State Judge: David Gray over-charged taxpayers

"Attorneys who represented a former East Newark police dispatcher in a sexual assault lawsuit were awarded less than one-tenth of the amount they sought in attorney fees by a Hudson County judge.

David Gray and Paul S. Foreman, who represented the Woodland Park woman and helped her get a $101,000 settlement in June, had sought more than $1.2 million in fees. In his brief, Foreman said he and Gray expended 1,990.5 hours at an billing rate of $395 an hour.

But Hudson County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Espinales-Maloney ruled earlier this month that the hours billed for some of their services were unreasonable, and knocked down the award of fees to slightly more than $93,000, according to the decision.

Foreman and Gray were not immediately available for comment this morning."

                                                                        (Jersey Journal, November 24, 2014)

That's right, David Gray wanted to charge taxpayers $1.2 million for the $101,000 settlement he got his client.  That's anyone's definition of "highway robbery".

+ + +

FOR THE RECORD. . .  Watchdog isn't supporting any particular candidate in the June 7th Republican Primary.  We have found it necessary to step in because Freeholder candidates David Gray and Kathleen Gorman have used our name to disseminate information -- some which has been grossly false -- about their opponents, George Graham and Sylvia Petillo.

Now this is real dirt bag behavior and suggests to us that Gray and Gorman couldn't be trusted to honestly represent the people of Sussex County. Maybe they can't help it?  Maybe, like the Clintons, they were just born liars?  We don't know why and we would prefer it to be none of our business, but when Gray and Gorman use our name to attack others, it becomes our business.

So that is why each and every time they misrepresent us, we put out our own "corrective" to even the score.  It keeps Watchdog balanced, even-Steven.

+ + +

Oh, and did we mention that knucklehead David Gray is being sued by the office manager of his own law firm? 

Gray is being sued under New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Protection Act.  The plaintiff, Juliette Bresnahan, is a single-mother of three who worked full-time as the office manager of David Gray's law firm.   Here's what the lawsuit alleges: 

". . . around mid-October 2015, Gray informed Bresnahan that he received a tax bill for around $62,000.  Gray indicated that he was unsure how he would pay this bill. . .

. . . Gray's directive was aimed at intentionally falsifying and fraudulently increasing the bills to generate more revenue to the firm to extricate it from its current financial predicament."

Read the entire complaint against Gray here.

Candidate Gorman outs self as impersonator

The 2016 race for two Sussex County Freeholder seats has proved to be the strangest and most dysfunctional in memory.  Yesterday evening took a new turn, when an email blast purportedly from "Watchdog" turned out to have been signed by Freeholder candidate Kathy Gorman.  The blast also contained a false address -- either that or the Sussex County candidate has moved south from Wantage, New Jersey, to New Hope, Pennsylvania.

So now we know who at least one of the figures are behind those fictitious email blasts that claim to be coming from us.  The longer-term problem for candidate Gorman is that it looks like at least one of those blasts broke the law.

On Tuesday, March 30, 2016, an email carrying the same identifiers as the one signed by Kathy Gorman was published and distributed -- claiming to be from Freeholder George Graham.   George Graham did not send this email.  The email was designed to harm Freeholder Graham's candidacy, did not include a disclaimer, and a fake address was listed.

New Jersey law prohibits the impersonation of a candidate:

NJSA 19:34-66. Knowing production, transmittal or dissemination of mass communication which appears to originate from or be on behalf of campaign of candidate for purpose of impeding campaign

No person shall knowingly produce, transmit or disseminate any election advertisement, literature or other mass communication in any medium, including but not limited to newspapers, magazines, printed circulars, television, radio, movies, telephone, telegraph, billboards and signs, which purports to or appears to originate from, or be on behalf of, the campaign of a candidate for public office or party position, for the purpose of impeding the campaign of such candidate while failing to reveal specifically in such communication that he is acting under the instructions of, or on behalf of, another candidate or such other candidate's paid or volunteer campaign staff; provided, however, that this section shall not apply to any owner, manager, editor, publisher, reporter or employee of any newspaper, magazine, periodical or other publication or of any radio or television station who, in the course of his duties, publishes or broadcasts any such advertisement, literature or mass communication.

L.1975, c. 190, s. 3, eff. Aug. 16, 1975.

This could be a very serious matter for candidate Gorman.  This email actually used Graham's identity so that it appeared as if it had been sent from him.  Two recent cases, one involving a campaign in Passaic County, the other a campaign in Monmouth County, illustrate the pitfalls of hijacking a candidate's identity.

Man pleads guilty to deceptive phone calls (The Record, February 21, 2012)

Prosecutors: 4 A.M. Robocalls In NJ Senate Race Were Placed By Rival Campaign (CBS, New York, August 12, 2014)

Will there be another guilty plea?  Stay tuned. . .