$21.5K to man who fought tinted window ticket in Roxbury

ROXBURY – The man who successfully fought a tinted window charge in Roxbury is now costing the township tens of thousands of dollars after taking them to court.

Not only did Roxbury not receive Jesse Wolosky's $54 following a successful fight of a tinted window charge, but they have now also paid his lawyer an additional $21,500 after he won an Open Public Record Act lawsuit he filed against the township.

After Wolosky was ticketed for tinted windows in Roxbury in April 2014, he began to request information from Roxbury under OPRA.

"If they want to police tinted windows," Wolosky said. "I'm going to police them with OPRA until we get them to stop."

Specifically, in June 2014 Wolosky requested, "A copy of Roxbury Township Police Department regulations, general orders and policy statements regarding the preparation of Roxbury Police Department police reports."

Wolosky was looking for the audio recording from when former Franklin (Sussex County) borough councilman David Fanale was pulled over by Roxbury Police. In June 2014, Fanale vilified the department on his Facebook page. Wolosky read Fanale was ticketed for tinted windows during the stop, and wanted to hear the interaction for himself.

Wolosky received a reply from the Roxbury records department saying some of the records he requested did not exist.

Wolosky next filed a lawsuit in Superior Court saying Roxbury had violated OPRA.

Roxbury Police told the court they fulfilled Wolosky's OPRA request to the best of their ability, and the complaint was dismissed in August 2014.

In September 2014, Wolosky filed a Motion for Reconsideration, requesting the Judge Thomas Wiesenbeck find Roxbury in violation of OPRA, declare Wolosky the prevailing party, reimburse him for attorney fees, and declare the Roxbury records department "knowingly and willfully" denied him access.

Wolosky cited 38 policies Roxbury should have provided with his OPRA request, which he obtained by informally asking another public agency, according to the decision.

Roxbury argued Wolosky's request was "ambiguous and overbroad," essentially asking the records clerk to perform research on her own, according to the decision.

Analysis within the decision stated that though they are not require to research files for an OPRA request, Roxbury violated OPRA by not responding fully to Wolosky's request. His request required a search through files, not research, it said.

The decision said Wolosky's request had a narrow enough scope that it could not be considered overbroad, as Roxbury claimed.

According to the decision, the Motion for Reconsideration was granted and Wolosky was entitled to "reasonable attorney fees."

Those attorney fees totaled $21,502.20, and Wolosky's lawyer received a check for that amount in February.

Wolosky still requests weekly reports of all tickets issued under statues 39:3-74 and 39:3-75 for tinted windows, and said his records show several hundred tickets per year, with a $54 fine going to the township for each one.

Roxbury Police Chief James Simonetti declined to comment on the matter.

Staff Writer Michael Izzo: 973-428-6636; mizzo@dailyrecord.com