The sad saga of former Monmouth County Freeholder John Curley’s career implostion is hopefully over.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit dismissed Curley’s federal lawsuit against his fellow freeholders and the County Administrator and County Counsel on Wednesday.
He ended the year, and his career as a freeholder, with a whimper during a statement at his final meeting as an elected member of the Monmouth County governing body.
Realty Data Systems, LLC, the property inspection company that in April accused disgraced Freeholder John P.Curley of corruption and official misconduct, said they became aware of new evidence of Curley’s malfeasance this month.
Michael Panter, one of RDS’s founders and owners acting as the company’s in-house lawyer, made the new allegations against Curley in a Notice of Claims filed with Monmouth County Counsel Michael Fitzgerald and County Administrator Teri O’Connor on Thursday October 25. The notice includes a draft lawsuit against the County of Monmouth as Curley’s employer.
The Democrat and Republican candidates for Monmouth County Freeholder each said they would not accept County funded health insurance if elected to the part time position next month.
Republican candidates, Freeholder Gerry Scharfenberger and Hazlet Deputy Mayor Sue Kiley, have long opposed part-time elected officials exploiting the taxpayers by taking excessive benefits. Democrat candidates Larry Luttrell and Amber Gesslein each told MMM that would not accept taxpayer funded health benefits if they are elected.
The Independent candidate, disgraced Freeholder John P. Curley, has been sticking Monmouth County property taxpayers with the cost of his medical care for most of the last two years and he opposed a recent resolution against the practice.
Josh Welle and Amber Gesslein could run for the Dem nominations for Assembly in LD 13 next year.
Assemblywoman Amy Handlin’s announcement that she will not seek reelection next year inevitably creates speculation on who will run to replace her. While party leaders on both sides of the aisle would rather their troops stay focused on the election coming up next month, the jockeying has started given how infrequently a vacancy occurs in the 13th district.
Democrats, who normally lose badly in the district will likely have a contest for the two Assembly nominations next year, given Handlin’s vacancy and Serena DiMaso serving her freshman term. DiMaso put something of a target on her back with the Dems when she made a robocall criticizing LD 11 Assemblymembers Eric Hougtaling and Joann Downey for voting for Governor Murphy’s tax increases. Houghtaling and Downey responded to DiMaso’s robocall with an ethics complaint.
With the Assembly on top of the ballot next year, Dems will likely be motivated and funded, even in LD 13.
Potential Democrat Candidates for LD 13 Assembly in 2019 who are running for other offices this year:
Monmouth County Freeholder Deputy Director Lillian Burry said that she is one of the many people who have been abused by disgraced Freeholder John P. Curley. “Don’t lose sight of that Freeholder Curley has a history of abusing people, individually and collectively,” Burry said during a meeting of the Board last week.
Burry said that she was personally threatened by Freeholder Curley during a closed meeting in 2013. “With pointed fingers he said, ‘I will get you,’ I mean it was really unnerving and everybody sitting there could feel that way.”
Where is John Curley getting $300,000 to $500,000 to pursue his ridiculous lawsuit?
Angelo Genova, $850 per hour
Disgraced Freeholder John P. Curley’s attorneys, Genova Burns, submitted an invoice for $30,483.92 for their work on Curley’s contempt motion only yesterday in federal court. Curley sued Monmouth County taxpayers, his fellow freeholders, County Administrator Teri O’Connor and County Counsel Michael Fitzgerald late last year in an effort to keep an investigative report into his alleged conduct of employee harassment, sexual and otherwise, from becoming public.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian R. Martinotti dismissed Curley’s 12 count suit (not covered in the $30,483.92 invoice), but held the freeholders in contempt for revealing parts of the report in their Censure and Reprimand Resolution of Curley in December. Judge Martinotti ruled the County must pay Curley’s legal fees associated with the contempt motion. The County has appealed the contempt ruling, arguing that the information in the Censure and Reprimand did not come from the investigative report prepared by retired Acting Supreme Court Justice Mary Catherine Cuff.
Disgraced Freeholder John P. Curley survived a challenge to his nominating petitions for reelection, according to a letter from Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon dated June 13, which was obtained by MMM via OPRA request.
After noticing irregularities in the Curley petitions, Monmouth County Republican Chairman, Sheriff Shaun Golden, submitted a formal challenge to the petitions requesting that Hanlon’s staff review the signatures before certifying Curley’s candidacy for Freeholder as an Independent.
Hanlon found that over 120 signatures were invalid because the signers were not registered to vote in Monmouth County or the signature on the petition did not match the signature in the state voter records. The censured freeholder still has over 100 valid signatures, making his overall petition valid.
Disgraced Freeholder John P. Curley blew his chance to compete for the Republican nomination for Monmouth County Freeholder back in January, because he did not get his letter of intent and nominating petition filed on time.
Now, Curley might not make it onto the ballot as an Independent candidate because the petitions he filed with the Monmouth County Clerk on Tuesday are defective.
A review of the 398 signatures Curley filed indicates that only 165 of them are valid. Only 100 valid signatures are required to get the misogynist, homophobe, anti-Italian bigot on the ballot, so his candidacy might be safe. However, of the 165, there are apparent duplicates within Curley’s paperwork that are still being researched. A review of Democrat candidate Amber Gesslein’s petitions and Republican Sue Kiley’s petitions for additional disqualifying duplicates is ongoing.
Charles Webster, spokesperson for the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office issued the following statement to MMM regarding our stories today about former Assemblyman Michael Panter’s allegations against Monmouth County Freeholder John P. Curley: Read the rest of this entry »
