The first black mayor of South Harrison Township, who stepped down in November after he was a target of racial intimidation, has filed a federal lawsuit against local police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office because they did not discipline or prosecute a police officer he says pushed him.
At the time of his resignation, Charles Tyson, who became mayor in January 2007, said he was worn down by racially motivated death threats, vandalism, and nasty politics directed against him.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Camden on Monday, Tyson alleges that rookie Officer Nicholas Barbetta shoved him during a conversation in front of Tyson's house in September 2008, not long after the incidents.
