July 28, 2004

NEWARK, NJ — The ACLU-NJ announced today that Elmwood Park Municipal Magistrate Anthony D. Cipollone had withdrawn a contempt charge against Mary Novak rather than appear at a show cause hearing in Superior Court in Bergen County this Thursday.

Ms. Novak, represented by the Rutgers Law School Constitutional Litigation Clinic and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, had sued Magistrate Cipollone for allegedly abusing his authority by ordering her to come to court to explain why she wrote "highway robbery fund" on the check she submitted as payment for a parking ticket.

On April 12, 1999, New Jersey Superior Court Assignment Judge Sybil R. Moses issued an Order to Show Cause directing Magistrate Cipollone to appear in court on April 15 to justify his authority to issue the contempt charge.

Raymond Flood, attorney for Judge Cipollone, wrote to Judge Moses this morning offering on behalf of Judge Cipollone to withdraw the contempt charge and moot the show cause hearing.

Frank Askin, Director of the Rutgerslegal clinic stated, "We are pleased that Judge Cipollone has recognized his mistake and withdrawn the contempt charge. It is unfortunate that it took a law suit to bring this about. Hopefully, this will be a lesson to other municipal magistrates that they do not have authority to threaten punishment against citizens who exercise their free speech right to express their dissatisfaction with the operation of governmental agencies."