Small Town News

Discussion in 'Latest Hip News Stories' started by tumbling.dice, Sep 4, 2018.

  1. McFuddy

    McFuddy Visitor

    Judge tosses suit by cop fired over assemblyman's arrest


    By Matt Gray

    mgray@njadvancemedia.com

    For NJ.com



    A Superior Court judge has dismissed a retaliation and defamation lawsuit filed by a former Gloucester County cop who was fired over his arrest of a state assemblyman.

    Joseph DiBuonaventura was fired from his position as a Washington Township police officer in 2016 after an internal affairs investigation concluded that he lied about his reasons for stopping state Assemblyman Paul Moriarty in 2012 and charging him with driving while intoxicated.

    DiBuonaventura was also accused of purposefully writing phony warning notices to several drivers for violations that never occurred.

    That investigation and his firing followed a criminal trial in which DiBuonaventura was found not guilty on charges related to the Moriarty arrest.

    And the DWI charge against Moriarty was dismissed after the county prosecutor's office reviewed the matter.

    DiBuonaventura sued Washington Township, former police chief Rafael Muniz and former township administrator Robert Smith, arguing the chief violated his rights under the state Conscientious Employee Protection Act and that Smith had defamed him in comments to the media.

    In that suit, originally filed in 2013 and amended a few years later, the officer alleged Muniz and Moriarty conspired to bring charges against DiBuonaventura over the traffic stop as a way of retaliating for an earlier incident involving Muniz's son.

    DiBuonaventura complained to the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office that Muniz had improperly intervened in a burglary case involving Muniz's son. That case involved the alleged theft of a bracelet. The item was returned and the owner elected not to press charges, according to previous accounts.

    DiBuonaventura also argued that Muniz should have recused himself from the Moriarty case, since Moriarty, the former mayor of Washington Township, hired Muniz as chief. The officer said he was subjected to "arbitrary, vindictive or malicious" treatment.

    Superior Court Judge Samuel J. Ragonese wasn't impressed and said in this week's ruling DiBuonaventura "presents a continuing theme of pointing blame at others in an accusatory manner."

    "This treatment of which the plaintiff complains, i.e. his discipline and firing, arises from his wrongful and unlawful arrest of a citizen for DUI ..." the judge wrote.

    He reasoned that the disciplinary actions DiBuonaventura raises were already adjudicated in separate cases.

    "His allegations of political cronyism leading to his discipline cannot be reconciled with the findings he committed misconduct," Ragonese writes. "Clearly his termination was caused by his violation of law ... He has clearly been adjudicated unfit and he cannot be reinstated."

    In a separate case, DiBuonaventura challenged his firing in court and Superior Court Judge David Morgan ruled last October that he couldn't get his job back because his behavior demonstrated a "pervasive strain of lying."

    On the defamation issue, DiBuonaventura argued that Smith defamed him when speaking to a South Jersey Times reporter.

    The officer was previously fired from the department in 2009, but was later reinstated and granted back pay under a judge's ruling. He had to repay unemployment benefits he received during that period.

    While Smith told the reporter that DiBuonaventura still owed several thousand dollars of that repayment, the officer countered that he had already repaid the money when Smith made that statement.

    DiBuonaventura argued that as a "private figure," Smith's words defamed him. Ragonese found, however, that DiBuonaventura was a public figure who did not qualify for such protections. In reaching that conclusion, the judge pointed to DiBuonaventura's own actions.

    "It appears plaintiff has become a public figure by his notoriety which had become pervasive with his suspensions, arrest, subsequent indictment and jury trial," Ragonese wrote.

    DiBuonaventura's attorney, Jacqueline M. Vigilante, said she planned to appeal the ruling.

    "I disagree with the judge's interpretation of the facts and the law in this case," she said Wednesday. "Officer DiBuonaventura was indeed the victim of retaliation and political oppression. Officer DiBuonaventura did not lie about the Moriarty traffic stop as determined by a jury of his peers in 2015 when he was acquitted."

    Several other lawsuits were filed over the Moriarty-DiBuonaventura case.

    Moriarty filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against DiBuonaventura and that case was settled in 2016 by the Tri-County Joint Insurance Fund, which insures Washington Township employees.

    Moriarty also sued the township police department, but a federal judge dismissed that claim in 2015.

    DiBuonaventura is suing former county prosecutor Sean Dalton and Muniz, claiming they mishandled the internal affairs probe and prosecution of the Moriarty case. That case is ongoing, Vigilante said.
     
  2. Born25YearsTooLate

    Born25YearsTooLate Hunting the mighty whifflesnark

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    ho-lee shit..kroger brand ice cream

    I can't say too much, people go berserk for blue bell round here.
     
    tumbling.dice likes this.
  3. hotwater

    hotwater Senior Member Lifetime Supporter

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    Couldn’t pull off the old walking on water thingamajig
     
  4. storch

    storch banned

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    Exactly. Actually, I was in a goofy mood and made that up.
     
