Curley’s lawsuit against Freeholders and County Administration is dismissed

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.

In 2017, the Freeholder Board learned that an employee had complained about the inappropriate actions of then Freeholder Curley. The matter was investigated by retired Judge Mary Catherine Cuff. Judge Cuff provided a report to the County.

After reviewing the report, the Freeholder Board took the unprecedented action of voting to Censure Curley for his actions against County employees. Curley filed suit shortly thereafter and the first complaint was dismissed. Curley filed a second complaint, which was also dismissed. Curley then appealed the Federal Court Judge’s decision to the Court of Appeals.

“It is unfortunate that so much time and money had to be spent in order to fight to support Monmouth County employees,” said Freeholder Director Tom Arnone. “Through the lens of the current environment facing America, I am very proud of the Monmouth County Freeholder Board for deciding to fight for all employees, regardless of gender, age, race or job title, nearly three years ago.”

“Justice has prevailed, and, most importantly, Monmouth County employees can continue to feel safe at work. The County has, and will continue to, take any complaints of inappropriate treatment in the workplace seriously regardless of the offender,” said Arnone. “In this matter, the offensive conduct came from the highest level of County government and was not ignored; in fact, the complaints were taken head on—as they always should be.”

MMM left voices messages on Curley’s cell and home phones. We want to ask him if he intends to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and give him an opportunity to say anything the he likes.

The Freeholders have not released the Cuff report. The Appeals Court decision did not address the release of the report which was ordered seal by the District Court Judge in Trenton.

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