Chief Moose was recruited here three years ago to deal with complaints of racial profiling.
Democrats have angrily charged that Mr. Verniero was slow to respond to complaints of racial profiling.
Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who has been criticized for failing to heed complaints of racial profiling for two years before the shooting, said the state would appeal the ruling.
A year ago, Mr. Richardson named a committee to investigate complaints of racial profiling, and he appointed Dr. Jeremy Wu, a former official in the Agriculture Department's office of civil rights, as the department's ombudsman to review diversity issues and hear employee complaints.
But one memo from an assistant attorney general to Mr. Verniero, dated July 29 , 1997 included an audit of the Moorestown barracks, which had been the subject of repeated complaints of racial profiling.
For example, one memo from an assistant attorney general to Mr. Verniero in July 1997 included an audit of the Moorestown barracks, which had been the subject of repeated complaints of racial profiling.
In fact, Mr. Spano produced figures showing that of 40,000 traffic stops recorded by the county's Department of Public Safety from 1998 to 2000, there were only three complaints of racial profiling.
But one memo states that Mr. Verniero participated in a January 1997 meeting at which he and state police commanders decided to restrict the data they would turn over to the Justice Department, which was then investigating complaints of racial profiling.
Many civil rights advocates said they were grateful that the Justice Department had agreed to intercede, saying that the Whitman administration had ignored complaints of racial profiling for years before the 1998 shooting.
