Berkeley Heights Partner Paul Carbon obtained a dismissal of a plaintiff’s complaint alleging violations of due process, sexual orientation discrimination, malicious prosecution, tortious interference, intentional infliction of emotional distress and conspiracy against a board of education’s attorneys. Plaintiff alleged that the board of education’s attorneys denied her due process rights related to her employment with the school district when the attorneys, at the direction of the board of education, opened an investigation into Plaintiff’s potential unauthorized access of the board’s files during ongoing collective negotiations between the board and teacher’s union, ultimately culminating in Plaintiff’s voluntary resignation. Subsequently, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office launched its own investigation and charged Plaintiff with several criminal violations, which ultimately were taken to trial.
Following a favorable verdict for Plaintiff in the criminal prosecution, Plaintiff brought suit against the school board and, among others, the board’s attorneys alleging that the actions taken during the investigation of potential unauthorized access were the result of a conspiracy to get her out of the collective negotiations, a violation of her due process rights, that the actions taken by the school board and its attorneys were only instituted because of her sexual preference, that she was maliciously prosecuted for the unauthorized access of files, as well as several other tort claims. After filing a motion to dismiss the claims asserted against the school board’s attorneys, the Federal District Court for the District of New Jersey determined that plaintiff had failed to state a cause of action for her claims and dismissed the complaint in its entirety.
