Inside Saddle River’s Police Crisis: A Pattern of Retaliation and the Chief Who’s Heading for the Exit
Two civil discrimination lawsuits filed in New Jersey Superior Court (Bergen County). Zero diversity. A lieutenant who wrote instructions for silencing cops may become the next chief.
SADDLE RIVER, N.J. — Picture the perfect American suburb: Five square miles of colonial homes, wrought-iron gates, and manicured lawns tucked into Bergen County’s wealthiest corner. Population 3,000. Median home price: $1.7 million. Crime rate: essentially zero.
Now picture its police department: 18 officers, all white, 17 of them male, in a state where one-third of cops are minorities. A department so small you could fit them all in a single conference room, yet so troubled they’ve generated two civil discrimination lawsuits, a $450,000 settlement, and a police chief who’s suddenly discovering “health concerns” just as the subpoenas are being drafted.
This is the story of how a tiny police force in a wealthy enclave became ground zero for one of New Jersey’s ugliest discrimination scandals. It’s about what happens when the people meant to enforce the law decide they’re above it. And it’s about two female officers — one a thirteen-year veteran, the other a multilingual professional — who refused to stay quiet, even when staying quiet was the only safe option.
But to understand how we got here — packed borough halls, protest movements, and a chief heading for the exit — we need to start with the blueprint. Because Saddle River has been perfecting this system for a decade.
The Million-Dollar Pattern
It started in 2014 when Lieutenant John Gaffney sued for political retaliation after being passed over for promotion. The borough could have fought it, investigated it, reformed because of it. Instead, they wrote a $450,000 check and changed absolutely nothing.
That settlement established the template: Pay to make problems disappear, but never fix what caused them.
By 2018, Jason Cosgriff took over as chief (the one who skipped John Gaffney in his promotion), inheriting a department that looked like a time capsule. Sixteen white male officers and one female officer, Diana Golonek. In Bergen County — where 40% of residents are minorities — Saddle River had achieved something that requires deliberate effort: complete racial homogeneity.
Internal Affairs fell under Detective Sergeant Edward Riedel and Sergeant Paul Passaretti. Their job was to investigate misconduct. Their actual job, according to two lawsuits, was to investigate anyone who reported misconduct.
The Document That Exposed Everything
In December 2023, Detective Sergeant Riedel created what would become the smoking gun in ongoing litigation: an internal-affairs memo that explicitly threatened officers who reported misconduct outside his control.
The memo warned that reporting to elected officials, outside agencies, or anyone beyond Riedel and Passaretti could result in discipline. In bureaucratic language, it established a closed loop where the only people you could report misconduct to were the people accused of misconduct.
Civil-rights attorneys would later call it “a blueprint for institutional intimidation.” The borough had a different interpretation. Fourteen months later, they promoted Riedel and Passaretti to lieutenant.
The Thirteen-Year Veteran Who Fought Back
Sergeant Diana Golonek had built a distinguished career in Saddle River. Bilingual, experienced, commended for service. For twelve years, she navigated the department’s culture professionally, keeping her head down, doing excellent work.
Then in July 2023, she filed a formal harassment complaint.
What followed reads like a retaliation playbook. According to her 47-page lawsuit:
- Supervisors began calling her unit the “blonde stupid squad”
- She was subjected to repeated drug testing while male colleagues weren’t tested, even having “red Gatorade poured into the toilet during her drug test”
- Her requests for specialized assignments were denied in favor of less-qualified male officers
- After filing her complaint, she was suddenly accused of “report tampering” from an incident months earlier
The Bergen County Prosecutor examined the tampering allegation and declined to prosecute — there was no criminal conduct. The borough proceeded with internal charges anyway, subjecting Golonek to 13 hours of public disciplinary hearings in February 2025.
Residents packed Borough Hall in support, many wearing “Make SRPD Great Again” hats. They watched a decorated officer with thirteen years of service fight for her career while the men who targeted her received promotions.
The Officer Who Represented Everything They Feared
Maryan Beskaly was everything Saddle River’s police department wasn’t: young, female, Egyptian-American, multilingual. When hired in May 2022, she became the department’s first Middle-Eastern officer and only its second woman.
She brought language skills, cultural competency, and professional training. She lasted exactly eleven months. Even being employed as a law-enforcement officer at another agency.
Her February 2025 lawsuit alleges discrimination that seems almost designed to drive her out:
- A lieutenant told her to “take testosterone” to deepen her voice
- Essential equipment chargers were kept in the men’s locker room, requiring her to request access
- Her request for a back-support vest — standard equipment for male supervisors — was denied
- She faced mockery for her accent from supervising officers
- When she declined to stop a Black driver without reasonable suspicion, she was written up
Her termination came in April 2023, days before she would have gained tenure protection. The precision of the timing wasn’t coincidental.
The Chief’s Strategic Exit
Chief Jason Cosgriff spent seven years at the helm of this department. Now, with two civil discrimination lawsuits exposing systematic discrimination and residents demanding answers, he’s reportedly negotiating an early retirement for “health reasons.”
The Court Wild Card
What’s different now is jurisdiction. Diana Golonek and Maryan Beskaly filed their cases in New Jersey Superior Court (Bergen County), where small-town politics carry no weight and evidence is all that matters.
Their lawsuits include documentation: the Riedel memo, promotion records showing retaliation patterns, demographic data that speaks for itself. Discovery will likely produce more — emails, testimony, the paper trail that discrimination always leaves.
Chief Cosgriff’s strategic retirement can’t stop depositions. Riedel’s potential promotion can’t erase his memo. The borough’s silence can’t suppress subpoenas.
What Happens Next
Within weeks, expect Chief Cosgriff to announce his retirement, citing health concerns. Lieutenant Riedel will likely be named interim or permanent chief, completing the circle of rewarding those who built the broken system.
The lawsuits will proceed through Superior Court, generating revelations that will cost far more than money. The borough will eventually settle, admit no wrongdoing, and declare the matter resolved.
Unless external intervention comes. The New Jersey Attorney General could investigate. Bergen County could demand oversight. Federal authorities could examine hiring practices that produced 100% white results in 2025.
The residents who finally woke up could stay awake.
Because here’s what Saddle River’s power structure doesn’t seem to understand: In 2025, running an all-white police department that systematically retaliates against female officers isn’t just a legal liability. It’s a civic embarrassment that no amount of median home prices can offset.
Diana Golonek and Maryan Beskaly have made sure this scandal won’t disappear into closed-door settlements. They’ve dragged it into state court, where facts matter more than connections.
And the facts are damning.
The Borough of Saddle River, Mayor Albert Kurpis, Chief Jason Cosgriff, Lt. Edward Riedel, and Lt. Paul Passaretti were contacted multiple times for comment. None responded. All parties deny wrongdoing in pending litigation.
Both discrimination lawsuits remain active in New Jersey Superior Court, Bergen County. The borough has not disclosed legal costs to taxpayers.
[Update: The department’s 19th officer, hired hours before publication, is another white male, maintaining the force’s 100% white composition.]
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