A law enforcement officer in New Jersey was charged on Thursday with stealing the camera equipment of a photojournalist who was covering a protest outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark.
The photojournalist, Angelina Katsanis, 25, dropped her camera bag after she was injured at the protest on Saturday, she said in an interview. The bag contained roughly $10,000 worth of equipment, according to a statement from the state attorney general, Jennifer Davenport.
The bag was later tracked using an Apple AirTag to the home of Darryl Brown, 43, a sergeant with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, the statement said. Sergeant Brown, of Sparta Township, N.J., had been deployed to Delaney Hall during the protest, prosecutors said.
“When an officer does what is alleged in this case, it is a disservice to the profession and the public,” Ms. Davenport said in the statement. “Let me be clear: Absolutely no one is above the law. We will hold law enforcement accountable when they abuse the tremendous position of public trust that they occupy and choose to break the law.”
Theodore N. Stephens II, the Essex County prosecutor, said Sergeant Brown had been suspended without pay pending the outcome of an investigation by the attorney general’s office.
“Conduct that undermines the public’s trust in law enforcement is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” he said in a statement. “The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office remains committed to accountability, integrity and maintaining the public’s trust in the criminal justice system.”
Ms. Davenport’s office said Sergeant Brown faces one count of third-degree theft, which carries a sentence of three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000. The sergeant could not immediately be located on Thursday; it was not clear whether he had a lawyer.
Delaney Hall, which is overseen by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, has been the site of protests almost every night since Memorial Day weekend, as demonstrators rallied to support detainees reportedly staging a hunger strike over inhumane conditions. Protesters have periodically clashed with federal agents and New Jersey state troopers, and more than 80 people have been arrested.
Ms. Katsanis was covering the Saturday protest for The Associated Press, she said in the interview. She has previously worked for The New York Times as a freelancer.
She said her knee was seriously injured when she was struck by a long wooden board that was thrown during the protest. She did not know who threw the board, but said she soon fled the area when a line of police officers began to advance into the crowd of protesters.
“I knew if I didn’t run, I would be more severely hurt,” said Ms. Katsanis, who dropped her bag in the chaos. “I ran or hobbled pretty far — the adrenaline kicked in.”
Later that night, Ms. Katsanis and another photographer, who was on assignment for The Times, made their way to a nearby hospital using a wheelchair given to her by a medic at the scene.
From a hospital bed, she watched on her phone as the AirTag in her camera bag traveled across northern New Jersey — on the highway, then to a private residence, and then to a bar close to that home, she said.
Ms. Katsanis said her boyfriend and the other photographer went out to track the AirTag and found that it had been removed from her bag and was on the side of the road. She said that her name and contact information were still clearly written on the AirTag.
“That was a pretty clear sign to me that this was a theft and not just a law enforcement officer holding onto this bag for safekeeping,” said Ms. Katsanis, who reported the missing bag to the attorney general’s office.
“I never in a million years thought I was going to see my gear again,” she added.
Prosecutors said on Thursday that police officers found Ms. Katsanis’s belongings, clearly labeled with her name, when they executed a search warrant at Sergeant Brown’s home on Wednesday.
The prosecutors also received footage from Sergeant Brown’s body-worn camera, which they said “shows him interacting with a dark-colored bag consistent with the description of the victim’s belongings.”
Liam Stack is a Times reporter who covers the culture and politics of the New York City region.
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