Last month, an attorney for Maplewood Mayor Dean Dafis and the four Township Committee members who were serving with him in 2022 submitted an answer to a so-called “whistleblower” complaint filed by former Township Administrator Jerry Giaimis in November.
The “answer and affirmative defenses” was filed by Elizabeth Moon Esq. on February 14, 2023. Giaimis filed his complaint on November 3, 2022, but it only came to light publicly after Maplewood Department of Public Works Superintendent Cesare Riccardi was arrested and charged with alleged bid rigging by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office on March 13.
In his complaint, Giaimis contends that he was forced to resign because of his warnings about Riccardi as well as his warnings that the Township CFO’s failure to submit a timely budget could open Maplewood up to scrutiny from the state. Read more here.
In their response, Dafis and TC members Frank McGehee (since retired), Vic DeLuca, Nancy Adams and Jamaine Cripe “deny each and every allegation unless specifically admitted, qualified, or otherwise answered herein,” and ask that the court dismiss “all claims asserted by Plaintiff in the Complaint with prejudice and on the merits, and that attorney’s fees and costs in defending this action be assessed against Plaintiff, together with such further relief as the Court deems just and proper.”
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