COURT HOUSE – Two Lower Township police officers, who were charged in October 2021 with stealing bikes, have entered a diversion program, which, if completed, would result in the dismissal of the criminal charges they are facing.
Both officers, Eric Campbell and Austin Craig, will forfeit their employment with the department, in accordance with the deal reached with prosecutors, a court official said.
In the fall, Cape May police issued surveillance footage of two unknown suspects they said stole bikes from a rack near Decatur Street Oct. 8, 2021, and asked for the public’s help to identify the suspects.
Six days later, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office announced Campbell and Craig’s arrests in relation to the incident and identified them as members of the Lower Township Police Department.
Since their arrest, Campbell and Craig have been suspended without pay from the department. In court March 28, Campbell and Craig each agreed to enter Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI), a diversion program available to certain first-time offenders in New Jersey.
Campbell and Craig will spend six months in the program and if they do not comply with its conditions, prosecutors can reinstate the original fourth-degree charges.
Craig and Campbell, who were each born in 1993, will also pay fines of $125, according to a court official.
