A Lyndhurst police sergeant who was reinstated with back pay in February has filed another lawsuit against the township, the mayor, the police chief and a police captain, saying they violated the state’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act.

Richard Pizzuti said he was subjected to retaliation because he told his supervisors of activities he believed were against the law, such as transferring him and eventually removing him from the Police Department. In 2019, he filed an internal affairs complaint against Capt. John Mazure, saying he was being harassed, which resulted in a campaign of retaliation against him.

Township Attorney Carmine Alampi did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit, filed on May 15, said the actions of Mayor Robert Giangeruso, Chief Richard Jarvis, Mazure and the town tarnished his reputation and forced him into a retaliatory work environment.

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Pizzuti said some of the retaliation comes from his challenging Jarvis’ wife during a Board of Education election. The suit said Giangeruso supported Jarvis’ wife during the election, which Pizzuti won.

The lawsuit said that after Pizzuti won the election, Giangeruso, Jarvis and Mazure began a “campaign of retaliation” against him that ultimately resulted in his removal from his police position in March 2022.

He is seeking punitive and compensatory damages and attorney’s fees, as well as the cost of the lawsuit.

Pizzuti filed a previous suit against the defendants in 2022 after he was served preliminary notice of disciplinary charges in May 2020.

In February, a judge ruled that Pizzuti was to return to duty after finding that the township did not meet its burden regarding accusations of his taking evidence and paperwork home with him from another officer’s arrest in January 2020. An internal affairs investigation had determined that Pizzuti’s actions violated department policy and that he made false statements to IA and left early without properly documenting it.

The judge said the accusation of conduct unbecoming an officer was valid and that a 21-day suspension without pay was an “appropriate penalty.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Lyndhurst NJ police sergeant files lawsuit against town