Law & Justice
By MATT KADOSH
July 1, 2022
WESTFIELD, NJ — The Westfield Board of Education has strengthened its code of conduct following a series of swastikas and other hate graffiti that were discovered in the district earlier this academic year, school officials said. The updated code of conduct approved by the school board last week ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — A Westfield Police Department internal affairs investigation clears a white patrol officer of allegations that he engaged in racial profiling. The report takes aim at the police supervisors who lodged those accusations and claim in a lawsuit they were retaliated against as a ...
ELIZABETH, NJ — A Union County grand jury has returned a 17-count indictment against a Plainfield man charged in two violent sexual assaults that happened in Westfield and Plainfield last October, the Union County Prosecutor announced. Terence Rhue, 23, is charged with three counts of ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — To resolve claims that the town wrongly denied approvals for rebuilding an iconic Tudor home that burnt down in 2013, Westfield has paid the former owner of the Wychwood Gatehouse $35,000, the settlement agreement shows. The owner, Lisa Varandas, claimed in the lawsuit filed last ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — A Westfield police officer ticketed a Black driver he pulled over for speeding but did not issue a citation to a white man he stopped for driving more than twice the speed limit early that same morning, according to law enforcement videos obtained by TAPinto Westfield through public ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — Debby Hall, of Scotch Plains, carried a sign that says, “Our daughters and granddaughters must have the same rights as we did.” Hall, 57, was among several hundred who turned out in Mindowaskin Park Saturday for the “We Won’t Go Back Rally” protesting the U.S. Supreme Court’s ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — Mindowaskin Park will once again serve as a gathering spot for activists Saturday afternoon, when a rally for reproductive rights is planned. Responding to a leaked draft opinion last Monday from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito which would overturn Roe v. Wade, Tom Malinowski ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — PSE&G filed a state court lawsuit Friday claiming a local law the town council approved in February unreasonably prevents the electric company from carrying out planned upgrades to its network, including the installation of higher voltage electrical lines on taller poles. The ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — Employment lawyer Fred Shahrooz-Scampato has been chosen to be featured by Super Lawyers Magazine for his work in employment litigation for the ninth year in a row. Each year, no more than 5% of New Jersey lawyers receive inclusion into this state’s Super Lawyers Magazine. The ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — A whistleblower lawsuit claims that the Westfield Police Department retaliated and discriminated against an African American sergeant and a female lieutenant for reporting racial profiling. Sgt. Preston Freeman, who according to the lawsuit is the first African American to reach ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — After vandals scrawled racial slurs on a sidewalk and inside a playground area outside an elementary school, the town is inviting the public to gather and chalk positive messages in the same place. Gary Mandelblatt, chairman of Westfield’s Human Relations Advisory Commission, at ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — The Center for Cooperative Media, the flagship organization to grow and strengthen local journalism in New Jersey, has recognized TAPinto Westfield Managing Editor Matt Kadosh with a 2022 Excellence in Local News Award. Kadosh was recognized for a series of articles that ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — A Superior Court judge on Friday took the town to task for seeking a new operator to run a senior affordable housing facility in violation of the court’s order. Despite a Dec. 8 court order prohibiting the town from holding Westfield Senior Housing in default of its lease, the ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — Mayor Shelley Brindle on Tuesday announced her support for legislation that would amend New Jersey’s bail reform law, signed into law in 2014, to require individuals charged with firearm-related crimes be detained prior to trial. Brindle said she was concerned “about the ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — Justin Drazin is a third generation attorney at the personal injury and medical malpractice law firm of Drazin and Warshaw. But did you know that he’s also an award-winning children’s author? Drazin, whose grandfather started the law firm 75 years ago, opened their fifth office ...
UPDATE: With the help of this article, the cash and its owner were reunited on Saturday. WESTFIELD, NJ — What is a person’s responsibility if they find a significant sum of cash or other property the owner of which is not readily identifiable? The question is not a theoretical one. On ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — A state appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Newark man who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a 2014 carjacking in Westfield. The New Jersey appellate court on Thursday affirmed the conviction of Lamar Randleman on charges of first degree carjacking and third degree ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — Recent discoveries of hate-based graffiti here have sparked conversations about how to address the problem. The issue is not new to Westfield. And in moving forward, it can help to look at past actions. Here's some of our past coverage. This is not a comprehensive listing of ...
Students and parents are pressing the schools for swift action. WESTFIELD, NJ — A repeating pattern of hate graffiti, including swastikas, at Westfield Public Schools has prompted both the superintendent’s strong condemnation and a probe into strengthening the district’s student code of ...
ELIZABETH, NJ — The Plainfield man charged in a Westfield home invasion and sexual assault will remain jailed pending his December court date, a state court judge said Friday. Standing before Superior Court Judge Lisa Miralles Walsh, 22-year-old Terence J. Rhue agreed to his ongoing ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — Seeking to recover some $2.6 million in disputed payments, the town has issued a notice of default to the owners of a nonprofit senior housing facility that provides affordable units in space it rents from the municipality. It is the latest development a years long litigation the ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — Within 24 hours of the home invasion and sexual assault last week, authorities identified a suspect and in a little over 48 hours had him in custody, the police chief said Tuesday. In an at times emotional speech, Westfield Police Chief Christopher Battiloro detailed for the town ...
More than half of the weapons were collected at a site in Westfield. UNION COUNTY, NJ — A voluntary gun buyback held in three Union County towns has exceeded the organizers' expectations, prompting authorities to allocate additional forfeiture funds for the initiative, the county prosecutor said ...
UNION COUNTY, NJ — The county has entered into a five-year, $2.6 million contract to send prisoners to Hudson County for substance abuse treatment and reentry program services. The agreement with the Hudson County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was approved at the Sept. 23 Board of ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — Objecting to the largest challenge to the constitutional right to abortion in decades, nearly 300 people gathered at a rally in Westfield’s Mindowaskin Park Saturday. The rally was among hundreds that were planned across the state and nation in advance of the Supreme Court ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — Fourteen attorneys with the law firm of Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C., were recognized in the 2022 edition of “The Best Lawyers in America©,” which identified each as a top legal talent in their respective practice areas. Lindabury attorney David G. Hardin ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — Joining in the national conversation about abortion rights, two Westfield women are planning rally at a local park this weekend to protest a recently approved Texas law that is considered to be the biggest curb to the constitutional right to abortion in decades. Set to be held in ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — In response to a swastika discovered at a playground two weeks ago and others found over the past year, the Town Council has proposed increased fines for bias crimes and approved a measure recognizing the growing problem of antisemitism in the United States. The action follows ...
WAYNE, NJ — A detention hearing was scheduled Monday for a man charged in a sports bar shooting that targeted three men including one from Westfield, authorities said. Two days after the shooting at Mother’s Ale House in Wayne, police arrested Robert Jackson, 33, of South Hackensack, on ...
WESTFIELD, NJ — New York State Police on Tuesday charged a 66-year-old man with aggravated vehicular homicide in connection with a crash that killed a 27-year-old Westfield native and one other passenger on Interstate 87 in Chester Town, New York, authorities said. State police said Dennis M.