Camden corrections officer fired for racist text messages

A Camden County corrections officer has been fired after exchanging racist text messages with a number of other officers.

Thomas McNulty was removed from his position in January of this year, but he appealed the decision. An administrative law judge upheld the decision, and the state Civil Service Commission affirmed that decision last month.

According to the ruling, McNulty sent several "inflammatory" racist messages. Some referred to the jail's warden as the "HNIC," short for "Head n———— in charge." Several use variations of the N word. One makes reference to a "mud duck." Another: "Merry Christmas all my Knee-Grows."

The ruling also notes pictures and messages sent from McNulty's phone show he had it in the Camden County Correctional Facility, and that he'd taken pictures of the inside of the facility and of inmates — all of which are prohibited.

After discovering his phone, authorities reviewed 5,782 messages, photos and videos that had been exchanged between nine workers late last year, finding several of them to contain racially insensitive content. None of the workers were black.

McNulty had argued he only responded to a small fraction of the messages, and didn't consider them racist.