A former New Jersey cop who moonlighted as a volunteer fire chief was arrested Thursday after firefighters claimed he handcuffed and groped them and committed other “acts of sexual contact” during bogus trainings.
Robert Sinnott, Jr., a 52-year-old ex-cop and former chief of the Silverton Volunteer Fire Company in Toms River, NJ, was arrested at his home in Cape Coral, Fla. on Thursday, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office announced in a press release.
Robert Sinnott, Jr., 52, was arrested at his home in Florida on Thursday. Lee County Florida jailMultiple volunteer firefighters who worked with Sinnott alleged that, between 2022 and 2023, he “created situations where he would be alone” with his would-be victims at various locations, including the firehouse and his home, according to the release.
Some claimed that, in one instance, he “handcuffed them under the guise of ‘training'” and forced “acts of sexual contact upon them,” the attorney general’s office said.
Others noted that they saw Sinnott take photographs of them while they were still cuffed, according to the release.
Sinnott’s former coworkers at a firehouse in New Jersey accused him of sexual misconduct. SVSC29.comDuring the New Jersey’s Office of Public Integrity & Accountability’s investigation into Sinnott’s alleged misconduct, victims and other firefighters said that many of them “saw Sinnott as a mentor and role model,” according to the release.
In March, three volunteer firefighters who worked for the Silverton Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 filed a lawsuit accusing Sinnott of sexual assault and claimed that the repeated abuse was outright ignored by other members of the department’s leadership.
Three volunteer firefighters with the firehouse filed a lawsuit alleging Sinnott sexually assaulted them. SVSC29.comThe plaintiffs, who are all male, highlighted the forced handcuffing cited by the attorney general’s office.
They also described “simulated police demonstrations that allegedly turned violent and sexually explicit,” NJ.com reported.
Sinnott was charged with four counts of criminal sexual contact in the fourth degree and one count of official misconduct in the second degree, according to the attorney general’s office. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the official misconduct charge alone.
He is currently being held at the Lee County Jail in Florida pending extradition to New Jersey.
