New Jersey Justice

Two-timed lady gets a break

In September 2002, Joyce Reynolds Barber and her husband James Michael Barber went to the ShopRite on Main Street in Wharton. As the couple strolled the health and beauty aisle, Joyce slipped in a puddle and injured her head and spine on the tile floor. She says there was water on the floor. The store manager says Joyce was wearing stilettos and slipped on water from her own umbrella.
Then the story gets weird.
First, the jury foreman was Morris County State Senator Robert Martin. Also, it's odd that Joyce, who manages a bowling alley, would shop in such uncomfortable shoes.
But the strangest twist is her husband. It turns out James Michael Barber has several names and several wives. When not in prison for fraud, he spent most of his time looking for wives on the Internet, At one point he was wooing as many as 12 women, variously claiming to be a bail bondsman, former NFL player, or a trucker. Joyce thought he was a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon on sabbatical.
Last October, James Michael Barber was sentenced to three years in prison for bigamy and lying on his marriage certificate. He served five months.
Meanwhile, Joyce pursued a slip and fall case against ShopRite. Her attorney, Timothy J. Brunnock http://www.njaccidentlaw.net/, won a week-long trial and this week the jury awarded Joyce $876,000.
Apparently, Mrs. Barber, now Reynolds again, can no longer bowl because of the extent of her injuries.

The loyalties of Jeff Pillets

I wonder if Jeff Pillets, star reporter for the Bergen Record, has ever spent a day in prison. I wonder if Jeff Pillets, star reporter for the Bergen Record, has a wife and children who'd view a year of his incarceration 1032 miles away as "doing time the easy way." I wonder if Jeff Pillets, star reporter for the Bergen Record, would survive a single night at the halfway house in Newark where his favorite subject, Charles Kushner, sleeps, eats and goes to the bathroom with 20 other inmates.
On Monday, Pillets wrote a story headlined "Doing time the easy way." In it, we discover many shocking and newsworthy facts, of vital import to all New Jerseyans. All revolve around the article's central discovery that -- gasp! -- Charles Kushner is wealthier than most of his fellow inmates in the Newark pen:

* Many inmates have "minimum-wage jobs as cooks and busboys" and "catch the bus" on Fenwick Street.
* But not Kushner! He shockingly leaves for work each day in "a deep blue Cadillac DeVille"
* His " chauffeur" has "white-hair" and a "cellphone"
* Unlike the other inmates, Kushner is "dressed in a navy blue blazer and pressed dress slacks"
* As if Kushner's outfit isn't outrageous enough, we're informed that even his driver "pulls on a sport coat and brushes out the wrinkles."
* The article concedes that Kushner goes to work but then scolds that he "He takes long lunches at The Savoy Grill, a ritzy eatery."
* Just in case Pillets' readers missed the point, he thoughtfully spells it out for them: "Kushner's semi-confined lifestyle is a stark contrast to the routines of other halfway house residents who do not have chauffeurs and mansions in the suburbs."

And then a funny thing happens. Pillets spends 595 words -- a lifetime in newspaper writing, where the 'inverted pyramid' demands getting to the point -- detailing the excess and luxury Charles Kushner enjoys as an inmate in the Newark Halfway House. And then he writes, "By all accounts, Kushner is following the rules of his official program to the letter, a program that was approved by the Bureau of Prisons and is reviewed weekly by a federal probation officer."

Wait a minute! How is that possible? What about those pressed slacks and the Cadillac?

Pillets spent 15 paragraphs detailing Kushner's every move, down to his pants, only to say in paragraph 16 that he is following every rule, "by all accounts." In newspapers, when a dog bites a man, there's no story; only when a man bites a dog is there a story. To pen a 1700-word opus that basically states "Kushner follows the rules" is preposterous.

Only when the reader arrives at the part about Chris Christie does the story begin to make sense.

More than anyone else in the news media, Jeff Pillets, star reporter for the Bergen Record, has been willing to publish Chris Christie's version uncritically and without adequate response from the other side. In this article, where all officials agree that no rules have been broken and that "Nobody gets special treatment," we learn not that Kushner has asked for or received any favors. We learn only that the fact that Kushner is still solvent "galls Christie and his prosecutors."

