A Wayne resident found not-guilty of criminal charges leveled by city officials has filed a lawsuit seeking punitive damages against the City of Wayne, City Manager Lisa Nocerini, Police Chief Ryan Strong and Police Lt. Finley Carter.
Mark B. Blackwell, through his attorney Timothy E. Galligan, is demanding a jury trial to adjudicate his claims that the defendants violated his first, fourth and fourteenth rights under the U.S. Constitution. He is asking “actual, special, punitive and or exemplary damages” along with interest, costs, reasonable attorney fees and expert witness fees in an unspecified amount as compensation for their actions.
This is the second lawsuit filed against the city and Nocerini in the last month.
In court documents, Blackwell, a long-time resident of the city, cites comments he made at a Jan. 8, 2019 public meeting of the Wayne City Council urging the members to “review and follow the recommendations of an employment expert.” He details the problems the expert's report found, especially with the actions of Nocerini. He says he urged the council members at the meeting to follow the explicit recommendations of the independent report and terminate Nocerini.
Council members took no action on the report, prepared by Richard Hurford, which included interviews with 17 city employees and the review of hundreds of documents. In his more than 32-page report, Hurford determined that the city workforce suffered from poor morale; that there was a failure of leadership by Nocerini; that a perception of favoritism by Nocerini toward certain employees was prevalent; that there was an absence of trust between the city management team and city council; that the city management team, led by Nocerini, was not performing as a high functioning team and that the status quo could not be sustained long term.
Blackwell also urged the elected officials to take note of the resignations of numerous city employees due to the cited morale issues. He recommended that officials follow Hurford's Aug. 8, 2018 report and terminate Nocerini's employment during the public meeting Jan. 8, 2019, according to his court filings.
Blackwell claims that in retaliation for his public comments at the meeting, Nocerini used her influence and position as city manager to have him criminally investigated by the police department and subsequently charged with disturbing a public meeting and criminal stalking. The court documents claim Nocerini made numerous unsubstantiated complaints to police regarding Blackwell. On March 11, 2019, following an investigation assigned to police Lt. Finley Carter, arrest warrants were issued for Blackwell on charges of stalking and disturbing a public event. Blackwell claims Carter never contacted or interviewed him as part of the investigation into Nocerini's complaints. Blackwell further cites the sworn testimony of a witness who claims that the warrant issued for Blackwell's arrest was the result of personal intervention by Acting Police Chief Ryan Strong in response to influence by Nocerini.
The charge of disturbing the peace was dismissed prior to trial by the prosecutor citing the lack of evidence.
Blackwell was found not guilty of the stalking charge by Judge Richard L. Hammer, Jr. on Oct. 4, 2019. The judge noted that Blackwell's actions were “constitutionally protected” and that Blackwell was “not doing anything out of the norm.”
Blackwell is seeking damages from some of the defendants personally as he contends they sought to unlawfully interfere with his “clearly established rights by pursuing and causing others to pursue criminal charges against him.” The adverse actions of the defendants, Blackwell claims, subjected him to criminal prosecution and deprivation of liberty and damaged him “by restraining, preventing and impairing his right to free speech in a way likely to chill a person of ordinary firmness from propounding further lawful speech.”
During the subsequently dismissed criminal charges against him, Blackwell claims he suffered a deprivation of liberty as he was restricted from appearing at city hall without 48-hours notice.
No court date has been set in the case which was filed in U.S. District Court on July 23. “While we will not talk about the substance of pending litigation, I will state that we look forward to the exoneration of the city and its hard-working employees,” said Wayne Mayor John Rhaesa.
In a separate lawsuit filed last month against Nocerini and the city, Sgt. Abraham Hughes also cited the undue influence exerted by Nocerini in the police department. In his lawsuit, Hughes claims Nocerini altered hiring criteria to favor the promotion of Strong to police chief.
