SECAUCUS AND BEYOND – Secaucus officials said this week that they still have yet to receive a long anticipated report of a probe into a 2004 anti-gay bias incident.
The municipality had expected to receive the report last month.
In May 2010 the Town Council ordered an independent inquiry into the now-infamous incidents of anti-gay harassment that led to a multi-million-dollar lawsuit in 2008. The inquiry was led by attorney Edward DePascale of McElroy, Deutch, Mulvaney.
Two former residents, Peter DeVries and Timothy Carter, who once lived next to the North End Fire House, filed a harassment suit against Secaucus after enduring two years of alleged harassment from a handful of firefighters.
The situation culminated on one night in April 2004, when according to the suit, anti-gay slurs and violent threats were yelled outside the couple’s house. One attacker allegedly threatened to kill them.
In 2008, a jury in Hudson County Superior Court awarded them $2.8 million, on top of another $2 million for legal fees.
The three former firefighters who were implicated in the harassment – but who were never charged with a crime, and who were not named in the couple’s lawsuit – resigned from the Secaucus Volunteer Fire Department shortly after the trial ended. Since December 2009, however, the firefighters and their supporters have been lobbying for them to be reinstated.
Both supporters and critics of the men believe DePascale’s inquiry could either vindicate them – or prove their complicity in the harassment of Carter and DeVries.
Town Administrator David Drumeler said DePascale completed the bulk of his inquiry in early December and he now expects the town to get his written report sometime this month.
Mayor Michael Gonnelli has vowed to make DePascale’s report available to the public.
Once the municipality receives DePascale’s findings, however, it could still be several weeks before it’s released publicly. The council will review it first, Drumeler said, and portions that deal with sensitive personnel matters may need to be redacted. – E. Assata Wright
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