Judge slaps Red Bank attorney for delaying election case

A legal challenge to the filling of a Red Bank Borough Council vacancy will need to wait a few more days while the borough attorney, Greg Cannon, figures out how to deal with this own conflict.

Cannon told a visibly annoyed Superior Court Judge David Bauman on Wednesday that Red Bank needed to geta  new lawyer since his connection to multiple parties in a lawsuit to remove Councilwoman Angela Mirandi.

“I don’t think I can effectively represent the borough, given my relationship with all the different parties,” Cannon said.

Mirandi was appointed on February 9 following the resignation of Erik Yngstrom, but Councilwoman Kathleen Horgan and others allege that the Democratic municipal chairman Edward Zipprich, who is also a councilman, didn’t consult the entire county committee before submitting three names of possible successors to the council.

The challenge, filed their lawsuit on February 23, was not heard until today.  Bauman replaced the original judge, Andrea Marshall.  The court did not say why Marshall was replaced.

Cannon said he didn’t know about today’s hearing – a point that clearly irritated the judge – and said he had not seen all of the documents filed with the court.

Bauman had expected to hear arguments and was surprised when Cannon, an Aberdeen councilman who represents Red Bank, asked for an adjournment.

“This is an emergent application,” Bauman said.  “It should be surprising to the legal participants that this matter should have been heard last week.”

The lawsuit filed by Horgan and Kate Okeson,  the local party secretary, said that Zipprich did not allow elected county committee members the chance to participate in the selection of possible Yngstrom successors, but instead set up a “sham” panel comprised of “hand-picked loyalists.

But Zipprich has hired a top New Jersey election law attorney, Daniel Antonelli of Antonelli Kantor, to allow Mirandi to remain as a councilwoman as the litigation advances through the courts.

The balance of equities favors maintaining the status quo of permitting Mirandi to remain a member of Council while the litigation is pending,” Antonelli said in court filings. “Moreover, without immediate and irreparable harm, and a complete absence of likelihood of success on the merits, the balance of the equities favors the RBDMC and Mirandi who was chosen to fill the vacancy by a majority vote of Council.”

The case may not matter much.  Red Bank is in the process of switching to non-partisan municipal elections.

Cannon said his replacement might be selected by the Monmouth County Joint Insurance Fund.