Protection sought for protesters

Thursday, September 27, 2007

BY KEVIN C. DILWORTH

Star-Ledger Staff

State and federal intervention is needed in Orange to help guarantee that people who legally protest against indicted Mayor Mims Hackett Jr.'s decision to remain in municipal office will not be arrested, Councilman-at-large Donald Page said yesterday.

Last week a resident who silently protested Hackett's not-guilty plea and his decision not to step down as mayor was evicted from a city council meeting and charged with disrupting the public session, Page said.

"Since the arrest two weeks ago of Mayor Hackett, the majority of the city council has acted as a backup to his desire not to resign as mayor, even though he has been accused of committing fraudulent acts, as mayor, and not as a state assemblyman, a position he did resign from," Page said at a City Hall news conference.

He said on Tuesday he wrote U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, Governor Jon Corzine and New Jersey Attorney General Ann Milgram asking them to intervene in the matter.

He also charged city council President Lisa Perkins is using her power as head of the seven-member governing body "to stop any display of protest, of the public's unhappiness, with Mayor Hackett remaining in office."

Hackett, who had been a Democrat representing the 27th Legislative District, was in the final four months of his third, two-year Assembly term when he got caught in an FBI sting operation. Ten other state officials also were nabbed Sept. 6.

After Hackett was accused of agreeing to a $30,000 bribe linked to an insurance deal, state Democrats asked him to give up his state Assembly post. He complied two days later, on Sept. 8, when he also requested his name be removed from the November general election ballot.

But he has said he is not resigning as mayor.

Jeffrey Conway, 46, an Irving Terrace resident who silently protested at the city council's Sept. 18 meeting, by holding up a 8 1/2-by-11-inch sign that said: "Go directly to jail. Do not collect pension." He was arrested by police and charged with disrupting a public forum.

Perkins ordered two uniformed police officers to remove Conway from the city council chambers, after she warned him once to put down a sign that she described as distracting.

Perkins could not be reached for comment.

"Residents who want to publicly display their opposition of the mayor, at the next council meeting on Oct. 2, have called me, voicing their fear of being arrested," Page said. "This is wrong. To instill fear in our residents, because they want to say what you may not want to hear."

Civilian police director Aric Webster denied any wrongdoing on the part of police and said Conway's arrest was justified. He insisted police did not violate Conway's civil or First Amendment rights.

No one should have any fear about the meeting next Tuesday night so long as they are "orderly and respect the law," he said.

Conway's two attorneys -- Kevin Costello of Cherry Hill and Patricia Weston Rivera of Maplewood -- have said their client was arrested without provocation, was jailed on false charges, was never told his rights, and was refused access to an attorney.

Alan L. Zegas, a Chatham attorney and civil rights expert, said Conway's constitution rights were also likely violated:

Orange City Council meetings are public forums, and as such, "you have the right to make statements of dissent," Rivera said. "The Supreme Court has said that. Jeff's freedom of speech was violated, and his First Amendment Rights were violated. He was denied the right to an attorney, and he was thrown into a jail cell."