Is Haddon Township Commissioner’s Recent Incident Just The Tip Of The Iceberg?

Haddon Twp Commissioner Paul Dougherty; photo from Twp. website

Yesterday we told the story of an elected official from Haddon Township, Commissioner Paul Dougherty, who was “accused of leaving the scene of an accident” and “charged with driving without a license.”

Multiple sources have told us the ticket(s) was/were mailed to his house. Common sense tells us if the ticket was mailed that “driving without a license” means it wasn’t simply a case of him not having it in his wallet, but he doesn’t have a license, maybe suspended, maybe revoked or maybe he never renewed it. Who knows? Whatever the reason, as a municipal prosecutor in several municipalities, he should have known better than to drive without a license. Surly, he’s prosecuted people for doing exactly that.

The thing is this latest incident may be just the tip of the iceberg with Dougherty. Given the truckload of garbage behind him it’s a wonder he was ever re-elected.

In 2012 Dougherty was forced to repay $2,500 to Haddon Township after accepting payroll checks that were issued “to Dougherty at his request that were more than the compensation approved in the budget.”

In March 2013 Haddon Township police officers held a vote of “no confidence” in Dougherty. Members of the Department claimed “he had inappropriately discussed a police personnel matter in a public meeting; had appointed a hearing officer that he had a financial relationship with to preside over a preceding considering disciplinary actions for a police officer; had been found to be in a "suspected state of intoxication" on several occasions by township police officers and several other allegations.” There’s a YouTube video here.

In June 2013, after Dougherty was moved from Public Safety to Finance, probably because of his apparent issues with members of the Township police department, he slashed $20,000 from the police budget for items other than salary. The other two commissioners had to vote to restore the funding.

In October 2013 Dougherty was accused by a Township woman, who happened to be his neighbor, of “targeting” her with code enforcement. Coincidentally, the woman was going through a divorce and sources tell us Dougherty, an attorney, just happened to representing her estranged husband at the time.

Since yesterday’s post we’ve received many calls and anonymous messages about Mr. Dougherty, too many to immediately investigate considering we both have day jobs. There is probably more to this guy’s story but for now we’ll ask, how did this guy get re-elected?

Update 6:17PM: Other sources inform us Dougherty did NOT represent the woman's ex husband. But eventually the town's prosecutor did represent the ex husband