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Judge warns loser in age discrimination case against calling jurors after verdict

EDITORIAL: A former employee of The Record who sued the newspaper for age discrimination admitted that he deliberately tried contacting jurors — in what a judge told him was a clear violation of state court rules — after they ruled against him. Imagine being one of those civilians who, out of the blue, got one of those calls.

Photo Credit: Cliffview Pilot


Victor Sasson, who represented himself during the trial in Hackensack, saw jurors return in less than an hour with a verdict clearing North Jersey Media Group. In postings on one of his blogs, he blamed the verdict on a variety of factors, including the makeup of the jury and certain decisions by the judge.

Jerry DeMarco (Publisher/Editor)


Superior Court Judge Joseph Conte was none too pleased, and told Sasson so, according to the “Eye on the Record“ blog.

More significantly, he warned Sasson in writing that any attempt to contact another juror would put him in contempt of court.

Sasson responded, in part, in a blog post Wednesday:

“Last weekend, I checked the telephone book and found listings for six of the eight jurors who heard my age-discrimination lawsuit in Superior Court and returned a verdict in favor of the defendants, including North Jersey Media Group.

“I left messages on answering machines, but reached only one of them. He hung up on me. A second juror’s husband said she was upset by my message, and didn’t want to talk. A woman who sounded like the mother of a third juror said she didn’t know when he would be returning.

“I was more interested in their interpretation of the evidence I had presented than in their deliberations.”

NJMG Vice President Jennifer Borg, who attended the trial and was named in Sasson‘s complaint, declined comment Wednesday.

As Sasson describes himself:

“I was a reporter, copy editor and food writer at The Record of Hackensack, N.J. I was forced to retire in May 2008, several months after I filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against top managers and editors of the paper. I had nearly 40 years’ experience at daily newspapers in the Northeast, 29 of them at The Record.”

In his very first “Eye on the Record” posting, in October 2008, Sasson wrote of what he said he considered the newspaper’s “precipitous slide in quality, which continues today.”

Since then, he has published what has amounted to a daily critique of the product, as well as the operation, underpinned by what he considers improper behavior by a private company that he says has shown more concern for the bottom line than for its readers, its former home of Hackensack and its employees. He has blasted Publisher Malcolm Borg; his daughter, Jennifer; his son, Stephen, the company president; members of management; and The Record’s editors and reporters for the way they conduct their business.

The postings have run on a parallel track of sorts with his preparation for the trial, during the trial itself, immediately afterward — and, now, as he prepares for what he told CLIFFVIEW PILOT would be an attempt to seek a retrial.

And although he was in journalism for four decades, Sasson publicly admitted that he was unaware of the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts’ rules prohibiting those directly involved in a case from contacting jurors after a trial.

“When I covered state and federal courts in New Jersey as a reporter, I recall contacting jurors after trials or interviewing them on courthouse steps. But now, the judge informed me in a letter faxed and mailed to my home, a court rule barred me — a party to a lawsuit — from contacting jurors without his permission,” Sasson wrote.

According to one expert, Sasson goofed by not researching first.

“In general, if you’re not aware of local customs, then you shouldn’t be taking any sort of action,” said Sara Rittman, the legal ethics counsel with the Advisory Committee of the Supreme Court of Missouri.

Conte asked Sasson to return to the courthouse on Wednesday. At that session, the judge “ordered me to refrain from any further contact with jurors or face contempt of court charges,” he wrote.

Sasson also commented on an attorney hired by NJMG to defend itself against his suit: Samuel J. Samaro, head of the employment practice at Pashman Stein in Hackensack:

“Samaro gives the impression he has never read a newspaper, and knows nothing of satire and critical journalism. He seems genuinely offended by my blog, and my criticism of The Record’s editors and owners. He also portrays himself as a klutz when it comes to maintaining an automobile, and told me he hates to eat healthy. He certainly looks it.”

Samaro isn’t the only professional flogged in the blog.

It’s no secret that I worked for the Borgs for nearly 25 years: My first newspaper job was at The Record; I won national awards for the defunct News Tribune of Woodbridge, which was later sold and merged with the Home News of New Brunswick; I returned to The Record in 1993, working there first as a reporter, then as the Law & Order editor, and, finally, as the director of the Digital News Group. I left in December 2008.

Since then, Sasson has made a number of blatantly false allegations against me and my tenure at the newspaper — both in his original complaint, on his blogs and in emails to me — including that I received “preferential treatment.” When asked for proof, he couldn’t provide any.

In the past few days, Sasson has removed nearly all of the offensive, and potentially libelous, material from the blog following a warning of possible legal action.

Sasson had every right to sue his former employer, same as he has every right to seek a re-trial. However, as citizens we are also bound by certain laws and rules of our land — and that, in New Jersey, includes steering clear of fellow citizens who fulfilled their civic duty to consider and decide your particular case without the slightest notion that they might surprisingly be tracked down afterward.

Sure, earthbound authorities can’t regulate civility and good sense. But these do count for something.

We would all do well to remember that.

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