August 24, 2016
North Hanover Towsnhip//Contributed photo
The new police chief in South Jersey's North Hanover Township pulled down an average of more than $25,000 in overtime in the three years before he became chief. The revelations comes on the heels of a disclosure he was fired while a cop in Medford, where he was also at the center of a sexual harassment suit.
Fighting crime pays for one South Jersey top police officer.
Theodore Bud Wells, who was recently promoted to chief in North Hanover Township, Burlington County, raked in more overtime than any other township police officer in 2013, 2014 and again in 2015.
Wells earned an average of $25,945.57 per year in overtime pay during the three-year period. He was a detective sergeant in the department, which has about a dozen sworn officers.
The high overtime disclosure follows news that Wells was fired as a police officer by Medford Township, also in Burlington County, for an unspecified “local conviction.”
When challenged by Wells, the township secretly agreed to let him instead quit. The township also quietly paid him $20,000 to settle the lawsuit challenging his firing.
Additionally, records show Wells was at the center of another secret settlement while employed in the Medford police department.
In that case, a former police dispatcher, Nicole Hoffman, was paid $300,000 in return for agreeing not to discuss the settlement of her September 2003 sexual harassment and workplace retaliation suit against Wells, the department and the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office.
In that suit, Wells was alleged to have tried to unbutton the female police dispatcher's pants while both were on duty. Wells, then a corporal, is alleged to have made sexual advances, and called Hoffman “hottie” or “sexy” rather than using her name.
Neither Wells -- whose total compensation in 2015 was $107,691.55 -- Medford Township nor the prosecutor’s office responded to a previous request for comment on the secret settlements.
The high overtime payments and the secret settlements were unearthed by John Paff, an open public records advocate and blogger.
North Hanover’s mayor Jim Duff did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the overtime pay. North Hanover is about 14 miles northeast of Medford.
The mayor previously told PhillyVoice that the secret settlements involving Wells had not come up while vetting Wells as chief.
