Judge Dismisses Countersuit in Ongoing DeMarzo, Taylor Fray

WILDWOOD – In the latest development in the long feud between former Mayor Gary DeMarzo and Cape May County Prosecutor Robert Taylor, DeMarzo announced that a judge had dismissed a countersuit Taylor had filed alleging defamation. 
Superior Court Judge Noah Bronkesh in May dismissed a countersuit Taylor had filed against DeMarzo alleging defamation and “tortious interference.”
Taylor filed the countersuit after DeMarzo and attorney Samuel Lashman had filed a wrongful prosecution lawsuit against Taylor and others in 2013.
Taylor said May 30 that he plans to file an appeal.
Taylor had filed charges against DeMarzo in 2011, alleging a payment made to Lashman when DeMarzo was mayor was an improper use of public funds.
The indictments on the matter were eventually dismissed. DeMarzo maintained throughout that the payment was legal, and voted in public by the governing body at the time. The total payment was $346, according to DeMarzo.
The issue goes back to other lawsuits, from when DeMarzo won a seat of the governing body a decade ago while still serving as a Wildwood police sergeant.
The two other commissioners, including current Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano, filed suit alleging a conflict of interest, to push DeMarzo to either resign his elected position or from the police department, according to reports from the time.
The payment to Lashman was related to that case.
Ultimately, there were three indictments handed up by grand juries over the payment. Each was dismissed. In their still-pending suit against Taylor, DeMarzo and Lashman allege that the prosecution was improper.
In his ruling, a copy of which was provided by DeMarzo, Bronkesh wrote “After three indictments from Cape May Prosecutor Taylor, Plaintiff DeMarzo filed a malicious prosecution complaint. The first indictment was voluntarily dismissed by the county prosecutor.
“The dismissal of the second and third indictments was accompanied by judicial opinions indicating that ‘substance and manner of the grand jury presentations were fundamentally unfair and/or presented distorted versions of the facts.’
“DeMarzo made statements to the media after the dismissal of the third indictment criticizing the prosecutor’s conduct. Several statements in the newspaper were quoted from DeMarzo’s complaint. Due to DeMarzo’s statements to the press, the prosecutor filed counterclaims for defamation and tortious interference with prospective economic advantage.”
Tortious interference means the defendant had hurt the plaintiff’s ability to make money or damaged a likely contract. But in his ruling, Bronkesh indicated that Taylor stated under oath that he did not see any economic loss. What’s more, court documents are a kind of protected speech, and in any case, the bar for ruling defamation against a public figure, including a county prosecutor, is higher than for other individuals.
Taylor said he is being defended by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office in the wrongful prosecution suit, but declined to say anything further.
“I’m not going to make any comment. The matter is proceeding to trial,” he said May 30.
In a prepared statement, DeMarzo stated that Taylor intentionally misled the grand jury for the indictments.
“Now the case has been heard by its eighth judge, and the result remains the same: what Taylor did was unconstitutional,” DeMarzo wrote.
To contact Bill Barlow, email bbarlow@cmcherald.com.