On April 29, 2009, the Township of Teaneck agreed to pay a total of $4.9 million to a former policeman and a former fireman who claimed they were retaliated against for testifying in harassment suits brought by co-workers. The payment includes attorney fees for the New Jersey employment lawyer that represented the plaintiffs.
John Shouldis, an officer that left the police department in 2005 on disability, had claimed that he was denied promotions, threatened with dismissal and placed on midnight road patrol after his 2000 testimony in a sexual-harassment suit by officer Diane Mancini against Police Chief Donald Giannone and Capt. Warren White. Mancini won a $1.5 million verdict. In the retaliation case, Shouldis prevailed at trial and obtained a $4.1 million verdict. The New Jersey employment lawyer representing Shouldis sought $2.5 million in fees and costs. The council for the Township of Teaneck approved a $4.7 million settlement of all claims.
The second retaliation case settled for $200,000.00. Matthew Vogelman, who resigned as a fireman in 2007, claimed that he was denied medical leave and was subject to unfair discipline and increased scrutiny of his work after he testified in the harassment suit of former fireman Bill Brennan, a case that settled for $800,000 in 2005.
