newstranscript.gmnews.com/news/2006/0823/Front_Page/007.htmlAugust 23, 2006
Mediator sees progress in suit against borough
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD - The parties involved in a federal lawsuit that was filed against the borough almost three years ago are making progress toward a settlement.
That assessment comes from retired New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Daniel O'Hern, who is mediating the settlement discussions.
The lawsuit that has hung over Freehold Borough since it was filed on Dec. 30, 2003, has reached what O'Hern called "a delicate stage of negotiations."
The suit was filed by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union against the borough and Mayor Michael Wilson. The action was filed after borough officials announced that a muster zone on Throckmorton Street would be shut down and no longer accommodate day laborers seeking to find employers.
Many of the people who availed themselves of the opportunity to seek employment on a daily basis were immigrants, and some were illegal immigrants.
The action was filed in federal court on behalf of members of the Workers Committee for Progress and Social Welfare, an organization made up of day laborers. Other plaintiffs involved in the legal action are members of the Monmouth County Residents for Immigrants Rights, the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, and six individuals who allege they have suffered personal damages.
In addition, the lawsuit claims the borough's decision to close a public hiring area on Throckmorton Street denies people the right to work. The action also claims the borough is engaged in a pattern of harassment against Latino residents.
O'Hern said it is his opinion that if the parties involved keep working on their issues together, there is hope that they will be able to report progress.
"If they keep working with their clients, I am pretty optimistic that we will be coming to a reasonable solution fairly soon," O'Hern said.
According to a Jan. 4 interview with Cesar Perales, president and counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the lawsuit stated that the order to close the muster zone that day laborers had been using for several years to wait for employers to come to hire them, "prohibited the laborers from expressing their availability for employment. This violates their right to freedom of speech."
The action also alleged that the borough "threatened to fine the laborers hundreds of dollars for such offenses as "officer's discretion," in an attempt to intimidate the laborers, according to Perales
According to Freehold Borough Police officials, "officer's discretion" is a borough ordinance that was used frequently in municipal court.
Michael DiAiso, who was Freehold Borough police captain at that time, explained that "[Officer's discretion] is used as a means to downgrade a disorderly persons charge." He said that a violation of a borough ordinance carries a much lesser penalty than a violation of state law.
Perales said that the federal lawsuit alleged that borough code enforcement officials "raided" private homes in Latino neighborhoods late at night to evict unauthorized occupants.
According to Code Official Hank Stryker III, code enforcement officers do not do that. He said that his department inspects homes on a complaint-driven basis. He also said that the inspections are done at reasonable hours and that he did not have the power to evict people.
As reported previously in the News Transcript, borough police officers no longer issue summonses bearing the description "officer's discretion."
A hearing in federal court, Trenton, before U.S District Court Judge Anne Thompson, originally scheduled for Feb. 6, 2004, was postponed, and a conference call with Thompson was held Feb. 5. Borough representatives made a presentation to repeal the officer's discretion ordinance and then argued that no further relief was necessary.
One of the remaining issues yet to be settled is what the plaintiffs called the harassment of Latino workers. The plaintiffs requested copies of all the officer's discretion summonses that had been issued over a six-month period. The plan was to return to court after officials received those copies.
According to Alan Levine, special counsel to the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, both parties in the lawsuit have agreed in principle to a settlement. It has not yet been executed.
Levine said that the fines for "officer's discretion" tickets is part of the settlement and will ultimately involve the remission of the fines paid by those who were issued those tickets.
"There is still a lot of work to do to ensure that parties will observe and enforce the terms that have been agreed upon," Levine said.
A March 2004 court decision by Thompson gave the day laborers the right to stand on public property along Throckmorton Street to seek labor.
That decision, according to town officials, did not reopen the muster zone, but allowed for day laborers - or anyone else, for that matter - to stand on the public area of that industrial strip. That right or privilege was never in any jeopardy, according to officials.
Most of the area that was referred to as the muster zone was on private property that is owned by Conrail.
In a conversation in March 2004, Wilson said that the plaintiffs "did not gain anything that they and the rest of the public did not already have. There were no rights granted and no rights taken away that were not in place before the plaintiffs raised this issue."
Wilson assured residents that the muster zone was closed and would remain closed. He said at that time, "a small strip along the roadway is public, and the borough has always recognized the constitutional rights of all persons to lawfully gather on public property anywhere in the borough."
During the months when the muster zone was off limits, church officials at the New Beginnings Agape Christian Center on Throckmorton Street provided a temporary hiring hall for day laborers on the church grounds.
