Former Eatontown Police detective Philip Emanuele was given five years' probation today, for his guilty plea to criminal coercion and evidence tampering.

Philip Emanuele
Philip Emanuele (MugShots.com)
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The 33-year-old eight-year veteran of the force from Brick Township also forfeited his position and is barred from public employment in New Jersey.

According to Monmouth County Acting Prosecutor Chris Grammiccioni, the third- and fourth-degree counts stemmed from a complaint by a 24-year-old woman about his actions during a theft probe in the Monmouth Mall in Eatontown this past March.

Emanuele was accused of placing the female worker under arrest, then telling her in the parking lot that he'd help her any way he could if she'd help him. At that point she handed over narcotics to the detective.

Authorities say Emanuele signed a theft complaint, flushed the drugs down a toilet and asked the suspect to become an informant. During the return drive to her car, say investigators, she turned down his request to perform a sex act on him.

Emanuele reportedly met the woman twice more, each time using the pending theft charge as leverage to coerce her into sex.

He was suspended without pay by the township in June. He earned $114,712 a year at the time, says Grammiccioni.

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