HACKENSACK — A pair of competing lawsuits filed in state Superior Court lay out starkly different views on what is owed to two former police officers who were involved in a warrantless search of a Prospect Avenue apartment building a decade ago.
Rocco Duardo, one of seven officers accused of illegally entering a third-floor apartment in December 2016 without a warrant, mishandling evidence and falsifying reports, says in his suit against the city that it illegally deducted wages and tried to reduce his pension time while he was reinstated to his job.
The city’s suit against Duardo, a former city detective, and former Police Officer Victor Vazquez, filed Feb. 11, just days after Duardo’s suit, seeks to recoup the salary and back pay the city gave the officers for the time the two sides were engaged in a lengthy legal battle concerning their futures with the department…