State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz made “false statements” about a former school administrator who blew the whistle on an alleged conspiracy to shut kids of color out of a popular Riverdale elementary school, exposing him to “ridicule” and “public contempt,” a state judge has ruled.
Manuele “Manny” Verdi, a former assistant principal at P.S. 24, sued Dinowitz nearly seven years ago for defamation, after the lawmaker blamed him for enrolling students from outside the ritzy neighborhood.
Verdi said he was targeted after complaining that Bronx school officials had teamed up with a Dinowitz staffer to keep minority students out of the in-demand school.
Dinowitz, the lawsuit said, publicly blasted Verdi’s competence as the issue grew heated amid a debate over the expiration of a lease for an annex in a nearby building that housed more than 150 students in a bid to reduce overcrowding.
Verdi charged that the assemblyman’s comments caused him “humiliation and anguish” and led parents at the school to call for his ouster. And because of the remarks, he was unable to secure a position as an assistant principal, despite both accusations being beyond his control, he said.
“It is found that the defendant published false statements about plaintiff,” read the order from New York Supreme Court Judge Lynn Kotler, “and further finding that the statements exposed the plaintiff to public contempt, ridicule, aversion, or disgrace, or induced an evil opinion of him ‘in the minds of...
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