Charges against T-shirt-selling trio dismissed
Borough code
enforcement officer recommended dropping charge
Brenda Lovick had come to court ready to do battle. But for reasons of which she was not aware, the summons against her was dismissed.
Lovick, of Shrewsbury Avenue, Red Bank, appeared in the borough’s municipal court last week to fight a summons she received in October for operating a business in a residential zone.
But at the beginning of the court session the morning of Jan. 24, Raymond "Buddy" Williams, the borough’s building department code enforcement official, informed Judge William Himelman that the summons was "satisfied."
Lovick said she was surprised. She had called the court clerk the previous day and was informed she was still on the docket.
"I don’t know," she said with a shrug of the shoulders as she stood outside the courtroom.
Lovick, along with her fiancé, Joe Taylor, and his brother, Sam, both of Asbury Park, had been selling T-shirts, American flags, bandannas and other patriotic items from a table located on Lovick’s front lawn, after Sept. 11.
Lovick and the Taylor brothers maintained they were selling the items more as a patriotic service to the community than as a profit-generating enterprise. They said they had gone to the borough’s Municipal Center, 90 Monmouth St., to obtain a permit for a "yard sale," the way they described their endeavor.
Lovick said they were told by Borough Clerk Carol Vivona that no permit is necessary for a resident to conduct the occasional yard sale; residents simply have to adhere to minor constraints.
But in October, Lovick received a summons for violating a borough ordinance against conducting a business in a residential zone.
The borough contended Lovick and the Taylors were operating an ongoing business (they sold the items every weekend, weather permitting), as opposed to having the usual neighborhood yard sale.
Lovick and her fiancé expressed outrage over the summons insisting it was "un-American" for the borough to try to stop them from selling the items.
Lovick said she would continue to sell the shirts and other things and vowed to fight the summons.
"They were being unpatriotic," Lovick said upon leaving court.
Lovick and Taylor said they were planning their "Blowout Sale" for the weekend, marking down the remaining merchandise for clearance.
When contacted later, Williams said he recommended the dismissal because he was under the impression — a misperception — Lovick and Taylor had stopped selling their goods.
Williams did acknowledge he has been out from work for most of the past month, due to illness, but he said, "I passed by there often, and I didn’t see them selling them shirts, so I had it dismissed."
Following the dismissal of the charges, Williams said if the trio returned to selling the merchandise, they would be cited.
Lovick was indeed in front of her home selling items over the weekend.
She said she did not receive a summons.