Middletown Board Of Ed. Candidate Addresses Lawsuit Against Him

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Harmony Barry Heffernan, running for a seat on the Middletown Board of Education, publicly addressed a lawsuit filed against him by the state of New Jersey, alleging he committed insurance fraud.

Heffernan is part of the Putting Children First slate of Jacqueline Tobacco and Frank Capone, all first-time school board candidates.

The lawsuit, which you can read here, was filed in 2019 by the state, alleging that Heffernan lied on a written statement he made to Mutual of Omaha, after he said he was injured at work. The state of New Jersey wants to impose a $5,000 fine against Heffernan, plus a $1,000 surcharge. He is fighting it.

"This is a civil matter, where the state of New Jersey wrongfully contends that I completed paperwork incorrectly," said Heffernan in a public Facebook post Wednesday night. "The truth is, I acted in good faith, I did nothing wrong and I have spent three times the amount of money at issue to defend my good name."

Patch called Heffernan to talk about this. He called us back, and said:

"Look, this is a civil matter that I'm disputing and I feel like I'm going to win," he said. "I'm getting sued because I'm fighting this. This is a disagreement on paper. I hired an attorney and I really don't want to say anything more to a newspaper about this."

He also said the story was hosted on a website he thinks was created to look like a news site, designed by his political opponents to smear him.

Tobacco stood strong by her running mate.

“I think it’s terrible that the opposition would create a fake news website to character assassinate Mr. Heffernan," she said in a statement to Patch. "Unfortunately, I’m not surprised as they have attempted the same tactics on several occasions. I truly believe this a blatant attempt to deflect Middletown voters from the real issue of this campaign: Pam Rogers using her official position as Board president to utilize district resources to further her political agenda.”

She was referring to Rogers' support for Middletown's Black Lives Matter march this past June.

"I did not create a fake news site to smear Mr. Heffernan's good name. I wouldn't begin to know how one would do such a thing," said Rogers. "This accusation is absurd. While the Heffernans have been extremely unkind to me and caused my family pain, I am not a vindictive person. I wish Mr. Heffernan good luck at his hearing."

The matter will be decided by a judge in Monmouth County court on Oct. 7.

The state of New Jersey alleges that on March 28, 2017, Heffernan applied to Mutual of Omaha for a disability policy. On April 5, he said he was injured at his place of work and he stopped working there on April 6.

However, the state says that he failed to disclose that he was injured in the time period between the application date, March 28, and the effective date of the policy.

"Specifically, (Heffernan) falsely stated that he had not been injured between the time he applied for an individual disability policy and the issuance of the policy," read the state's lawsuit. "Had Defendant disclosed his injury and change in occupational status on the Statement of Good Health, Mutual of Omaha would not have made the policy effective."

The "Putting Children First" slate is running on a general stance of reopening schools and getting things back to normal as much as possible. They are fighting against current BOE members Pam Rogers, Robin Stella and Nick DiFranco plus the "Unifying Middletown" slate of Kelly Brodin, Pam Smith and Patricia Reed. Raymond Jankowski is running as an independent.

Board of Education races are always competitive in Middletown, but this year particularly so. There are three seats up for election this fall.

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