Zoning Board Taps Ramsey Mayor Botta as Temporary Attorney

At a closed door session of the Zoning Board Tuesday evening the board tapped Ramsey Mayor and attorney Christopher Botta to step in as a temporary board attorney to fill in for Harold Cook , who announced last week he would be following the misconduct charges levied against him, the Zoning Board will meet this evening in a closed door session to discuss a temporary replacement, Zoning Board chairman Doug Christie told Patch.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Zoning Board will be on Thursday.  A special meeting is scheduled on June 27th where the board will hear continued testimony on the Christian Health Care Center expansion application. Christie told Patch the Board must have an attorney present in order to conduct regularly scheduled business.

The complaint, which was filed on May 19, states Cook has been "sued both personally and in his capacity as a member of more than forty limited liability companies in approximately forty-three cases in Superior Court of New Jersey...and the allegations against (Cook) in these various lawsuits include, but are not limited to, breach of fiduciary duty to investors, fraudulent transfer of real property, fraudulent concealment of the financial health of various entities with which (Cook) was/is intrinsically involved, legal malpractice, fraudulent concealment of fraud by third-parties, failure to obtain consent from investors, securities fraud, and default on promissory notes and personal guarantees in the aggregate sum of more than $20 million."

The complaint alleges that failure to disclose his involvement to proper authorities in the multiple lawsuits alone merits judicial misconduct, but goes on to allege that several of his creditors have been awarded monetary judgements against him, totaling $2.7 million dollars. It also claims that creditors have sought to have his wages garnished as a municipal court judge to satisfy creditors.