Disabled Man Arrested On NJ Boardwalk With Service Dog, Lawsuit Says

SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ — All Carl F. Monto wants to do is walk on the boardwalk with his service dog, Maverick, and enjoy the ocean air.

The Beachwood man says Seaside Heights is refusing to allow him to do that in peace, ticketing him multiple times for having the dog on the boardwalk — in spite of Maverick being a service dog.

Monto, who is disabled, filed a lawsuit against Seaside Heights in October 2025 alleging the borough violated his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act when it arrested him in August 2025 for being on the boardwalk with Maverick and took the dog away from him.

Seaside Heights Administrator Christopher Vaz said in a reply late Wednesday afternoon that Monto was arrested on a charge of purposely obstructing the administration of law in August 2025 when a confrontation between Monto and Seaside Heights code enforcement officials escalated.

Monto has been ticketed three times for having the dog on the boardwalk, a violation of borough ordinances, municipal court records show.

Seaside Heights passed an ordinance in 2021 that banned all animals from the boardwalk, leashed or not, because of persistent issues with people refusing to clean up when their dogs pooped on the boardwalk.

Monto, 66, said he became completely disabled about nine years ago after an illness. Maverick, a 4-year-old Doberman, is trained to alert when Monto has one of his medical episodes, which he described as being similar to a stroke.

Monto, who is partially blind, carries equipment with him in case he has trouble breathing, but Maverick is critical, alerting at the first signs of an issue.

"If I have trouble breathing, or I start to sweat, he starts howling," Monto said. "He's amazing."

Maverick has even traveled with him when Monto has been taken by ambulance to a hospital, and said that included an incident that happened in court, he said.

"He's with me 24 hours a day," Monto said.

That's why Monto filed the lawsuit, he said, to force Seaside Heights to follow federal law.

The incident that prompted the lawsuit happened at 1 p.m. on Aug. 26, 2025. Monto had taken Maverick to the boardwalk not long after a victory in court where a municipal court judge tossed a ticket he had been given for a prior boardwalk visit.

"They (Seaside Heights police and code enforcement) surrounded me and they took him (Maverick) away," Monto said in a phone interview Tuesday. In the lawsuit, Monto alleges the police officers caused him back pain and chest pain from aggravating existing injuries, and that they kept Maverick separated from him for an unspecified length of time, which caused Monto significant anxiety.

Under the ADA, since March 2011, service dogs are permitted to accompany a disabled person in all areas of a facility where the public has access. A service dog "must be under the control of its handler ... harnessed, leashed, or tethered, unless the individual’s disability prevents using these devices or these devices interfere with the service animal’s safe, effective performance of tasks."

"Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties," according to the ADA website.

The issue of service animals has become thorny in recent years, with allegations of people using a claim of "service animal" to bring their dogs or other animals with them into places that would otherwise bar the animal's entry.

Under the law, a person with an animal cannot be forced to produce documents showing the animal is a service animal, and they cannot be required to wear items identifying them as service animals. But the disabled person can be asked if the dog is required due to a disability and can be asked what task the animal performs for them.

Seaside Heights Mayor Anthony Vaz told ShoreBeat he wants the state to set up a licensing system for service dogs to eliminate any confusion and stop people from exploiting the ADA for dogs that are not service animals.

"The ADA service dog provisions were poorly drafted," Christopher Vaz, the borough administrator, said. "Unfortunately, the law creates the conditions for disagreeable interactions between code enforcement officers and people claiming that their dog is a service animal."

"It is in the public’s interest that the law is amended. To that end, the Seaside Heights Borough Council is seeking the assistance of State legislative representatives to work with their Congressional counterparts to amend the ADA to permit a statewide registry. The amendments should require proof of disability, a service dog training program and/or approved certification standards, a statewide registry, and governmental issuance of a service dog card or permit," Christopher Vaz said. "It should not be sufficient that a dog owner can purchase a sham service dog registration card and 'service dog vest' on the internet for $75 — or rehearse the answers to the only two questions that the ADA permits business owners (and code enforcement officers) to ask."

Monto said that in spite of him filing the lawsuit, Seaside Heights has continued to issue summonses for going on the boardwalk with Maverick, in June and July 2026.

Those cases are scheduled for municipal court hearings in Bay Head.

Court filings show Monto's initial lawsuit was for $250,000 and named Seaside Heights, along with its code enforcement and Mayor Anthony Vaz. Vaz and the code enforcement officers were removed as defendants.

The most recent court action was on Friday, a hearing on Monto's request to amend his lawsuit to include the two more recent summonses. He said his motion to include them was granted, along with his request to increase the amount he is seeking to $5 million. He also said the borough was ordered to turn over body camera footage from the officers who arrested him, which he said the borough had been refusing to turn over.

Before he got sick nine years ago, Monto said he and his wife had multiple businesses. But his illnesses and subsequent surgeries changed that.

"We lost all our businesses," he said.

That's why he likes to enjoy walking the boardwalk with Maverick, who has been with him nearly all four years of the dog's life.

"People don't realize life can change in a second," Monto said.

Note: This article was updated at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 30, 2026, with comment from Christopher Vaz, Seaside Heights borough administrator, and to correct that Monto was ticketed twice in 2026, not arrested, along with the charge filed in the August 2025 arrest.