cop loses bid to win back job after sleeping with homeless mom – New Jersey 101.5 FM

NORTH PLAINFIELD — A police officer who had sex with a young homeless mother who had gone to him for help will not be getting his job back.

Former North Plainfield cop Mikeedwar Jean-Baptiste, 34, was fired in September 2020 after an internal affairs investigation into the “sexual encounter.” The following June, he appealed an order denying his application for reinstatement.

The Union County Prosecutor’s Office charged the former cop in 2017 with second-degree sexual assault following a report from the homeless mom. Jean-Baptiste was arrested and suspended without pay, though the charges were later dismissed.

“I shouldn’t have been there,” Jean-Baptiste told investigators, according to the decision.

The 20-year-old mother of one first went to the North Plainfield police looking for help on March 2, 2017, according to court records. She was with her child and boyfriend.

As the trio had nowhere to go, Jean-Baptiste was assigned to help them find temporary shelter. The appeal states that he first directed the group to the Somerset County Board of Social Services office.

However, they were denied assistance. The mom and her boyfriend went back to Jean-Baptiste for more help. He offered to put them in a room at The Kenilworth when he got off work, according to court documents.

When the time came to take them to the hotel in Kenilworth, the boyfriend had gone to attend to his own child. Now off-duty, Jean-Baptiste offered to drive the woman and her child to the room with his personal vehicle, according to the appeal.

The mom’s version of events and Jean-Baptiste’s account diverge greatly from that point.

She filed a report with the Kenilworth Police that Jean-Baptiste had taken to her to the hotel and sexually assaulted her. However, the criminal charges were dropped when she did not appear at trial.

Speaking to investigators without an attorney present, Jean-Baptiste said he had slept with the mom but that it was consensual, according to records.

The appeal states that in his narrative, Jean-Baptiste said that the mom was complimenting him during the drive over and told him that her boyfriend was abusive. She then asked him to “hang out” after he got her some necessities, according to his version of events in the appeal.

A transcript shows that Jean-Baptiste told the Union County Prosecutor’s Office that he went home, grabbed some clothes and a half-pint bottle of Hennessey, then told his wife that he was going out for a drink. He said that instead of heading to a bar, he went to a Walgreens to buy milk, food, and condoms.

The off-duty cop went back to the mom’s hotel room, the appeal states. After the child fell asleep, Jean-Baptiste and the woman had sex.

The 24-page appellate decision stated that Jean-Baptiste’s sexual encounter, consensual or not, “was the result of actions he took while on duty and constituted an abuse of his position as a police officer.”

North Plainfield did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Rick Rickman is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at richard.rickman@townsquaremedia.com

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