"Obama has decimated the friggin' constitution, so I don't give a damn," the Helmetta cop says on camera. "Because if he doesn't follow the Constitution we don't have to." 
 
 A still photo of the YouTube video showing Helmetta Special Police Officer Richard Recine talking about the U.S. Constitution. (Photo: YouTube) Story Highlights Special Police Officer Richard Recine is under investigation for remarks about Obama, Constitution. 
 
 Video recorded by residents campaigning for animal shelter reform. 
 
 UPDATE: N.J. cop in Obama rant resigns after video goes viral 
 
 EDITOR'S NOTE: This article contains language that some readers may find offensive. 
 
 A borough police officer was caught on camera telling a resident that police don't have to follow the Constitution because President Barack Obama doesn't, either. 
 
 Special Police Officer Richard Recine now is the subject of an internal affairs investigation after the video was posted online and was seen by Police Director Robert Manney, who called the comments an "embarrassment." 
 
 In the video, taken Monday at the borough municipal building, resident Steve Wronko gets into a verbal confrontation with Recine, who was called to the building because Wronko was seen taking pictures inside. 
 
 After Wronko insists he has a constitutional right to record in a public place, Recine responds. 
 
 "Obama has decimated the friggin' constitution, so I don't give a damn," says Recine, a retired Franklin cop. "Because if he doesn't follow the Constitution we don't have to." 
 
 Wronko then turns to the person recording the camera to make sure that was recorded. Recine repeats himself. 
 
 "Our president has decimated the constitution, then we don't have to." 
 
 On Wednesday, Manney said Recine's words were "uncalled for and unprofessional." 
 
 Manney, who appears in the video but only after Recine had made his comments, said the investigation should be "completed very swiftly" because "the evidence is right there." 
 
 "I've already spoken to that officer in regards to that. In my opinion it's an embarrassment." 
 
 Recine works as a part-time special police officer earning an hourly wage while collecting a $79,000 annual pension for his retirement as a police officer from Franklin in 2006. Helmetta is a small town of less than 2,200 people known for its police speed trap along the main drag. 
 
 Wronko's wife said Wednesday that she and her husband were at the municipal building to file public record requests. The couple have been campaigning for reform at the borough animal shelter, which they said gave them an underage and sick puppy that caused them thousands of dollars in veterinarian bills. 
 
 "We wanted them to pay for the medical bills. Now it's way past the money," Collene Freda-Wronko said. "Now it's about getting animals out of that shelter and getting people into that shelter who could run that facility better." 
 
 She said police have ordered her husband to stop videorecording at the animal shelter during two previous incidents. 
 
 Manney said police have the right to ask citizens to identify themselves in a municipal building. 
 
 "He was in our building and he got some of our employees upset," he said about Wronko. "They were worried because they've seen him before lurking around. In my opinion he was looking for an issue." 
 
 Staff Writer Sergio Bichao: 908-243-6615; sbichao@mycentraljersey.com 
 
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 Richard DeCoatsworth in happier times, as he joined first lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden at a presidential address in 2009. (Associated Press/File) 
 
 A retired Philadelphia police officer once hailed as a hero and invited by Michelle Obama in 2009 to sit next to her during the president's State of the Union address has been arrested and charged with raping and holding two women captive for two days. Richard DeCoatsworth, 27, was taken into custody early Saturday. When police arrived at his Port Richmond house on the 2700 block of Salmon Street, DeCoatsworth, who was armed, went to the basement to open a garage door and let out his pit bull, a law enforcement source said. The dog ran away after police fired two flash grenades. DeCoatsworth, discarding his gun, ran into the bedroom, where there was a loaded shotgun. Police subdued and arrested him without incident, the source said. DeCoatsworth had been under investigation by the Special Victims Unit after two women alleged that he forced them to use drugs and engage in sexual activity. 
 
 The women said they came into contact with DeCoatsworth about 2 a.m. Thursday at a party, said Officer Christine O'Brien, a police spokeswoman. They left the party with him, and the three went to another location. 
 
 Police did not identify the site of the party or say where the alleged crimes took place. 
 
 At the second site, DeCoatsworth took out a handgun and allegedly forced the two women "to engage in the use of narcotics and sexual acts," O'Brien said. 
 
 The women reported the incident to police, and DeCoatsworth was charged with rape, sexual assault, terroristic threats, and related charges. His bail was set at $60 million. 
 
 The women told police DeCoatsworth had held them captive for two days, according to the law enforcement source. 
 
 It was a long fall from grace for the former officer, who in 2007 was lauded as a hero. 
 
 2009 tribute 
 
 As a 21-year-old rookie, DeCoatsworth took a shotgun blast to the face and, bleeding heavily and returning fire, pursued his attacker for several blocks before collapsing and radioing for help. 
 
 The gunman, Antonio Coulter, was caught and later pleaded guilty in the shooting. DeCoatsworth underwent extensive surgery and returned to duty in June 2008. 
 
 His heroism in that case led to an invitation to sit next to the first lady during the president's 2009 address. 
 
 DeCoatsworth then became involved in two controversial incidents in which he shot at suspects. In April 2009, he shot Anthony Temple when the man lunged for his gun, police said, and a backup officer then shot and killed Temple. 
 
 The following September, he wounded a man in a leg who allegedly ran at him on a motorcycle. 
 
 DeCoatsworth racked up a number of Internal Affairs complaints, and he retired in December 2011 at age 25. He left, a police spokesman said at the time, due to injuries from the 2007 shooting. 
 
 'Something like this' 
 
 Some in the Police Department had feared DeCoatsworth was badly troubled. One officer said DeCoatsworth's unpredictable behavior and temper had led some in the department to view him as a time bomb. 
 
 "I hate to say it, but I did see something like this coming," the officer said Saturday. 
 
 Neighbors at a diner down the block from DeCoatsworth's home said he had been known to behave erratically. A woman who asked not to be named said she avoided the former officer after an incident in the fall in which his pit bull allegedly charged at her chihuahua. 
 
 "From the look in his eyes," she said, "I was terrified." 
 
 Shattered glass from DeCoatsworth's door spilled out over his front steps Saturday afternoon, and people inside refused to answer the door. When two people left the apartment, they declined to comment. 
 
 Contact Jonathan Lai 
 
 at 856-779-3220, jlai@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @elaijuh. 
 
 Inquirer staff writer Allison Steele contributed to this article.
– A New Jersey police officer has resigned after saying that he can ignore a citizen's Constitutional rights—because President Obama has already "decimated the friggin' Constitution." Special Police Officer Richard Recine made the heated remark Monday in a confrontation with a resident of Helmetta, NJ, who had been seen taking photos inside a municipal building, My Central Jersey reports. The resident, Steve Wronko, told Recine he had a constitutional right to snap the shots. "Obama has decimated the friggin' constitution, so I don't give a damn," said Recine. "Because if he doesn't follow the Constitution we don't have to." What's more, Recine's comments were all captured on video (WARNING: foul language). An internal affairs investigation quickly followed, and Police Director Robert Manney called Recine's words an "embarrassment." Manney said the probe should wrap up "very swiftly" since "the evidence is right there." Recine, a 59-year-old part-time officer, told My Central Jersey why he resigned: "I don't want to give a black eye to law enforcement," he said. "I don't want all officers painted with the same brush." Wronko's wife said the whole thing started because she and her husband were trying to reform the borough animal shelter, which had given them a sick puppy that ended up costing thousands of extra dollars in veterinary services.