Former Bayonne Business Administrator Melissa Mathews’ witness list for her discrimination case includes officials from the Department of Justice District of New Jersey, Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, and state Attorney General’s Office with the trial looming.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
The nearly three dozen-person witness list comes as part of Mathews’ pre-trial information exchange with the City of Bayonne and former Mayor Jimmy Davis, who is now the Hudson County sheriff, which became public record on Wednesday.
Members of law enforcement on the list are HCPO Capt. Vincent Bonaccolta, AG’s Office Deputy Chief Kiersten Pentony, AG’s Office Det. Ross Portner, Department of Justice District of New Jersey Supervisory Special Agent Thomas Mahoney.
Davis, Mathews herself, as well as her husband Friday, mayoral candidate and former Council President Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski, former Business Administrator and interim Mayor Terence Malloy, ex-Business Administrator Joe DeMarco, ex-Law Director Jay Coffey, his successor Donna Russo, among many other current and former Peninsula City officials.
The case is scheduled to go to trial on Monday and will be heard before Essex County Superior Court Judge Avion M. Benjamin with a tentative start time of 9 a.m.
The lawsuit is nearly five years old, first filed in Hudson County Superior Court in April 2021, alleging that several of her male colleagues repeatedly harassed her, also alleging that claims of abuse of public office were ignored.
She amended the lawsuit in June 2024, further claiming that the Marist High School land was “upzoned to benefit local developers.”
The case was originally set to go to trial on October 6th, but it was postponed by Hudson County Superior Assignment Judge Joseph Turula due to the Hudson County sheriff’s race being contested the next month, which Davis won, all as HCV first reported.