JERSEY CITY — The mayor of the state’s second-largest city is being sued in federal court by a municipal employee who was referred to by a racial slur in a traffic accident report allegedly filed by a city police officer.

Floyd Harley, a messenger with the city’s Division of Treasury and Debt Management, says he’s suffered “extreme humiliation and emotional distress from a hostile workplace environment” after a copy of the 2010 crash report was published online this year by RealJerseyCity.com.

The authenticity of the report, however, has been disputed by the officer, who submitted a different report with a different signature.

Nevertheless, the explosive document has become the subject of at least three lawsuits against the city and its police department. The other lawsuits were filed by police officers facing a a 107-count indictment charging them with falsifying time records.

A copy of the report was released as part of a public-records request. Harley’s lawsuit blames the city for allowing the report to be released and for not informing him about what it said before it hit the internet.

City spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill on Thursday said officials do not comment on lawsuits, but added that the mayor "doesn't know who Floyd Harley is nor about any report."

Harley, a city resident and father of two school-age children and several adult children, got swept into the controversy when the police car he was a passenger in rear-ended a woman’s car on May 27, 2010.

Four years later, the officer who was driving that car —Michael Maiettti — complained to superiors that his supervisor at the time, Terrence Crowley, had filed an accident crash report filled with foul language and racial and sexual epithets attributed to Maietti.

The June 3, 2010, report, under letterhead of the since-disbanded JCPD Motorcycle Squad, says the accident was caused by Maietti’s “inattention … eating a sandwich while driving n---er Floyd around the city.”

Here's a copy of the report. We've highlighted the paragraph in question and redacted the profanity.

Jersey City crash report redacted
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The report continues: “Officer Maietti stated ‘the f---in’ dumb bitch just stopped and I hit the cu--!’ … His boy Floyd wanted ‘to put a cap in her ass!’”

In a 2014 letter to his supervisor, Crowley claims the crash report is fake and says the signature on it is not his:

Jersey City crash report
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Crowley submitted what he says was his “original report,” which did not include the foul language. He adds that his computer is “unsecured” and all officers in the Motorcycle Squad had access to it.

Here's a copy of the "original report." The signature is highlighted.

Jersey City crash report
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Maietti filed his own lawsuit against the city last year claiming officials retaliated after he blew the whistle on Crowley and informed superiors of this report.

Maietti was indicted in June on official misconduct, theft and conspiracy charges along with officers Joseph Ascolese, Kelly Chesler and Michael O'Neil.

City officials submitted the crash report for forensic and handwriting analysis earlier this year, the Harley and Maietti lawsuits state. The status of that investigation wasn't clear Thursday.

Sergio Bichao is deputy digital editor at New Jersey 101.5. Send him news tips: Call 609-438-1015 or email sergio.bichao@townsquaremedia.com.

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