Attorney clarifies who is working on civil action Manalapan embroiled in cases vs. Google, and former town atty. BY KATHY BARATTA Staff Writer MANALAPAN - Township Attorney Caroline Casagrande has addressed what she called "misinformation" regarding the ongoing cost of civil litigation Manalapan is engaged in with Stuart Moskovitz. Moskovitz served as Manalapan's municipal attorney in 2005. The township is suing him in regard to an incident that occurred during his tenure as the municipality's legal counsel. Speaking at the Nov. 28 meeting of the Township Committee, Casagrande said only one attorney, special counsel Daniel McCarthy, is being paid by Manalapan to pursue the litigation, and not four attorneys as has been previously reported. Casagrande said that in addition to McCarthy, attorney Robert Renaud had been called into the Moskovitz matter to take on the role of Manalapan's expert witness. McCarthy was hired by the committee in early 2007 as a special conflict attorney, meaning for just such matters as litigation. According to Casagrande, a malpractice action cannot be brought without the inclusion of a certification of the merits of the case from a recognized expert witness, which was the only role Renaud played in the case and for which he was paid about $6,400. Acknowledging that she had billed for work on the Manalapan vs. Moskovitz case, Casagrande said it was a minimal amount for her work in reviewing the overall aspects of the case since it was filed in June. She said David Weeks is the attorney who is doing all of the actual work on the case, including court appearances. McCarthy represented Manalapan in court in the first hearing in the matter in August. Weeks and his firm are working on a contingency basis which means they will only get paid if Manalapan wins the case against Moskovitz. "There is no one more motivated than an attorney working on a contingency basis," said Casagrande, who observed that Weeks' willingness to work on a contingency basis spoke to his belief in the strengths of the township's case. According to Casagrande, the township will pay Weeks for incidental costs such as postage or package deliveries, as well as court filing fees for motions and briefs, which she said were $35 per filing. Casagrande gave the explanation about the attorneys in response to a question from resident Rhoda Chodosh. Chodosh asked if additional attorneys would be hired given that a new angle had come up, a subpoena issued by Manalapan's attorneys seeking the identity of an Internet blogger. Chodosh also asked what the township would gain by identifying the blogger. Weeks' firm issued a subpoena last month that sought to compel Google, an Internet search engine, to release the identity of a blogger known as da Truth Squad. The anonymous person or persons writes on a blog site that is owned by Google. Casagrande said she would not secondguess another attorney's legal strategy. In court papers filed as part of the Manalapan vs. Moskovitz case, McCarthy alleged that Moskovitz is the blogger known as da Truth Squad. McCarthy spoke with the News Transcript regarding his assertion about Moskovitz and why identifying him as being da Truth Squad is important and pertains to the township's litigation against him. The discussion followed Mc- Carthy's legal brief filed in August asserting that Moskovitz is da Truth Squad blogger and before the issuance of the subpoena to Google by Weeks' firm last month. McCarthy said that in Moskovitz's original filings in the matter, he (Moskovitz) asserted that the case against him should be dismissed due to the fact that public speculation about the matter was harming him professionally. McCarthy said he believed that in blogging anonymously about the matter, Moskovitz was attempting to exert control of the court case outside the courtroom by using the anonymity of the Web site to leak information he wanted made public while remaining critical of the township's case. The anonymous blogger uses the site to criticize township officials while touting the merits of Moskovitz's case. According to McCarthy, Moskovitz cannot have it both ways, i.e., claiming that the litigation is harming him professionally while at the same time anonymously authoring an Internet blog that provides continuing coverage of developments in the ongoing litigation. In response to McCarthy's assertion, Moskovitz said, "Nonsense. The Truth Squad started a year before this case at least. The Truth Squad did not come about because of this case. This case was filed solely because of the Truth Squad. There never was legal malpractice, this case is not about legal malpractice. This case is solely to violate someone's civil rights. Mr. McCarthy never had any basis for stating that I am the Truth Squad and I am not." The Electronic Frontier Foundation, (EFF), a California-based Internet legal defense team, has filed a motion seeking to quash Weeks' subpoena against Google and to request a protective order. EFF's position is that whether or not Moskovitz is the anonymous blogger da Truth Squad is irrelevant to the attempted subversion of First Amendment free speech rights through the issuance of the subpoena for the requested identifying information. In her response to Chodosh at the Nov. 28 public meeting, Casagrande made the observation that "the First Amendment didn't mean to provide for anonymous bomb throwing." Da Truth Squad - whoever he, she or they may be - has posted comments that have been critical of Manalapan's municipal government for several years. Moskovitz served as Manalapan's municipal attorney in 2005. He previously served on the Township Committee and served as mayor during his term on the governing body. In a lawsuit filed in June, Manalapan officials allege that Moskovitz breached his responsibility to the township in 2005 at the time he was serving as the municipal attorney when he drew up a contract of sale for the township's purchase of two single-family homes on Route 522 in front of the Manalapan Recreation Center. The lawsuit alleges that Moskovitz prepared a contract of sale that left the township unprotected and therefore unable to seek remuneration for the expense of removing an underground oil tank, soil remediation costs incurred by cleaning up heating oil contamination, and the cost of cleaning up farm field pesticide contamination that was also discovered on the purchased properties. The township is seeking damages and costs from Moskovitz. Moskovitz has said he believes the contract of sale he prepared afforded Manalapan all the protection the township needed in connection with the purchase of the two homes. The next court date in the Manalapan vs. Moskovitz case is scheduled for Dec. 7. A court date of Dec. 21 is set for the EFF's motion to quash the township's subpoena to Google.