town. Her parents, Albert and Barbara Jean Ratz, were longtime Sea Girt residents. Their parents both had homes in Spring Lake on Ludlow and Mercer, respectively, and the couple moved to Sea Girt to raise their family after their 1947 wedding.

Barbara Jean was the President of the Auxiliary for the Fire Company. Albert was elected to the Sea Girt Borough Council in 1965, and his son, Sandy, was the code enforcement officer and a member of the Fire Company. They were also active members of St. Uriel’s Church. Jackie was very active in community organizations like the Holly Club and worked as the cashier at the beach office. The Joules knew almost everyone.

Biff was grateful for the support."You learn how people can pull together, how a community can pull together to get over a bad situation," Joule said. “The officers left behind can rebuild trust”, Joule said, “and show a town that most police officers are still the good guys.”

In 1991 Joule had five special officers go on to become full-time policemen. The mayor, police chief, and fire chief did readings to second graders to help restore confidence in public officials.

Biff Joule retired in 2005, after 37 years of service, 22 as Chief. He passed away in 2021 at age 77. He was rewarded by seeing his son, Christian Joule, become a SGPD officer, whose probationary period ended in 2007.