CAMDEN, NJ – A New Jersey man’s lawsuit against the State Police and a former county prosecutor over an allegedly unlawful wiretap arrest has been thrown out by a federal judge who ruled the claims were filed years after the legal deadline.
Evans Exantus brought the civil rights case under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that in August 2019, New Jersey State Police detectives unlawfully intercepted his phone calls and wrongfully arrested him based on the recorded conversations. He claimed the resulting first-degree charges were later dismissed and that the officers and prosecutors involved committed malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, and other constitutional violations.
In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Chief Judge Renée Marie Bumb dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, finding that the claims were clearly barred by New Jersey’s two-year statute of limitations for civil rights violations. Exantus filed the complaint in July 2025—nearly six years after the alleged conduct occurred.
While the court acknowledged Exantus’s in forma pauperis status and construed the handwritten complaint liberally due to his pro se filing, it concluded that all of his § 1983 claims—ranging from abuse of process to Monell claims for failure to train—were untimely on their face.
The court did leave a narrow door open, granting Exantus permission to file an amended complaint if he can plausibly allege a legal basis to toll the statute of limitations or show that the date of accrual falls within the required two-year window.
Named defendants included Col. Patrick J. Callahan, former Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police; Damon Tyner, former Atlantic County Prosecutor; and unnamed detectives involved in the 2019 wiretap operation.
