​McCormick and Devine vindicated in dispute with landlord

In a sternly worded opinion, Hunterdon County Superior Court Judge Michael O'Neill ruled against Chiropractor Jennifer E. Fisher, the West Amwell woman who tried to evict progressive activist Lisa McCormick and her partner, Democratic strategist James Devine, after the unmarried couple fell behind on rent payments during the pandemic.

The decision is the fifth time Devine and McCormick prevailed in court cases involving the landlord, Fisher, whose motion to proceed on the emergent basis was dismissed on June 2 and whose original application for eviction was dismissed on March?

A municipal court dismissed a total of ten summonses against Devine and McCormick filed by the same landlord, who O'Neill found lacking in credibility in his ruling, which said she violated the rights of her tenants and illegally took matters into her own hands despite state and federal emergency order prohibiting evictions related to financial challenges during the deadly pandemic.

On May 12, Judge O'Neill issued an unlawful entry and detainer order against Fisher, declaring that Devine and McCormick had rightful possession of the apartment at 25 Hunter Road in Lambertville and that the landlord has acted illegally by trying to dispossess them of their home without properly obtaining necessary documents.

Fisher, whose chiropractic office is at Straube Center in Pennington, falsely accused McCormick and Devine of inconveniencing her and causing a nuisance but the evidence presented in court showed that she lied to circumvent state and federal emergency orders that barred evictions over financial problems.

Chiropractic is a pseudoscientific alternative medicine that is concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially the spine, but Fisher was unable to manipulate the legal system the way she twists bones, muscles, and joints in the body.

The couple expected to rent the apartment for a short time but after they were unable to obtain a certificate of occupancy for the West Amwell house they purchased in August 2019, the coronavirus pandemic caused an interruption in their business income.

Records show that in August 2019, McCormick and Devine purchased a 1,248-square foot home for $52,000 following foreclosure and that the buyer was responsible for obtaining a certificate of occupancy, They also obtained title to two adjacent lots that give them a combined parcel of land equal to 0.6 acres.

Municipal officials refused to issue McCormick and Devine a zoning permit for the property—which had previously been occupied for decades before it became a Fannie Mae Home Equity Conversion Mortgage property—leaving them unable to complete requirements for a certificate of occupancy.

That and cash flow issues resulting from the coronavirus pandemic put them in a difficult situation, like millions of other Americans.

Despite the existence of a lease and not having an order for eviction, Fisher claimed Devine trespassed on her property, subjected her to verbal harassment, and sent threatening text messages. Those charges were determined to lack merit but the judge ruled that the landlord was wrong for interfering with her tenant's peaceful use and occupation of the apartment they rented.

Fisher also claimed the tenants stopped paying her rent in June 2020, several months after New Jersey Governor Philip Murphy’s March 19, 2020, Executive Order 106 prohibited landlords from evicting the two during the coronavirus pandemic.

Fisher claimed they owe about $15,000 in back rent and she demanded thousands of dollars in attorney fees, but O'Neill ruled that the landlord's bad behavior negated her entitlement to collect from the tenants.

“I let them come and stay with me for three months while they fixed up their house,” said Fisher, according to a plainly biased report from David Wildstein, who frequently smears McCormick and Devine by painting them in the worst possible light and using bitter descriptions.

Fisher's fabricated claims were repeatedly dismissed by the judge, who in April, May and June denied the landlord's request to hear the case on an emergency basis and dismissed all her claims for back rent in Friday's ruling.

Wildstein—a Republican dirty trickster who pleaded guilty in federal court to charges that he orchestrated the closure of the George Washington Bridge in retaliation against a Democratic mayor who refused to endorse GOP Governor Chris Christie in 2013—did not report on McCormick and Devine winning a legal victory over the landlord.

Wildstein has referred to McCormick as a 'shadowy perennial candidate" in at least 40 different stories on his blog since she earned 159,998 votes in a primary challenge to incumbent US Senator Robert Menendez.

In that contest, McCormick's campaign spent less than $5,000 while Menendez spent $4 million during the primary season. The progressive challenger carried six counties in her race against Menendez, capturing 38 percent of the vote in the 2018 Democratic primary, which compared to the 36 percent Bernie Sanders won in his 2016 bid for president.