2015: The Year of the Email?

For the tiny universe of political junkies who follow Hoboken politics, 2015 may be remembered as the Year of the Email.

GA would argue that 2011 kicked off the Era of the Email; and today's obsession with OPE (Other People's Email) has its roots in the (recent) past.

Recall in 2011, City Council President Beth Mason and VP Mike Russo sponsored two City Council resolutions to obtain email from the Mayor's office.   They were, as noted in GA's  Ultimate Email Conspiracy Timeline:

April 1, 2011: City Council President Beth Mason and Vice President Michael Russo sponsor a City Council resolution to obtain ALL of the mayor's communications staff's emails (Communications Manager Juan Melli and Chief of Staff Dan Bryan) starting from January 1 2010- the SAME TIME Ricciardi began INTERCEPTING EMAILS from the Mayor and her 2 unnamed staffers!"

May 16, 2011: Beth Mason and Michael Russo re-introduce an amended resolution for the emails of Mayor's Office Employees Bryan, Melli and 12 journalists and bloggers- including Grafix Avenger  and Mile Square View.

Concurrently, Hoboken411.com was churning out breathless coverage of Mason's email jihad, when... the F.B.I. came a-knocking!

Yep,  because while Mason was trying to use the City Council's legislative process to get her hands on Zimmer's email, Zimmer discovered City Hall's IT Officer had been helping himself to her emails, copying them into an "Archive Folder,"  then distributing them to the mayor's political enemies.  Zimmer herself called in the FBI, and agents raided the IT Office, hauling away Hoboken's email servers and computer hard drives.

Hoboken411.com followed these amazing events with a series of whacko email-centric conspiracy theories:

read from BOTTOM up

See?  

OPE was the epicenter of 2011's biggest political scandal in Hoboken: the F.B.I. investigation.

2011 was all about email: pursuing it, stealing it, distributing it, getting busted.

We may never know how many of the mayor's political enemies got 'intercepted' email,  but one unintended consequence of Bajardi v Pincus, was the discovery of  Dawn Zimmer's stolen email in BAJARDI_00023319.pdf, used as Exhibit D-48A in Lane Bajardi's trial.  

From the February 3, 2015 cross-examination of Lane Bajardi at his trial:

OPE has been a central theme in Hoboken political life since 2011.  GA believes that access to OPE has been a primary improper purpose for filing political lawsuits since 2011.
  
Like Bajardi v Pincus.  Mike Plumb, my attorney, put it this way: "After Ms. Mason lost the majority of the City Council, her investigation into the e-mails was closed. Now, Ms. Mason’s political operatives are seeking those e-mails via litigation. Again, this is an improper purpose for filing a complaint."

And, the various iterations of Carmelo Garcia's 2013 lawsuit against the Mayor, her husband and others, harvested the infamous "Grossbard emails." Garcia improperly leaked the Grossbard discovery emails without court consent, 2 weeks prior to the November 2nd election.  When GA obtained the email  package Garcia had sent to the press, it  proved The Hoboken Reporter wildly exaggerated the number and contents of the "Grossbard emails," once again trying to influence Hoboken's election outcome.

Emails, emails, emails. 

Garcia's "Grossbard Email" deployment led to 2015's email-centric lawsuit, filed by longtime anti-Zimmer political activist David Liebler.   Liebler has never made a secret of his pursuit of "all emails from Dawn that included Stan, her husband."

GA does not know of a single example of a Reformer initiating a lawsuit for improper purposes to read OPE.  Do you?

Yes, 2015 has been awash in OPE- SLAPP emails, Grossbard emails.

And the voyeurs of Hoboken political life are not going anywhere.   2016 promises Carmelo Garcia's trial (starring more email) discovery in Leibler's case (email requests) and...?

The Dark Side never considers the unintended consequences.