Former Brick Superintendent's Suit Claims Retaliation

BRICK, NJ — Former Brick Township Schools Superintendent Walter Uszenski has filed a lawsuit against Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato, Brick Mayor John G. Ducey and former members of the Brick Township Board of Education in connection with the criminal charges brought against him and his daughter in 2015.

The lawsuit was filed Sept. 11 in Superior Court in Monmouth County, according to court records available online. The suit claims Uszenski was targeted for retaliation over a $750,000 deficit in the district's special education budget that he brought to light.

The lawsuit, filed by Neil Mullin of Smith Mullin in Montclair, seeks damages for Uszenski, his daughter, Jacqueline Halsey, and Halsey's son, according to online court information. A tort claim notice last year said they were seeking $20 million in damages apiece.

Uszenski, 66, was hired as superintendent in July 2012 and served until he was suspended following his arrest May 7, 2015, then indicted in September 2015 on charges of official misconduct. A judge threw out the charges in February 2017, but the Ocean County prosecutor's office brought a new indictment in June 2017. Uszenski remained suspended until his contract expired June 30, 2018. The school board notified Uszenski in September 2017 that he would not be rehired.

In addition to Coronato and Ducey, the lawsuit names former Brick Township school board members Sharon Cantillo, Karyn Cusanelli, John Barton, Michael Conti, Frank Pannucci Jr., Susan Suter, Vito M. Gagliardi Sr.; John Sahradnik, who was the school board's attorney at the time; former Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Michel A. Paulhus and Ryan Mahoney, a detective in the prosecutor's office; Donna Stump, the assistant principal at Emma Havens Young Elementary School, and her husband, William; Marcella Butterly, a former bus driver in the school district; Brick schools business administrator James Edwards; Brick Township Business Administrator Joanne Bergin.

Uszenski, his daughter, Jacqueline Halsey, and Andrew Morgan, were charged with official misconduct and theft by deception over what the Ocean County prosecutor's office said was a scheme to provide full-day day care for Halsey's son, who was preschool age at the time. The three and Andrew Morgan's wife, Lorraine, were indicted in September 2015 in the case.

All of the charges except two against Morgan accusing him of lying about a criminal conviction on his employment application and one against Lorraine Morgan were dismissed in February 2017 by Ocean County Superior Court Judge Patricia B. Roe. But the prosecutor's office brought a new indictment against the four in June 2017, primarily focused on Uszenski and Morgan and Morgan's failure to report his conviction.

The investigation allegedly began as a result of information provided by Ducey's office to the prosecutor's office about possible misconduct.

Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor's office, said there would be no comment from Coronato on the lawsuit while the criminal case is still pending. Paulhus, who had been the lead prosecutor on the case, was fired from the prosecutor's office in July. Della Fave said the case is now assigned to Senior Assistant Prosecutors Jill O’Malley and Michael Abatemarco.

Ducey and Bergin said the mayor did what residents would expect a public official to do: report concerns about a public official.

"It is sad that I am being dragged into a lawsuit for reporting possible public corruption," Ducey said by email Tuesday. He said he went to the prosecutor's office after a resident came to him with concerns and told him and Bergin that "she picked up a relative of the superintendent in Beachwood and dropped the student off in Forked River."

"I felt I had a moral and ethical obligation to report the possible wrongdoing to the authorities," Ducey said. "I did not ask for follow-up and was never contacted again. To this day I do not know what happened with regards to the busing issue."

"This type of suit may freeze people in the future from doing the right thing," Ducey said.

Bergin, who said the suit lacks specific allegations about the actions of her and Ducey, said the mayor meets with residents "who ask for meetings to discuss a myriad of issues."

She said she and Ducey felt the information disclosed needed to be forwarded to the prosecutor's office.

"We did not assign guilt or innocence, we made no assumptions on the validity of the information, we did not request to be informed or updated on what the prosecutor decided to do with that information," Bergin said. "We reported it to the appropriate party as is our responsibility as public servants. I believe the taxpayers of Brick expect nothing less from their mayor."

The report to Ducey and Bergin came from Butterly, who was a probationary bus driver at the time and was fired after she left a child asleep on a bus in 2014, according to a Brick Shorebeat report. Some of the information Butterly provided was not factual, the report said; Uszenski’s grandson was attending a private facility in Brick, and the Early Educational Center was not being used for classes because of mold issues.

Uszenski, with the board's approval, hired Andrew Morgan to conduct an audit of the Brick schools' special services after the $750,000 deficit in the program's budget was discovered. Morgan's audit report was critical of the job performance of Donna Stump, who was at the time director of special services. Stump was demoted as a result of the audit, which found the deficit resulted from invoices Stump failed to submit for reimbursement of special education services costs for district students.

Morgan was hired shortly thereafter as the interim director of special services at Uszenski's recommendation. But the hiring became controversial when information surfaced that Morgan had been convicted in 1990 on heroin and cocaine charges in New York.

Joseph Benedict, Uszenski's attorney on the criminal charges, said that information was dug up by Stump's husband in the wake of her demotion. The state Department of Education had told Brick school district officials that Morgan was qualified to work in a school district, an investigator confirmed to Patch. After information on the drug charges was presented to the district, Morgan resigned, in December 2013, Benedict said at the time of the second indictments.

A call to Nicholas Montenegro, the current attorney for the Brick Township Board of Education, was not immediately returned.

Uszenski's arrest and Morgan's drug conviction became central issues in the 2015 Board of Education and Township Council elections. Conti and Pannucci, who ran for the council that year instead of seeking re-election to the school board, were targeted over the Morgan issue in negative campaign fliers.

The suspension of Uszenski — first with pay, as required under state statute — and the hiring of Morgan were continuously blasted during the school board race by Victoria Pakala, the most vocal member of the slate of board candidates that included John Lamela, Stephanie Wohlrab and George White. The four ran against John Talty, who resigned and then sought to regain his seat (which he lost to White), and seven others on a motto of a clean slate, promising to fire Uszenski — which by law they could not do. Pakala continues to blast Uszenski and the former board, with comments praising newly hired Superintendent Gerard Dalton that include digs at the former board at recent board meetings.

Suter did not seek re-election to the board in 2015. Cusanelli did not seek re-election in 2016 when her term expired, citing a lack of transparency, and Cantillo did not seek re-election last year, citing personal responsibilities and issues with the current board.

The situation has caused lingering issues for the current board, as former board members, including Cusanelli, had sought reimbursement for attorney's fees in connection with interviews they had with investigators in the criminal probe of Uszenski. The board in June voted to refuse to provide reimbursement for those fees, setting off an angry comment from Cusanelli: "I don't understand why a board member is being asked (to do this) at his or her expense. You're there as a volunteer and it would be very unfortunate if you had to incur legal expenses."

"I would just request that this board think long and hard," Cusanelli said at the time.

Sahradnik was the board attorney at the time but was ousted in 2016 when Pakala, Lamela, Wohlrab and White removed most of the district's outside professionals and then-interim Superintendent Richard Caldes minutes after being sworn into their board seats. The moves were criticized as being solely for political reasons, because though school boards are supposed to be nonpartisan, Lamela, Wohlrab and Pakala all have ties to the local Democratic Party.

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Walter Uszenski, photo by Karen Wall, Patch staff