MANALAPAN — The township and Police Chief Stuart C. Brown have settled an age-discrimination lawsuit the chief filed against the municipality in 2009.
Mayor Andrew Lucas announced at the Dec. 22 meeting of the Manalapan Township Committee that the litigation has concluded. The mayor did not provide any details of the settlement.
“It was beneficial to both parties to settle,” Lucas said.
Brown, 50, is retiring as police chief on Dec. 31. He has been employed by the Manalapan Police Department since June 1980. Brown was named Manalapan’s police chief on Nov. 12, 2003, and took control of the department on Dec. 1.
Brown was represented by attorney StuartMoskovitz, of Freehold Township, in the age discrimination lawsuit.
Moskovitz told the News Transcript on Dec. 23 that the age-discrimination lawsuit is tentatively settled. He said formal documents have to be executed and the Joint Insurance Fund (JIF), which represented Manalapan, has to vote on it.
Moskovitz said it is expected that the JIF will approve the settlement.
Asked if he could state the details of the settlement, Moskovitz said there is a confidentiality agreement as to the terms of the deal. He said, “We are satisfied with the overall result.”
Brown’s August 2009 complaint alleged that municipal officials had tried to force Brown into early retirement and stated that “Manalapan, principally through (Committeewoman Michelle) Roth and (Township Administrator Tara) Lovrich, embarked on a prolonged and continual pattern of harassment of Chief Brown.”
The complaint also stated that “from the time Roth began her term on the Township Committee (in January 2006), there has been a longstanding, active policy of removing the existing department heads, many of whom had won awards in their positions and all of whom were recognized as qualified, top quality performers. In every case, they were members of the protected class of aged employees, and in almost every case, they were replaced by younger people.”
At the time that the police chief’s agediscrimination complaint was filed, Moskovitz said case law in New Jersey had established 40 as the benchmark age for an age-discrimination complaint.
A defamation lawsuit that Brown filed against Roth in April 2010 remains active, according to Moskovitz, who represents Brown in that case as well.
The defamation lawsuit arose from a statement Roth read at the Sept. 9, 2009, meeting of the Township Committee. Brown was the subject of that statement, and it is that statement that forms the basis of the defamation claim, according to the complaint.
Roth’s statement of Sept. 9, 2009, concerned what she described as Brown’s sexual harassment, verbal abuse and abuse of power against women in town hall.