So that's what this non-story is about. Pillets enjoys a special relationship with the NJ US Attorney's office. He is the recipient of all of their choicest leaks. That sort of service comes with a price. In this case, the price is a vicious, negative story about Charles Kushner -- even when there's no story.

Another example: elsewhere in the same story, Pillets says that the reason Kushner Companies is now entertaining bids to sell some 40% of its holding is that "Analysts speculated" that the company is "desperately strapped." Pillets makes absolutely no reference to which analysts those might be, and neither his own paper  nor the Star-Ledger suggested anything like financial trouble as the reason the company might sell. New Jersey Justice challenges Jeff Pillets to produce the name of a single analyst who holds that opinion.

Any aggressive reporter will collect his share of detractors and Pillets is no exception. His silly musings about a second plane shooting down Flight 93 have lent respectability to the nutjob 9-11 conspiracy theorists who give comfort to murderous terrorists. And as far back as May 2001, he was taken to task for writing about "religious people" … "of whom he holds a negative and ridiculing view."

But it is his mean-spirited, one-sided and obsessive treatment of Charles Kushner that brings out the worst in Jeff Pillets, star reporter for the Bergen Record.

A lawyer who can write

WolfBlock's Jonathan Segal (photographed here doing his David Hasselhoff impression) has accomplished a near miracle – his article in the new Metropolitan Corporate Counsel magazine failed to induce deep sleep. His "How Sexual Harassment Prevention Programs Hurt Women" is well-observed and persuasive, featuring actionable advice, such as

When remedying inappropriate behaviors in the absence of a specific complaint, employers should be careful not to state or even suggest that they are "protecting" those they believe are most likely to be offended by the conduct. For example, a manager shouldn't say something like: "That joke is demeaning to the women in this room." Focusing on those who may be most likely to be offended is offensive for at least three reasons:

First, it makes these individuals the focus of the corrective action. This may make them as uncomfortable as the conduct being corrected.

Second, it suggests that, if they were not present, the conduct would be okay. By analogy, is a Jewish joke okay if no one Jewish is in the room?

Third, the negative implication is that others not personally maligned will be indifferent. Just as you don't need to be of color to be deeply offended by racism, you don't need to be female to be deeply offended by sexism.

Those are decent points, though not quite good enough to ignore the nod to nannystate PC language such as "of color."

Actually, Segal is not only prolific, he's entertaining and topical, having hosted a PBS special and penning previous must-reads such as "The 'I Hate You' Defense" and "Urine or You're Out."

In fact, Segal even pulls off a pretty good pun in this sexual harassment piece. He notes that Judge Rehnquist in Meritor Savings Bank v Vinson (1986) established the idea that a plaintiff who had intercourse with her boss 50 times could still sue because the sex might have been "voluntary" but was not necessarily "welcome." Segal concludes this case was "seminal."

Is Kushner sale a "win" for Christie?

All last week, major league baseball featured the nasally voice of a man who visited ballparks promoting awareness of prostate cancer. Having founded and chaired the Prostate Cancer Foundation after surviving the disease himself, he has raised hundreds of millions for the cause and kicked in tens of millions of his considerable personal fortune. It would seem like a simple case of a businessman doing a good deed, except for the fact that this guy was the most notorious white collar criminal of his era.
Michael Milken has done a tremendous job of rehabilitating his reputation, evolving from the very epitome of a take-no-prisoners capitalist (Gordon "greed is good" Gekko from Wall Street is based in part on Milken) into an innovative and generous philanthropist. His board may feature names from the glory days of Milken's junk bond past, such as Nelson Peltz. But no one doubts the sincerity of Milken's passion for his causes, which include not just prostate cancer but education and the definitive collection of American Jewish music.
Milken was convicted, served his time, and paid what was then a record fine. Ever since, he has by all accounts lived an exemplary life.
Which makes one think of Charlie Kushner, the recently unjailed real estate developer and philanthropist.
On Monday and Tuesday, the newspapers were packed with speculation about the possible sale of some 90 apartment complexes owned by Kushner Companies. The bids on the portfolio are said to be more than $2 billion. Since the 17,000 apartments being offered represent "40 percent of the company's holdings," the entire company is worth approximately $5 billion.
Kushner Companies is privately held, so it's hard to know just how much of that $5 billion belongs to Charlie Kushner personally. But back when Kushner was arrested, Kushner Companies was routinely described as "a $1 billion real-estate conglomerate." Most guys exit prison with less than they had when they entered. Whatever Charlie had before he was arrested and jailed, he would seem to be worth five times more today.
Did Chris Christie win because Charlie Kushner appears to be trying to exit a big part of his business? Or did Chris Christie lose because Kushner seems to have structured his business in such a way that it would grow despite his absence?
Both questions miss the point. Prosecutors aren't supposed to judge their own success by how those they imprison fare after they're convicted. In fact, if they really do represent "the people," as they're supposed to do, prosecutors root for prisoners to emerge like Milken -- determined to live meaningful lives devoted to helping others.