  5. hotwater

    hotwater Senior Member Lifetime Supporter

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    [​IMG]
     
  6. tumbling.dice

    tumbling.dice Visitor

    Banana Festival is this weekend and runs through next Saturday! Fulton, KY...y'all be there to see who wins the Miss Banana Pageant!

    2018 Banana Festival Schedule
    Saturday September 8th, 2018

    8:00am – Pistol and Turkey Shoot Fulton PD Range Park Rd Fulton
    10:00 am – 2 pm - Kids Day at the Fulton Airport
    1:00PM ---- Miss Banana Pageants – Fulton High School

    Sunday September 9th, 2018

    1:00PM --- Miss Banana Pageants – Fulton High School

    Monday September 10th, 2018

    6:30pm --- Fashion Show – Buck’s Celebration Center

    Thursday September 13th, 2018

    7:00pm – Fulton’s Got Talent

    Friday September 14th, 2018

    7:30pm --- Jimmy Church Band —Unity Park Amphitheater

    Saturday September 15th, 2018

    8:00am – 11:30am --- Rotary Club Car Show, (registration begins at 7:30am) Downtown Lake Street
    8:00am – Banana 5K run/walk (Registration will begins at 7am) at Raise the Bar Gym
    5:00pm --- Loin’s Club GRANDE Parade, starts at Broadway SFulton to Lake Street Fulton
    ONE TON BANANA PUDDING – served in front of senior center
    7:00pm --- 2018 Fulton’s Got Talent Winner to Perform, Unity Park Amphitheater
    8:00pm --- Kentucky Headhunters in Concert, Unity Park Amphitheater

    www.thebananafestival.com
     
    Meliai likes this.
  7. Meliai

    Meliai Banned

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    Our local news is dominated by Tropical Storm Florence today

    And one confirmed case of West Nile here. Awesome i love mosquitos
     
  8. Meliai

    Meliai Banned

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  9. tumbling.dice

    tumbling.dice Visitor

  10. Meliai

    Meliai Banned

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    I'm 3 hours inland so not at all except for lots of rain and maybe some flooding

    My sister lives on the coast, but they never evacuate
     
  11. tumbling.dice

    tumbling.dice Visitor

    The city of Benton, KY, population 4,531, is getting a $280,000 Homeland Securtity grant which they say will go to the purchase of an armored vehicle for their police department. Just wanted you to know where some of your tax dollars are going.

    [​IMG]

    West Kentucky Star - News
     
  12. Tyrsonswood

    Tyrsonswood Senior Moment Lifetime Supporter

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    Well... They might need that in case someone steals a 6-pack from the convenience store...
     
    scratcho and tumbling.dice like this.
  13. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    The subway is closed again. Flooded. Have to detour around it.
    (The subway is a two lane roadway under the train tracks.)

    [​IMG]
     
  14. Aerianne

    Aerianne Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    Speedway offers refuge for those escaping Florence’s wrath

    HAMPTON — As Hurricane Florence made landfall Friday in North Carolina, residents of the Carolinas took refuge under sunny skies at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton.

    On Monday, the Speedway announced they would open their doors to Florence evacuees free of charge, similar to what they have done for previous major storms.

    Evacuees responded positively to the Speedway’s call, and on Friday, as the storms were unleashing their wrath on the Carolinas, dumping huge amounts of rainfall and blowing winds nearing 85 mph in the area, a large number of recreational vehicles filled the Speedway’s campground facing Tara Boulevard in Hampton. Speedway offers refuge for those escaping Florence’s wrath
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2018
    Running Horse likes this.
  15. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    I forgot to mention that the subway leads to the only nearby bridge over the river. The next one to the south is 15 miles away or you can go 14 miles north to another. All on two lane roads.
     
  16. 6-eyed shaman

    6-eyed shaman Sock-eye salmon

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    My town's police department bought an MRAP just like that one a few years ago. I don't know why the hell they would ever need one around here. But if the population of Benton is that small, that makes buying one even more ridiculous.
     
  17. 6-eyed shaman

    6-eyed shaman Sock-eye salmon

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    City of Ashland, OR is trying to decide whether or not turn a large piece of protected land into a solar power farm, or leave it to the habitat of the rare Grasshopper Sparrow

    A place for birds? Or solar panels?

    [​IMG]
     
  18. 6-eyed shaman

    6-eyed shaman Sock-eye salmon

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    Ah, here's a more evoking article.

    First fatal cougar attack in Oregon

    Rick Hopkins, a cougar researcher and expert in San Jose, Calif., said there have been fewer than 30 fatal cougar attacks on humans in North America in the past 100 years.

    Gresham woman killed by cougar

    [​IMG]
     
  19. Meliai

    Meliai Banned

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    This person ended up dying :(
     
  20. 6-eyed shaman

    6-eyed shaman Sock-eye salmon

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    I didn't realize West Nile Virus was still a thing in America... I remember the hype and hysteria in the media of it a decade ago, and there were some local reports of it in my area. But the paranoia behind it sort of dwindled.
     

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