Limit Curley’s Legal Fees to $2600
U.S. District Court Judge Brian R. Martinotti ruled yesterday that Monmouth County taxpayers will have to pay disgraced Freeholder John P. Curley’s legal bill from Angelo Genova.
Even though Curley’s legal gymnastics to keep the report of his sexual harassment and bigotry secret was ruled to have no basis, Judge Martinotti ruled that Genova is entitled to get paid by the taxpayers.
Genova should be awarded no more than $2600, the maximum allowable contribution to Curley’s reelection campaign. Curley’s lawsuit was all about his reelection prospects. He even charged his ride to Court in Trenton to his campaign.
In their opposition to disgraced Curley’s contempt motion, Monmouth County argued that Curley did not have “clean hands” in the matter.
Curley, through his attorney, Genova, was arguing that the County violated a Consent Temporary Restraining Order which sealed Justice Mary Catherine Cuff’s report of her investigation into Curley’s atrocious behavior toward employees, constituents and elected officials in their Censure and Reprimand Resolution. The County argued that they did not violate the seal; that the information in the Censure Resolution did not originate in Cuff’s report. They further argued that Curley himself violated the seal and thus “did not have clean hands.”
In his Opinion dismissing all 12 counts of Curley’s federal lawsuit but finding Monmouth County in contempt of the TRO, Judge Martinotti said that the County did not provide evidence that Curley did not have clean hands.
But they did. Judge Martinotti must have missed it.
Judge Martinotti ruled that the sanction of the contempt is that Monmouth County taxpayers foot Genova’s bill to Curley for the Contempt Motion. The amount of the bill will be determined by the Judge after Genovoa and the County file papers on the matter in August.
Curley himself will not get any money from the contempt sanction. The taxpayers of Monmouth County will pay Genova for his work trying to keep Curley’s bad behavior a secret
The County could appeal. They might win. They might lose. But either way, taxpayers lose. The County’s legal fees defending Curley’s lawsuit, which Judge Martinotti ruled was baseless, are already over $250,000.
Genova’s bill should be limited to $2600. That’s the legal amount that anyone can contribute to Curley’s reelection campaign.
Curley’s lawsuit was all about his reelection prospects. Genova made that argument himself in the lawsuit. Curley reported his transportation expense to Court in Trenton as a campaign expense on a report withe the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission. If Curley’s lawsuit is a campaign expense, which it obviously is, only he can spend more than $2600 on legal fees for a suit that he brought.
Related Post: Curley’s Lawsuit Against Monmouth County Dismissed —Arnone Calls For His Resignation
More from my site
Who is paying Curley’s Legal Fees? Are Those Fees Campaign Expenses?
Hanlon certifies Curley’s nominating petition
Curley Threatened to Stab DiMaso
Monmouth GOP releases video calling on Curley to resign
Lillian Burry says John Curley threatened her
Birds of a feather
Curley’s Lawsuit Against Monmouth County Dismissed
Curley Accused of Official Misconduct, Corruption- Curley files to run for Freeholder and an Independent
Transcript: Curley called DiMaso a “Staten Island Guinea”
Here is the bottom line. What John did was outrageous. No excuse. However, the R leadership failed us BIG time by not working out a solution to this long ago and now what you now have is “mad dog” Curly with his loyal base (no matter how small) out to do damage and they can. The R leadership is to blame here for now working out a transition months ago. We have 2 very nice candidates (nice people) but they are soft, not fighters and on no way battle tested. They are frankly weak. Nice on paper but untested in battle. With Gopal $ and now a second frontal attack from Curly (no matter how damaged he is) one of the two R’s is going to have a problem. And Curly will be the reason we lose a seat…..because the R leadership did not deal with this from the start the right way. This is what happens when the JV team runs the top of the party.
Fasten your seat belts: much help will be needed this time!
There is no question this whole situation was botched. More seasoned leaders would have handled better. The problem is that the leadership thought they’d score points by being champions of the #metoo movement and be lauded by the media. That never happened. So rather that effectively deal with the issue they played to the APP who will never give the R’s credit. So their strategy backfired. Now they have a “hot under the collar” Curley out to simply take ’em all down as he has no downside. It was a political gamble and they lost. Too bad.
Maybe YOU should have run for chair too. More seasoned leaders? Surely you are kidding us.
Tell us Robbie, what would YOU have done other than complain.
Tell us what YOU are doing this campaign season to help, other than complain
Till you’ve walked in their shoes.
This is the biggest, major election problem this party has had, since good old “Bid Rig” nonsense in’05: ignore it, go along with regularly- run campaigns, yell at anybody who questions actions taken or not taken, at a 2018 electoral peril. We have skated by, without huge wins with no real big issues or opposition, for the last four years or more, and been lucky in county, that the other side was busy focusing on little things like: taking over a bunch of towns, successfully beating us to death in LD 11, and the like. For once, if certain folks can get past their self- confidence (and yes, sometimes,arrogance,) and consider worst- case scenarios that could be leveled against us, and do total overkill on how great the county is, thanks to Republicans, maybe we can get past a really tough year in the making. Remember, all they want is one foot in the door: then, more money flies in, then we lose a majority. It stinks. You don’t want that feeling or result, trust me. Forewarned, based on past disasters, is forearmed, for going forward: please, don’t get all puffy and bent out of shape: take all criticisms and suggestions, and really focus on those two seats- or, be branded as losers- politically, nothing is worse! ‘Cause then, away goes your credibility, and any chance of any further ambitions being realized!