Sasson loses appeal in NJMG age-bias case

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The media ignored the trial, held in Superior Court, Hackensack.

The unfavorable jury verdict in Victor E. Sasson's age-bias lawsuit against North Jersey Media Group has been affirmed by the Appellate Division of state Superior Court.

In a 20-page decision released this morning, a three-judge panel agreed with the verdict -- that Sasson wasn't discriminated against because of his age in the 2006 selection of the food editor, and that his 2008 firing didn't constitute retaliation by Record managers and editors upset that he filed suit several months earlier.

The appeal court said Superior Court Judge Joseph L. Conte in Hackensack didn't commit reversible error. Sasson represented himself at the trial.

Joshua L. Weiner, the plaintiff's Morristown lawyer, argued during a March 16 hearing that Conte improperly permitted the use of posts from Eye on The Record during cross-examination to impeach the plaintiff's credibility.

He also said Conte should have barred defense use of performance reviews dating to 1985 that weren't relevant to events of 2006-08.

Weiner believes Conte should have instructed the jurors to use the blog entries only for the purpose of judging the plaintiff's credibility -- and to disregard Sasson's views the paper kept on older, white male columnists, while silencing older black, Hispanic and female columnists.

At the 5-day trial in April 2010, Sasson was barred from presenting evidence of age-bias against many other employees, including Patricia Mack, The Record's food editor, who was hounded into retirement by her editor, Barbara Jaeger.

See previous post on Thursday's paper

 

Judges hear appeal in age-bias case

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Courthouses on West Market Street in Newark.

Three appeals court judges heard oral arguments today in a bid by Victor E. Sasson to overturn an unfavorable jury verdict in his age-discrimination case against North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.

Joshua L. Weiner, the Morristown lawyer who represents Sasson, and Samuel J. Samaro of the Pashman Stein law firm in Hackensack were given about 15 minutes each to supplement written briefs submitted to the court, along with a transcript of the five-day trial.

The judges asked the attorneys a number of questions, and took the appeal under advisement, giving no indication of when they will issue a decision.

When Sasson got up to leave the Newark courtroom, he saw Jennifer A. Borg, NJMG vice president and general counsel, but she didn't greet him. NJMG is paying an estimated $400 an hour for Samaro, who also defended the company at trial.

Sasson sued The Record after features Editor Barbara Jaeger chose Bill Pitcher, who was half his age and far less qualified, to replace Patricia Mack as food editor in 2006. 

He alleged age-discrimination under the state Law Against Discrimination. He also alleged retaliation, because he was fired in May 2008, several months after the suit was filed.

The Superior Court jury disagreed. Sasson represented himself at the trial in April 2010. He is arguing the judge, Joseph S. Conte in Hackensack, twice committed reversible error:

Conte permitted the use of posts from the Eye on The Record blog during cross-examination to impeach the plaintiff's credibility, and he allowed into evidence performance reviews dating to 1985 that weren't relevant to events of 2006-08.

Sasson believes Conte should have instructed the jurors to use the blog entries only for the purpose of judging the plaintiff's credibility -- and to disregard his views the paper kept on older, white male columnists, while silencing older black, Hispanic and female columnists. 


Here are excerpts from the Jan. 22, 2010, post in Eye on The Record:

"Reading The Record of Woodland Park today made me realize just how wrong all the numbers are. Not only do at least two stories contain confusing numbers, but it's clear the paper favors older white men as columnists over blacks, Hispanics and women.


"How many older male columnists does The Record need? Today, columns by Kevin DeMarrais, Harvy Lipman, Mike Kelley, John Cichowski and Peter Grad appear in the former Hackensack daily, which got rid of its only black and only Hispanic columnists, and one of its early female columnists. A Personal Finance column by veteran reporter Kathy Lynn appears today on the first Business page, making her the paper's third female columnist. Congratulations, Kathy. But when you count unfunny humor columnist Bill Ervolino, there are twice as many older males as females."

In another post, on Nov. 17, 2009, Sasson wrote:

"This paper also contains columns by Road Warrior John Cichowski and Mike Kelly, both of whom are so far over the hill, you can no longer see the hill. And to think the paper kept these turkeys, but silenced its only black columnist, its only Latino columnist and the only columnist writing about the heroics of  police officers, firefighters and EMTs."

