PARTING GIFT
Former Mayor sticks taxpayers with $16K legal bill for her criminal defense as one of her final acts in office »
HAMILTON » In her last act of office, Mayor Kelly Yaede stuck a $16,250 legal bill to township taxpayers, records show.
The money paid for the services of private Trenton-based defense lawyer Robin Lord, who represented Yaede against a disorderly persons charge. Yaede was accused of knowingly releasing expunged criminal records of GOP challenger David Henderson during the Republican primary race in 2019.
The checks, signed off and authorized by business administrator Dave Kenny and purchasing agent Michele Bado, were issued Dec. 30, Yaede’s second-tolast day as township mayor.
The legal expenditures weren’t presented to township council for approval.
Officials are now questioning whether it was appropriate for taxpayers to shoulder the bill for actions Yaede took during her reelection campaign.
Members of Yaede’s inner circle pointed to an ordinance that says the township must pay to defend employees from “any act or omission in the scope” of their employment to justify the expenses.
Democratic Mayor Jeff Martin, the former council president, told The Trentonian this week that he learned of the payments in his first week as mayor.
He was sworn in New Year’s Day, and he called the timing of the processing of the expenses a “red flag.”
Copies of vouchers — initiated Dec. 23 — and checks show the township reimbursed Yaede $5,000 that she plopped down for Lord’s retainer.
The township also cut Lord a separate $11,250 check for the work she performed defending Yaede from Sept. 3 through Sept. 30, according to a copy of the attorney’s invoice obtained by The Trentonian.
The defense attorney logged 36.5 hours at $500 an hour, and discounted $2,000 from her final invoice.
Yaede, who did not respond to a phone call seeking comment, cashed her reimbursement check for the retainer by the time Martin found out about the payments, he said, but Lord hadn’t cashed her check.
Asked to confirm that this week, Lord responded, “None of your damn business.”
Stop Payment
Martin said township officials have put in a stop payment request with the financial institution on Lord’s $11,250 check.
The Democratic mayor’s team has asked Lord to present her position why she believes the township is on the hook for the legal fees.
He added that the township may ask Yaede to pay back the $5,000 if new law director Elissa Grodd Schragger finds the payment was inappropriate.
The criminal charges arose out of actions Yaede took while campaigning against her primary foe, so Martin doesn’t believe her conduct related to her official duties as mayor.
He believes Yaede should have been responsible for funding her own legal defense rather than sticking it to Hamilton taxpayers.
“I don’t believe, based on my understanding of the law, these are appropriate payments,” Martin said. “We have reached out to Ms. Lord’s office to inquire if she had any supporting case law that further convinces me they were appropriate payments.”
Lord said the township is on the hook for her bill because prosecutors alleged Yaede learned that Henderson’s records were expunged from a tort claim notice the township received, constituting an official act of office.
Backstory
Yaede’s chief of staff Marty Flynn obtained Henderson’s criminal records through a public records request.
The township failed to comply with a judge’s order, received in July 2008, to expunge the records, showing Henderson was arrested in June 2001 on charges of sexual assault and contempt violation of a temporary restraining order.
The arrest record was published March 27 by The Hamilton Spotlight, a blog controlled by Yaede’s campaign.
The Trentonian published a story the next day with proof that Henderson’s charges were dismissed and the records were expunged.
Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri charged Yaede and her campaign manager Dan Scharfenberger on Sept. 3 with the disorderly persons offenses, which carried a maximum $200 fine if they were convicted.
Court filings showed that Yaede and Scharfenberger agreed to lie to The Trentonian about running the blog, which went dark after the Republican primary. They also made it clear Yaede reviewed the Henderson post before giving her campaign manager the “green light” to publish it.
The charges were dismissed when a judge agreed that Yaede had a right to publish the expunged records.
Martin said Kenny told him sometime in November that he was exploring whether Yaede’s legal bills could be covered by the township.
The council president asked Kenny to provide him with a legal memo detailing the township attorney’s position.
Kenny, Yaede’s trusted lieutenant, wrote emails Nov. 8 and Dec. 2 seeking legal advice on payment of the mayor’s legal fees. He did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
Then-township law director Michael Balint provided his legal interpretation of Ordinance Section 45-19 in a memorandum.
The township refused to release Balint’s memo and Kenny’s emails under the Open Public Records Act, saying they’re protected by attorney-client privilege.
The ordinance says the township “shall provide for the defense of any action brought against a public employee on account of any act or omission in the scope of his employment, and this obligation shall extend to any cross-actions, counterclaims or cross-complaints against such employee.”
The township wouldn’t have been required to defend the mayor had Balint found. among other exceptions, that her “act or omission was not within the scope of employment” or was “because of actual fraud, willful misconduct or actual malice.”
Indemnified or Not
The situation with Yaede appears similar to a lawsuit brought against Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora.
Trenton officials told The Trentonian that Gusciora was required to pay out of his own pocket to defend himself against allegations he bribed poll workers and voters with Dunkin Donuts munchkins to win the runoff election against Paul Perez.
The alleged conduct occurred before Gusciora was mayor even though the lawsuit was filed once he was in office.
City law director John Morelli acknowledged determining what constitutes actions that touch upon the mayor’s office can be a “hazy line.” But he felt in Gusciora’s case, the allegations weren’t related to his official duties as mayor.
Gusciora, also an attorney, said he didn’t feel comfortable having the city fund his legal representation, so defense expenses were paid out of his campaign fund.
In Hamilton, Balint said he determined Yaede’s conduct was indemnified, and so the township paid for her legal bills.
“I’m not changing my position because someone else feels differently,” he said.
Martin never saw Balint’s memo until after he was sworn, and never heard anything more about it from Kenny, so he assumed Yaede shelled out her own money.
“It came as a shock to me that payments were issued,” he said.
Former Republican councilwoman Ileana Schirmer, now a zoning board member, said she wouldn’t have voted to approve the exmayor’s defense bill if it had been presented to the legislative body.
“Taxpayers should not be paying for people’s campaign stuff,” she said. “I was not aware that at the very last minutes she decided to take money for herself . ... They did it on purpose so no one would find out or step in and stop it. It was all calculated.”