School official sues Evesham mayor
EVESHAM - The local school district's personnel director is suing Mayor Randy Brown after the mayor last week revealed allegations of sexual harassment against the district official.
Richard Dantinne Jr., the school system's personnel director and affirmative action officer, unleashed his own accusations in a lawsuit filed Friday in Superior Court in Mount Holly, claiming the mayor overstepped his authority and is racially biased.
Dantinne's lawsuit claims the mayor had "an axe to grind" and sought revenge against school Superintendent John Scavelli for hiring an African-American to a school position instead of hiring Brown's son and used a racial epithet in referring to the new employee.
"I can't believe you hired that n-----," Brown allegedly told Scavelli of the hiring decision, according to Dantinne's lawsuit.
Evesham officials seek sex harassment probe
At a news conference last week, Brown said a school employee recently came to him complaining Dantinne was sexually harassing her and had done so to others.
The mayor called for an independent, third-party investigation into the claims, which he said involved "several young teachers." Brown said he tried but was unable to find out from Scavelli if any formal complaints had ever been lodged against the personnel director.
"I'm reluctant to comment on this because I have not seen the complaint yet, but I'll be consulting my legal team due to these maliciously false statements," Brown said Saturday.
Three school board members also were part of the news conference.
The mayor said then that he filed a police report about the conversation with the teacher, saying sexual harassment is serious and "has no place in the workplace."
The lawsuit, filed by Cherry Hill lawyer Matthew Wolf on behalf of his client, calls Dantinne a "pawn" in the personal dispute Brown has with Scavelli.
"He (Brown) is purely and simply seeking to get revenge against the superintendent for having hired an African-American over his Caucasian son for a job," it alleges.
"Further, he (Brown) made up facts in order to bolster what amounts to a character assassination attempt against the plaintiff (Dantinne) in order to achieve his true end of retribution against the Evesham school district superintendent."
The lawsuit said no complaints were ever filed against the personnel director and accused Brown of invading the privacy of personnel matters regarding a school employee. Last week Scavelli called the news conference "a breach of confidentiality" of school personnel matters.
As a result of Brown's conduct "outside of the scope of his employment as mayor," the lawsuit says Dantinne faces the prospect of losing employment and being unemployable "due to the stain on his character."
"As a result of the foregoing, plaintiff has been subject to hatred, contempt and ridicule ... and (his) reputation damaged," the suit continued.
The court action seeks an apology, a retraction and monetary damages.
Carol Comegno (856) 486-2473; ccomegno@gannettnj.com
More specifically, Defendant Brown used the Plaintiff as a pawn in a dispute that he has
personally 'with the Supe1intendent of the Evesham Township School District.
11. In paiiicular, Defendant Brown had previously sought to pressure the Evesham Township
School Dist1ict Superintendent to hire his (Brown's) son for a job in the school district
Defendant Brown had an "axe to grind" against the Supe1intendent for other reasons, aside
from his son's issue and racial animus, including but not limited to one school's closing in
the district, and other issues. In general, the Superintendent simply refused to do Brown's
bidding.
18. Defendant Brown has