No one likes traffic in New Jersey, but most of us aren’t rich enough to do anything about it.
Former New Jersey State Police Sergeant Nadir Nassry told the story behind the high-speed escorts that led celebrities and athletes through the state, and ultimately cost him his job. Nassry came clean on the operation, while pleading for full retirement benefits following his ouster, and NJ.com witnessed his account. It was the first time Nassry had spoken publicly on it.
“I’d been sent to Philadelphia, Manhattan, numerous times in marked cars to pick up NFL players, teams, friends of NFL owners and ownership,” Nassry, 48, said.
Nassry said that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, former quarterback Troy Aikman, former tennis star John McEnroe and FOX play-by-play man Joe Buck were among those who used his services. But it was ultimately former Giants running back Brandon Jacobs that got him busted.
Jacobs, currently an NFL free agent, called Nassry and asked, “Can you help us out with a couple of our boys?” for a trip to Atlantic City.
Nassry said that the groups would routinely include a dozen cars, but Jacobs had approximately 25 of them.
“And I thought, ‘Oh, crap,’ ” Nassry said. “But I decided we better escort this group to the Garden State Parkway, being such a large group.”
Trooper Joseph Ventrella was the only other officer with Nassry and that ultimately proved to be too little support for such a massive group of cars, which grew when they stopped at a rest stop and added 15 more luxury vehicles for the high-speed romp.
Witnesses took photos of the caravan and complaints were made leading to the end of Nassy and Ventrella’s career and the transfer of other officers. But it is not the end of the escorts that Nassry said “were ordered all the time and still are today.”
“The state police do conduct escorts, pursuant to comprehensive protocols and procedures, none of which permits the type of criminal behavior at issue here,” Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office, told the website.
Nassry was sentenced to a year of probation and 75 hours of community service, and accepted a permanent ban from law enforcement for tampering with public records and covering up his license plate with black electrical tape while he escorted the stars.