John Torkelsen - Liar, Thief, Drunk

Disgraced Princeton investor John Torkelsen is about to begin a five-year sentence in federal prison for fraud. A big Democratic donor, Torkelson is a longtime supporter of deposed Senator Bob Torricelli and California lawyer/ballot initiative buttinsky William Lerach. The failed Proposition 211, or the "Lerach Initiative," tried to make it easier for unhappy investors to sue company officials for fraud.

Torkelsen was the subject of a devastating article in Fortune that linked him to Lerach and detailed the steps he'd take to get work as an expert witness on behalf of allegedly defrauded shareholders.

"Torkelsen's calculations of shareholder losses routinely supported the hundreds of millions of dollars Lerach sought -- and he was fabulous in front of a jury should a company decide to fight," wrote Peter Elkind. "Over more than 20 years, Torkelsen's firm, Princeton Venture Research, not only had made tens of millions working for Lerach's firm Milberg -- by far its biggest client -- but also had become the damages expert of choice for the entire plaintiffs' side of the securities bar. … [Torkelsen] sent thousand-dollar gift baskets as baby presents, and he invited his many friends in the plaintiffs' bar to an annual black-tie Christmas party that was mind-boggling in its extravagance. At one, guests arriving in Torkelsen-provided stretch limos were heralded by buglers and greeted by costumed Disney characters. Entertainment was invariably provided by a big-name act: Little Richard one year, Aretha Franklin another."

Ironically, Torkelson himself was actually defrauding investors. He was the creep behind Acorn Technology, a tech venture fund that lost investors and the Small Business Administration about $23 million. Having convinced the SBA to provide matching funds, Torkelsen got investors to commit to money, received the SBA funds, and then never provided the dough promised by his investors, many of whom were trial lawyers and appear to have been in on the scheme. Torkelson's trophy wife Pamela -- a comely and much younger former office manager at Acorn, naturally -- was also charged in connection with the fraud. She pleaded guilty to "interstate transportation of stolen or fraudulently obtained property," and is now cooperating against Lerach and other former Milberg Weiss people about paying for plaintiff testimony.

Now divorced, the Torkelsons in happier days built a million-dollar marble deck on their home. In January, the house was auctioned off by the sherrif's department. Perhaps that setback explains at least one of Torkelsen's three DUI arrests.

Telephonic fraud ring busted by Chris Christie

Wholesale long distance phone companies buy long-distance minutes from large carriers, resell the minutes to small phone companies at a small markup and pocket the difference.
Edwin Andres Pena, a 23-year-old immigrant from Venezuela, hit upon a scheme to bypass that little part about buying the minutes. Instead, he hacked into the networks of online phone service providers. With the help of a Spokane-based associate named Robert Moore, Pena figured out the prefixes to different companies' systems, and used their phone lines to place calls.
The indictment names a few companies who had been defrauded, including a Newark-based company identified as "N.T.P.," which the crack journalists at the New York Times deciphered as Net2Phone. Another company was identified as "O.H." of Rye Brook (shhh … it's Oak Hill Platinum Partners). These acronyms feature all the complexity of Dwight Schrute's Enigma-level code for the boss on The Office (he called Jan Levinson "Lan Jevinson").
Because the primary victim is based in New Jersey -- Net2Phone is owned by Newark's IDT -- Chris Christie will be prosecuting the case, even though the perps live in Florida and Washington.
Pena, aka "David Hauster" aka "Renato Morena" aka "e_Andres55," faces counts of wire fraud and computer fraud. He spent most of his ill-gotten gains on cars, a 40-foot Sea Ray Mercruiser motor boat and real estate in South Florida.
Accomplice Robert Moore (photo) has a MySpace page that lacks the camouflage one would expect from someone in the computer hacking business. He lists as interests "spirituality, possessions, ghosts and hacking." His recent postings include "Hackers Best Friend" and "My software hits Cable Modem Hacking scene!" One of his friends checked in on Thursday to wish him "good luck with all the phone shit." And then the page strikes a melancholy note. Under "Who I'd Like to Meet," Moore reveals, "I like all sorts of females, nerdy, gothic, emo, i don't care as long as they are kind to me."

