May 17, 2022
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Bordentown Chief of Police Brian Pesce, 46, was placed on restricted duty after he was charged with DUI in Hamilton Township, Mercer County on April 22. Authorities released body-worn camera footage from Pesce's arrest.
The chief of police in Bordentown was arrested last month on drunk driving charges after he was found on the ground along a residential street in Hamilton Township. Body-worn camera footage from police at the scene reveals that 46-year-old Brian Pesce's pants were partially down when officers found him in the roadway on April 22.
Pesce has been the Burlington County community's chief of police since 2018 and is a 23-year police veteran. On the night of the incident, authorities in Hamilton, Mercer County received a report of a driver "weaving all over the place" and nearly hitting a mailbox, according to court documents obtained by NJ.com.
The woman who called police reportedly warned, "He's gonna kill somebody."
Some time later, the woman called 911 again to say that the driver had stopped and gotten out of his vehicle, a red Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. She told authorities there was a man on the ground in the road who appeared to be "obliviated."
Body camera footage from the arrest, first obtained by NJ.com, shows responding officers in Hamilton Township encounter Pesce in the roadway. His keys and cellphone were in the middle of the street.
"He took a spill," one of the officers said.
"The f*** is that," the officer wearing the body camera said, referring to a wet spot under the truck. "He pissed on his tire and then took a spill?"
As the officers gathered information, Pesce could be heard asking, "What's the problem?"
"You're sleeping in the middle of the road," an officer responded.
"Your pants are down!" the other officer said. "Are you diabetic?"
"Not at all," Pesce responded.
"Probably the wrong answer," the officer replied.
When one of the officers looked inside the truck for a wallet, he found Pesce's police badge. The body camera footage then cuts to Pesce in the back of an ambulance. An officer explained that he would be placed under arrest for suspicion of DUI.
"I drove?" Pesce asked. "I wasn't driving anywhere ... No one was driving."
Pesce reportedly got the police chief job in Bordentown after he initiated an internal affairs investigation into the his former boss, Frank Nucera, who this week will begin serving a 28-month prison sentence on federal hate crime charges. Nucera was convicted of lying to federal authorities about attacking a Black teen who was in police custody. The former chief allegedly used the N-word and compared Black people to the Islamic militant group ISIS.
Pesce has been placed on restricted duty in the Bordentown Police Department amid an ongoing investigation into last month's incident.
