FREEHOLD, NJ – At the Jan. 23 meeting of the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, an announcement was made that the lawsuit brought against the County by R.A.G.E. has been dismissed.

 

County Counsel Andrea I. Bazer informed the five-member Freeholder Board of the dismissal and read a portion of the Jan. 9 decision that was rendered by The Honorable Lawrence M. Lawson, Assignment Judge for Monmouth County’s Superior Court of New Jersey.

Lawson officially dismissed the lawsuit as unfounded and without merit.

In his decision, Judge Lawson stated that, “…the Court is unable to find any conflict of interest in the instant matter, either real or apparent.”

The lawsuit was filed by the plaintiff following the Board of Freeholders vote to complete a farmland preservation project in early 2013.

The lawsuit alleged that Freeholder Lillian G. Burry should have recused herself from the vote involving the preservation of farmland owned by Diamond Developers at Burke Farms, LLC.  Andrew Lucas, former mayor of Manalapan, held an ownership interest in Diamond Developers. 

Lawson’s decision also stated “Burry voted in favor of moving forward with the easement on that date, which was prior to the October 2011 fundraiser on the property and prior to the point at which Burry’s objectivity could be questioned on that basis. That Burry voted in 2013 in a manner wholly consistent with her vote prior to the fundraiser necessitates the conclusion, even in the light most favorable to Plaintiff, that no rational fact-finder could find a conflict of interest here.”

The Board of Freeholders committed to the farmland development easement in May 2011 when it passed a resolution to obtain the commitment from the State of New Jersey to fund its share of the acquisition of the development easements.

The Court also determined that the plaintiff did not have any standing or right to bring this lawsuit to begin with. For these reasons, the Court completely dismissed this unsubstantiated lawsuit with prejudice.

The meritless April 16, 2013 lawsuit was filed by an entity created by a former freeholder candidate for clearly political reasons.