Bleak House at Giants Stadium

One of New Jersey's biggest court decisions may be overturned.  In October 1999, a football fan named Daniel Lanzaro got a six-pack of beer at 10:30 AM, pounded three of them, then bought a ticket to the Giants game from a scalper. Once inside, he drank the equivalent of two six-packs and bribed an Aramark vendor to get him six more beers, in excess of Aramark's policy of trying to limit alcohol consumption.
By late afternoon, Lanzaro had a blood alcohol level of .266 -- more than three times the legal limit. Still, he managed to put in an appearance at a strip club or two. Then he got in his pickup truck, barreled down a street in Hasbrouck Heights and crashed into a Toyota Corolla driven by Ron Verni, whose family was coming home from a pumpkin-picking trip.
The accident was catastrophic. Verni's wife Fazila suffered terrible facial injuries and was comatose for a time. Their daughter, Antonia Verni, then 2, was paralyzed from the neck down.
The Vernis hired New Jersey "Super Lawyer" David Mazie (photo) of Nagel Rice & Mazie in Roseland.  Mazie claimed that "a culture of intoxication" at football games contributed to drunkenness of Lanzaro, and that since Aramark violated its own policy of two beers per customer sales limit, that the multinational company was responsible.
Mazie sued everybody — Aramark, Toyota, Giants Stadium, the National Football League, and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. Everyone settled except for Aramark. Antonia Verni testified about her life confined to a wheelchair, and the Vernis won their suit. They were awarded a settlement of $135 million, with Aramark responsible for $75 million in punitive damages and $60 in compensatory damages. Lanzaro, the drunken carpenter, is responsible for $30 million of that. He settled. He also got five years in Riverfront State Prison, a maximum-security facility.
Last week, Aramark filed its inevitable appeal.  The case is an especially awful version of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, with finger-pointing on both sides. Aramark claims that Lanzaro drank non-Aramark beer before the game and after the game, and notes that the Vernis did not put their daughter into a car seat (in 1999, New Jersey did not require car seats for two-year-old children). The driver himself admits he was slurring when he tipped a beertender $10 for six beers, a glaring violation of Aramark's policy.
But is the violation worth $105 million? Did the bribe-accepting Aramark employee also hand Lanzaro his car keys and tell him to drive home? Is anyone responsible for getting Lanzaro behind the wheel besides Lanzaro himself?
Experts like James Mosher of the Center for the Study of Law and Enforcement Policy at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation predict the enormous award will "lead to some reforms in how alcohol is served in these sporting events, and I think it's an important message the industry and the public need to hear." In other words, the message is that if you get disgustingly drunk at a sporting event and cause a terrible accident, the deep pockets back at the stadium are responsible for your choices.

Hate the game not the playa

After a March 6 playoff loss to Deptford, Camden High 's star forward, MacArthur Mason, lined up for the post-game handshake. Styling his way through this quaint ritual, Mason took a different path. Instead of shaking hands, he brutally attacked his Deptford counterpart. On Wednesday, Mason pleaded guilty to simple assault and will receive five years of probation, which may impact his plans to attend Delaware Tech. The victim, Rickie Crews of Deptford, laid a triple double on Mason, who was said to be trash-talking the entire game.
Mason was already on probation for a previous charge. This guilty plea may violate those terms and land him in jail. Nice to know Camden High doesn't bench its players who have been convicted of crimes. In fact, Camden has a sad history of violations, having been banned from tournament play three times. Camden coach Clarence Turner (photo) is something of a legend in South Jersey, having won over 700 games, but he himself was suspended by NJSIAA for a year following a season in which his players were out of control. He's also routinely accused of running up the score against weaker opponents, which perhaps set the example of sportsmanship that Mason has emulated.