During his oral argument, Samaro brought up a 2008 e-mail Sasson had sent Publisher Stephen A. Borg, replying to Borg's e-mail notifying the staff of awards The Record had won. 

Samaro noted that Sasson told the publisher the paper wouldn't be winning any awards for how it treated older workers. During the trial, NJMG cited that e-mail and others as the reason Sasson received a final warning letter.

Today, before the Appellate Division, Samaro's tone tried to convey, What a nerve this guy had e-mailing the publisher. That's why he was fired.

But Judge Victor Ashrafi, head of the three-judge panel, said, "You can't make that argument." 

The judge noted victims have a right to complain about discrimination without retaliation.

A front page with the blahs

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Today's front page is about as soft as you can get, except for the photos at the bottom of the page on cleanup of the magnificent Great Falls in Paterson, one of the most neglected natural attractions in the Northeast. As far as The Record of Woodland Park is concerned, life stood still. 

Maybe the recent lack of sunshine has affected the editors, including Frank "Castrato" Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes.

Do the editors talk with one another? Is Page 1 play planned or just done haphazardly by Scandale while he sits on a toilet in the men's room? The main element on A-1 today and a column on the OpEd page both go over essentially the same ground on the controversial medical marijuana law.

In the Page 1 story, the reporter seems bored with her subject, quoting one bureaucratic delay after another. Couldn't she find anyone to express outrage over the denial of relief to the terminally ill, including the poor man with the face tumors in the big photo? "We're working diligently," a state Health Department spokeswoman is quoted as saying. Give me a break.

Former Managing Editor Jim Ahearn's column (A-9) is more focused, pinning some of the delay on Governor Christie, who did a major about-face on medical marijuana.

The lead story on A-1 finally gets around to reporting new regulations to keep emergency responders safe on state highways that went into effect in June. I guess the staff was on vacation then.

In Local, Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado covers a school board meeting for the first time in more than a year (L-1), and it is cut short by a disruptive former employee.

There is no other Hackensack news, or anything from Englewood or Teaneck, but there is a follow-up story on partisan politics in Englewood Cliffs, where one council Democrat resigned abruptly and another said he wouldn't run for election. The second Democrat has changed his mind.

The original Cliffs story -- in which one council member stormed out during an argument with another -- and today's lead L-1 story on voters backing Ridgefield's indicted mayor belong on the front page, in place of some of the nonsense Scandale loves. The Cliffs story reflects so well what is happening nationally, and deserves better play.

The process stories, such as the one on medical marijuana, don't really grab readers. Ahearn's column would have been enough.

I wonder why The Record didn't report an Appellate Division ruling in a dispute between two lawyers over hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees in a case that was covered extensively by the paper? One of  the lawyers is a good source for Kibret Markos, the Bergen County Courthouse reporter.

According to Cliffview Pilot.com, which reported last week's ruling on Monday, lawyer Rosemary Arnold of Fort Lee has been fighting with fellow attorney David Mazie, who took over a DWI case, brought it to trial, and won what originally was a $105 million verdict that later was pared to $25 million for young Antonia Verni’s Cliffside Park family. 

For his trouble, Mazie got more than $4.6 million, while Arnold collected only $227,500 -- even though Mazie argued that she should have gotten nothing. Arnold went in demanding half. In a published interview, Mazie said Arnold did little on the case when he was finally brought in.

But the appeals court said the lower court  judge erred in 2008 by not explaining why he cut Arnold's request so drastically, and sent back the legal-fees dispute to be heard by another judge.

Cliffview Pilot.com reported that when Arnold realized the drunk driver, Daniel Lanzaro, had only $100,000 in insurance, she brought in other defendants, including the New York Giants, National Football League, New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority and Giants Stadium, where Lanzaro had a staggering amount of beer during a game, as well as Aramark Corp., the stadium vendor that served him before he smashed head-on into the Vernis' vehicle in Hasbrouck Heights in 1999.

Have you noticed subtle typographical changes that allow more vertical room on some pages? The change is most noticeable on the editorial page, where the names of managers and editors now appear below the editorials. On the fronts, the changes seem to accommodate ads that run along the bottom of the pages.