Paid agitator Leonard Filipowski, aka Leroy Truth, is scheduled to be arraigned on May 4 after on charges that he assaulted a Union City police officer.
It’s unclear when conditions of release Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Dawn Simonetti will seek for the third-degree charge.
The indictment by an Essex County grand jury was filed on Wednesday after a November 2025 incident where he assaulted Lt. Glen Gaston, who was “engaged in the performance of his duties.”
Alleged ties between Filipowski and North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco led to the harassment of Union City Mayor/State Sen. Brian P. Stack and his family over the last year. Those incidents led to a vicious political feud in Hudson County, a fight that Stack won.
Last October, a municipal court judge in Trenton dismissed disorderly persons offenses against Filipowski following his removal from a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this year.
The judge who will preside over the post-indictment arraignment is Joseph N. Minish, a former federal and state prosecutor and the grandson of former Rep. Joseph G. Minish (D-West Orange).
Joe Minish was a prominent labor leader when he won the seat left vacant by Democrat Hugh Addonizio, who had served almost 14 years in Congress and left on July 1, 1962, to become the mayor of Newark.
Minish had won 64% in 1982, but with a map that shifted NJ-11 west into Morris, Sussex, and Warren counties. Minish’s percentage dropped to 44%, and Assembly Minority Leader Dean Gallo (R-Parsippany) won the seat.
Gov. Phil Murphy nominated Minish to the bench last December.
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