MIDDLETOWN — You can read it, but no one involved will discuss it. That’s the irony in the circumstances surrounding the filing of a notice of tort claim by Township Clerk Rosa Garcia.
While the issue has been shrouded in secrecy by officials, the claim, which was filed on Nov. 2 is open to public perusal.
The standard reply of officials is a status quo reassurance that the issue is a personnel matter that they are confident will be resolved before it ever reaches a court room.
The notice offers a few solid details, among them the fact that Garcia, a Point Pleasant resident and township clerk since 1998, had the claim filed based on "injury or damages against the township of Middletown, its employees or agents."
Garcia’s attorney, Ralph Lamparello of Chasan, Leyner, Bariso and Lamparello, Secaucus, sent the notice of tort claim to Diane Santarseri, deputy clerk. It asserts that the complaint is a continuing one, having arisen on June 1, 1998, with "accrual of the cause of action on Aug. 17, 2001."
The place where the alleged violations occurred is "within the municipal property of the Township of Middletown, specifically town hall, and the private office of (then) Mayor Joan A. Smith," the document reads.
What is termed the "circumstances of the occurrence" points a finger at Smith; Deputy Mayor Rosemarie Peters; Kathleen Connelly, an attorney hired to help conduct an investigation; Dawn Bennett, who worked in the clerk’s office for some 25 years until recently; and "others as employees or agents of the township in creating and promoting a hostile work environment based on gender: in the intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress; in the negligent hiring, supervision and retention of certain employees; in a conspiracy to file false sexual harassment charges; and in the further negligent conduct of an illegal, unauthorized and unwarranted investigation framed as a ‘sexual harassment investigation,’ with Rosa Garcia, municipal clerk, as the target."
The claim further asserts that the township failed to follow its own policy with respect to such matters of investigation and illegally delegated responsibilities within its own government. Also, the notice claims township violation of the U.S. Constitution and the N.J. Law Against Discrimination.
Garcia, 31, also claims personal injury in the form of "anxiety, humiliation, embarrassment, loss of prestige resulting in physical manifestations, including, but not limited to, headaches, nausea, sleeplessness, shortness of breath, depression and intestinal illness."
Garcia was under medical care for her alleged injuries at the time the tort was filed, according to the document.