Two local politicos who were once the best of friends filed charges against each other last week after one of them claimed that the other had urinated on his door. The accused man responded by saying that his former friend is trying to ruin his reputation for political reasons. He added that although his friend has been telling people that the two had had a romantic relationship, it isn’t true. The exchange of barbs began after George Ortiz, a 24-year-old Hoboken politico who recently managed the campaign of the mayor’s school board slate, told police that last weekend, Carmelo Garcia, who had managed the rival slate, had urinated on the door to his apartment. But Garcia, who is also an aide to Freeholder Maurice Fitzgibbons, vehemently denied the charge and claimed that Ortiz is just trying to ruin his reputation because Garcia is contemplating a bid for citywide office next year. Interviews with the two men suggest that last weekend’s incident was precipitated by more than just the fact that the two had worked against each other in a vigorously-contested school board election that took place April 18. Ortiz claimed last week that Garcia has been harassing him since Ortiz broke off what he claimed was an intimate relationship last year. But Garcia, who is engaged to a woman and has two children, denied that he and Ortiz were more than just friends. Garcia made a counter-claim against Ortiz two days after Ortiz filed his report. In that claim, Garcia says it was actually Ortiz who behaved inappropriately last weekend by cursing and acting in an offensive manner. Ongoing dispute Ortiz said last week, “To make a long story short, we had an affair that went sour. Since then, [Garcia] has been harassing me – driving me crazy – leaving messages on my machine, on my aunt’s machine. It’s really sick. And late Friday night he even went so far as to urinate on my door.” Garcia, whose fiancee lives three doors down from Ortiz in his building, vehemently denied that there was ever anything more than a friendship between the two men. “There was never anything between us,” said Garcia Friday. “I accepted him as a friend. Some people said to me negative things like, ‘Why are you hanging around with that [slur],’ but I never thought anything about it. Then he made it clear to me last December that he did not think of me just as a friend, but as a male companion. When I made it clear to him that was not who I was, that’s when his aggression started.” Garcia said that since then, the tires on his truck have been slashed twice, and the fender and passenger side door have been “keyed” up. Anonymous letters have been sent to the bank where he works, suggesting that loans Garcia processed were improper. And worst of all, Garcia said, someone sent a letter to his fiancee saying that he had not only been unfaithful to her, but had also had an affair with Ortiz. “My fiancee cried when she got that letter,” said Garcia. “This is emotionally distressing stuff that rises to the level of harassment.” On Thursday, two days after Ortiz filed his complaint, Garcia filed a complaint against Ortiz charging that the former “Excellence in Education” campaign manager had used “excessively coarse language and acted in an offensive manner” Saturday morning. Ortiz’ charge against Garcia will be heard in municipal court on May 31. Garcia’s counterclaim has yet to get a court date. Ortiz said he is flabbergasted that Garcia would deny the relationship. “I have nothing to gain from this,” said Ortiz. “This has been very difficult for me. The hardest part was telling my parents about this. They did not know that I am gay. But I will go to court and under oath explain what has happened. If he denies it under oath, then that’s perjury.” Recent troubles Earlier this spring, Ortiz’ employment as a press secretary with Sen. Robert Torricelli was terminated after his colleagues discovered him allegedly violating office procedures. Documents obtained by the Reporter showed that colleagues accused Ortiz of having eavesdropped on a senior staff member’s private conversation and of having written several letters on the senator’s stationary to get favors for friends and relatives. Ortiz grew up in Hoboken and attended Cornell University, where he served as student council president. Then, he returned home and began working for the senator. After leaving the senator’s office two months ago, Ortiz ran the Excellence in Education school board slate that was supported by Mayor Anthony Russo. The move surprised some Hobokenites, since in the last two years, Ortiz had been allied with Russo’s critics, including Garcia. Less than a month after the election, in which all three of the Russo-slate candidates won, Ortiz was hired to serve as a “management specialist” at City Hall. Then, last Saturday morning, the tension between Garcia and Ortiz seemed to come to a head. Ortiz claims that prior to sullying his door, Garcia pounded on it, pleading with him to open up so that they could reconcile their differences. But Garcia has a very different interpretation of the events. “What happened was my fiancee lives on his floor, three doors down,” Garcia said. “[Ortiz’s] door is right across from the incinerator. It’s an Applied Housing building, so you can hear everything that goes on in the halls. And every time that I am in her house and I go to the incinerator, I feel someone looking at me. You know how you can feel someone looking at you through a peep hole?” Garcia continued, “At 1:30, I went to throw away the garbage and I felt someone looking at me. But as I walked away, I looked back and he had cracked the door open, so I said, ‘Why are you stalking me?’ and he started yelling ‘You are f—ing finished, you are a f—ing whore,’ and he slammed the door. I just went back to my house, and five minutes later, there is a knock and it’s the cops.”
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