Charles "Ken" Zisa, a former New Jersey police chief and state assemblyman whose criminal convictions were thrown out on appeal, has settled his federal civil rights lawsuit against three agencies for $3.9 million.

The City of Hackensack, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, and the Bergen County Sheriff's Office each agreed to pay $1.3 million to resolve the lawsuit Zisa filed in 2017, NJ.com reported. No defendants remain in the case. The payout comes on top of $2.8 million Zisa had already received in back pay and legal costs after appellate judges wiped out every charge against him.

That brings the total taxpayer and institutional cost of the case to at least $6.7 million, all flowing from convictions that could not survive appellate review. Zisa's attorney says the prosecution should never have happened in the first place.

A 17-year career destroyed by charges that didn't hold up

Zisa served as Hackensack's police chief from 1995 through 2012. Before that, he represented New Jersey's 37th Legislative District as a state assemblyman from 1993 until 2001, when he gave up the seat for an unsuccessful run for Bergen County Sheriff.

The trouble traced back to 2008, when allegations surfaced that Zisa had removed his then-girlfriend from the scene of a car crash before she could submit to a sobriety test. Four years later, in 2012, he was charged and convicted of official misconduct and insurance fraud. A judge sentenced him to five years in prison for the misconduct count, though he was allowed to serve the sentence on house arrest while his appeal moved forward.

An appellate panel then overturned every one of his convictions in two separate decisions. The courts did not merely find procedural errors. They reversed the convictions outright, and Zisa was awarded $2.8 million in back pay and legal costs.

Cases like Zisa's raise a question that comes up whenever law enforcement leaders face serious accusations that later fall apart: who pays, and who answers for the damage?

Zisa's attorney calls the prosecution 'engineered' and 'malicious'

Henry Klingeman, Zisa's attorney, told NJ.com that all three agencies have now settled and no defendants remain. He called the $3.9 million result "a very good start", notable language given that the original lawsuit sought more than $29 million in damages.

Klingeman went further in a written statement, describing what happened to Zisa as a coordinated effort by officials who abused their authority:

"The people in charge at Hackensack now are not the same people responsible for what happened to Chief Zisa. The people in charge now recognize the wrong that was done to him: A group of law enforcement officials and prosecutors engineered a malicious prosecution, at the end of which Chief Zisa was exonerated."

He added that Zisa, like other wrongfully convicted people, deserved compensation for confinement, lost professional opportunities, and personal suffering. The accountability questions surrounding law enforcement conduct echo issues raised in other cases where officers face career-ending consequences based on decisions by superiors.

Klingeman's statement did not name the specific officials or prosecutors he accused of engineering the case. The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment, citing civil litigation. The Bergen County Sheriff's Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Hackensack's mayor blames predecessors for a decade of inaction

Hackensack Mayor Caseen Gaines framed the settlement as a rescue from a far worse outcome. The Hackensack City Council voted July 14 to approve the city's $1.3 million share, of which $450,000 comes directly from the city and $850,000 from Selective Insurance Company, Hackensack's insurance carrier.

Gaines aimed squarely at the previous city administration, accusing it of letting a $29 million lawsuit sit unresolved for years while taxpayers bore the full financial exposure:

"For nearly a decade, the previous administration spared no expense to keep a $29 million lawsuit on the books because, for them, it was political theater, all while hiding the fact that their inaction left taxpayers holding 100% of the financial risk."

He described the resolution as a "decisive, fiscally sound settlement" that "insulates residents from a larger payout." Gaines said his administration forced the city's insurance carrier to the table, compelling Selective Insurance to fund the majority of Hackensack's share. Without that intervention, he argued, residents faced millions more in damages and open-ended legal fees.

Whether Gaines's characterization of the prior administration's motives is accurate remains an open question. What is not in dispute is the timeline: Zisa filed the lawsuit in 2017, and it took years to reach resolution. The pattern of local governments absorbing steep costs when police leadership disputes spiral into prolonged legal fights is familiar to taxpayers across the country.

$6.7 million and counting, with no one held personally accountable

Add the numbers up. Zisa collected $2.8 million in back pay and legal costs after his convictions were overturned. He now collects another $3.9 million from the civil rights settlement. The combined cost is at least $6.7 million, split among a city, a county prosecutor's office, a county sheriff's office, and an insurance carrier.

Klingeman's description of the $3.9 million as "a very good start" suggests Zisa's legal team views the outcome as less than full vindication, given the original $29 million claim. But for the agencies involved, the bill is already substantial, and none of the officials Klingeman accused of orchestrating what he called a malicious prosecution have been identified publicly or faced individual consequences based on the information available.

The prosecutor's office refused to discuss it. The sheriff's office stayed silent. Accountability in cases involving law enforcement conduct and institutional credibility often stops at the institutional checkbook, and the people who write those checks are taxpayers.

Zisa's case followed a clear arc: allegations in 2008, charges and conviction in 2012, appellate reversal, a multimillion-dollar back-pay award, a federal lawsuit in 2017, and now a $3.9 million settlement. At every stage after the original prosecution, the system moved in Zisa's favor. The convictions did not survive review. The civil rights claims produced a seven-figure payout from every defendant.

When prosecutors and law enforcement officials bring a case that collapses on appeal and costs their agencies nearly $7 million, someone ought to explain how it happened and why no individual bore the cost. In Hackensack, the institutions paid. The officials walked. And the taxpayers, as usual, got the bill.