Yaede critic files criminal complaint against mayor, officials
HAMILTON » One of Mayor Kelly Yaede’s critics has filed criminal complaints against her and members of her administration alleging they ignored a dangerous health crisis in the municipal building that endangered workers and the public.
Hamilton resident David Henderson filed the citizen’s complaint against the township’s top officials within days of being charged by Hamilton Police with defiant trespass for taking unauthorized pictures inside a public property of damaged and stained ceiling tiles on the second-floor engineering room of the municipal building on Greenwood Avenue.
“It’s a false narrative,” he told The Trentonian on Tuesday. “It’s a smokescreen to cover up [the administration’s] incompetence and malfeasance.”
Five days after the criminal complaint was signed against him, Henderson brought charges of official misconduct and maintaining a nuisance against Yaede, public works director David Carothers, former councilman and current business administrator David Kenny, and health department director Jeff Plunkett.
The 65-year-old native Hamiltonian is a former state Department of Environmental Protection worker, a Donald Trump supporter and member of the Mercer County Republican Committee who believes he’s being targeted by Yaede and her supporters because he’s publicly admonished her while she has been in office.
Henderson’s position was bolstered by an email obtained by The Trentonian that Yaede sent to the chairwoman of the Mercer County Republican Committee calling for a crackdown on dissenters in her own party.
Henderson has worked as a volunteer for many notable Republican heavyweights such as former Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Republican candidate for Mercer County executive, Lisa Richford, who heads the Republicans county committee.
Henderson is closely aligned with Yaede foe and councilwoman Ileana Schirmer, who complained this Hamilton Mayor Kelly Yaede speaks at the township’s 9-11 remembrance ceremony in 2015 at Veterans Park.
week about Yaede taking credit for her efforts to revamp Trenton Water Works, and worked on her state Senate campaign last year.
Henderson declared the defiant trespass complaint was the Yaede administration’s “rather retributive” way of silencing him.
Henderson mentioned encountering about six cops at a meeting last month and learned they were there because he might stir up trouble.
Stonewalled on getting information on how much Yaede’s security detail costs the township and having other concerns dismissed, Henderson resorted to the extreme measure of filing the criminal complaints because this “is the way they [the administration] wanted to handle it. They decided this was the arena. I have reached out my hand to all of these parties numerous times. Yaede Republicanism focuses on Yaede and the Yaede team.”
Yaede in a text message called the allegations a “false narrative from an individual whose behavior has denigrated to following hardworking municipal employees (including police officers) engaged in their daily work duties. His erratic behavior is well-known throughout Hamilton Township.”
Kenney, the former councilman and current business administrator, said the charges are “absurd” and expects a judge will toss them out. He said bad weather delayed repairs to the roof but work commenced on it over the weekend.
“I don’t think the complaints will ever be issued,” said Kenny, who is an attorney. “There’s no probable cause. No one here has done anything wrong. This is an action by Mr. Henderson to get himself more publicity.”
A Trentonian reporter observed roofers doing work on the municipal building Tuesday to which Henderson responded that he was the “vehicle for change.”
Plunkett deferred comment until he could speak with the township’s attorney.
Carothers didn’t respond to a request for comment. to the building have taken too long to finish, putting municipal workers at risk.
To prove officials maintained a nuisance, Henderson must show Yaede and township officials “knowingly or recklessly” created or maintained dangerous conditions that created an unsafe or unhealthy environment for workers.
The case against the mayor and township officials has been transferred to Pennington municipal court where a judge will decide whether there is probable cause to proceed with the charges.
Probable cause is a low bar in the legal system that typically allows cops to arrest and charge someone suspected of committing a crime. Mercer County prosecutors would decide whether to pursue, dismiss or downgrade the case.
Henderson’s approach to holding township officials accountable mirrors an attempt by Democratic activist Bill Brennan to bring former Gov. Chris Christie to justice in the aftermath of the Bridgegate scandal that led to the conviction of his top aides.
A judge found probable cause to investigate the official misconduct claims against Christie, but prosecutors ultimately dismissed the complaint.
The complaint summons alleged the parts of the municipal building Henderson illegally accessed had signs warning they were “private” and for “employees only.”
“They seem to be trying to make it the crime of the century,” Henderson said.
Henderson said he went to the building after a worker tipped him off about being exposed to dangerous conditions from an unfixed roof leak.
Henderson performed hazardous site remediation for much of his career with DEP before retiring in 2007, pension records show.
Henderson identified himself to those inside the building as a “concerned citizen” while taking the photos. Parts of the engineering department looked like “someone threw a hand grenade in there,” Henderson said.
He said township municipal engineer Rich Williams told him he couldn’t be in that part of the building. Henderson said he didn’t argue but told Williams as he left, “You’re really allowing people to work in this?”
Henderson was also cited for knocking on the door of a conference room and taking pictures of the room.