Pol hit over school flap
Judge: ‘False statements’ led to ‘ridicule’ of Bronx honcho
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz made “false statements” about a former Bronx school administrator who blew the whistle on an alleged conspiracy to shut kids of color out of a popular Riverdale elementary school, exposing him to “ridicule” and “public contempt,” a state judge has ruled.
Manuele “Manny” Verdi, a former assistant principal at Public School 24, sued Dinowitz nearly seven years ago for defamation, after the lawmaker blamed him for enrolling students from outside the ritzy neighborhood.
Verdi said he was targeted after complaining that Bronx school officials had teamed up with a Dinowitz staffer to keep minority students out of the in-demand school.
Dinowitz, the lawsuit said, publicly blasted Verdi’s competence as the issue grew heated amid a debate over the expiration of a lease for an annex in a nearby building that housed more than 150 students in a bid to reduce overcrowding.
Verdi charged that the assemblyman’s comments caused him “humiliation and anguish” and led parents at the school to call for his ouster. And because of the remarks, he was unable to secure a position as an assistant principal, despite both accusatios being beyond his control, he said.
“It is found that the defendant published false statements about plaintiff,” read the order from Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lynn Kotler, “and further finding that the statements exposed the plaintiff to public contempt, ridicule, aversion, or disgrace, or induced an evil opinion of him ‘in the minds of right-thinking persons.’ ”
Ezra Glazer, a lawyer for Verdi, encouraged the Assembly’s Ethics Committee to investigate Dinowitz as the chairman of the Codes Committee.
“This assemblyman was lying, flat-out lying, about the school process,” Glazer said.
According to court documents, Dinowitz, during a “heated, contentious and ugly exchange, with a lot of yelling and finger-pointing” at a Parents Association meeting in fall 2015, called Verdi and the principal at the time “incompetent” and “derelict in their duties,” and blamed them for the loss of a lease at a nearby annex.
Similar remarks also ran in hyperlocal outlets throughout the following year, with the assemblyman saying Verdi and the principal “made it their policy to enroll virtually any student into the school regardless of where they live and regardless of whether or not seats were available,” materials show.
The court determined that negotiating leases and enrolling students are handled, respectively, by the School Construction Authority of Facilities Department, and by the Office of School Enrollment.
Dinowitz testified that a lack of direct authority “does not relieve them from the obligation to fight for the school.” He also claimed he was speaking out on behalf of his constituents, part of his duties as a legislator.
An attorney for Dinowitz said they are reviewing the decision and deciding whether to appeal.
“It doesn’t deal with the most basic issue,” said Charles Moerdler, senior counsel at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, “as the court found, legislators only have one responsibility to legislation and not to constituents — which defies understanding.”
In a separate lawsuit, Verdi collected $230,000 in settlement money from the city in 2018 over allegations that ex-Bronx Superintendent Melodie Mashel tried to push him out of his job after he accused her of letting the Dinowitz staffer into the registration process.
Mashel resigned that year after independent watchdogs of the Department of Education found she used “poor judgment” in allowing the staffer to participate.