Local police included on list of officers subject to discipline

Two law enforcement officers in Sussex County were among those included on a list released last week by the New Jersey Attorney General of officers subject to major discipline between June 15, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020.

Cpl. Craig Grauerholz of the Sparta Police Department was involved in an altercation off-duty on the evening of March 17, 2020. As a result, he was charged by the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office with one count of PDP harassment. He pled guilty to a PDP offense on Aug. 19, 2020, and the charge was expunged immediately. He was suspended for 45 days.

Patrolman William Underwood of the Byram Police Department made inappropriate and derogatory comments on Facebook. He was terminated.

The information is being released in compliance with a directive issued two months ago by former Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal in light of this summer’s New Jersey Supreme Court decision authorizing the public release of certain police disciplinary information on a going-forward basis.

Under the director, all New Jersey law enforcement agencies are required to publish online and provide to the attorney general’s office the names of any officers who were subject to “major discipline” — that is, terminated, demoted, or suspended for more than five days —during the relevant reporting period. Going forward, agencies will be required to release this information on an annual basis, shortly after the end of the calendar year.

The information being released is available online at njoag.gov/majordiscipline.

“The vast majority of New Jersey’s law enforcement officers serve the public with honor and integrity, doing the right thing day-in and day-out for the communities they serve, so I take no joy in putting this information out,” said Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck. “But we are doing this because it is an important and necessary step to build greater public trust while promoting professionalism in law enforcement.”

Bruck said his office was releasing this information “not to shame or embarrass individual officers, but to provide the same type of transparency and accountability in policing that New Jersey mandates in other essential professions.”