Leroy Truth’s federal lawsuit against state Senator (D-33)/Union City Mayor Brian Stack and others was dismissed last week, while his case in Hudson County Superior Court has had two defendants dismissed and they’re now seeking legal fees.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Plaintiff filed this action on March 5, 2025, naming as defendants: Mayor/Senator Brian Stack (in his individual and official capacities), Senator Paul Sarlo, James McGreevey, the City of Union City, the City of Jersey City, the New Jersey State Police, and John Does 1–99. The Complaint pleads counts for First Amendment free speech, free exercise, retaliation, conspiracy, and Monell liability, as well as state-law tort claims,” U.S. District Court Judge Susan D. Wigenton wrote in a September 25th decision.
“Three sets of motions to dismiss followed: (1) the New Jersey Attorney General, on behalf of the NJSP and Senators Stack and Sarlo, filed a motion asserting Eleventh Amendment immunity, legislative immunity, and failure to state a claim; (2) Jersey City moved to dismiss on grounds including lack of state action and failure to plead Monell liability; and (3) Union City and Mayor Stack (in his municipal capacity) moved to dismiss based on abstention, qualified immunity, and failure to state a claim. Plaintiff filed no opposition.”
In March, Truth, whose real name is Leonard Filipowski, filed a seven-count lawsuit alleging First Amendment violations for being removed from a Jersey City church and a New Jersey Senate committee hearing in January and February, respectively, as HCV first reported.
The first event brought into question in the court filing was when Gov. Phil Murphy endorsed McGreevey, a former governor, for Jersey City mayor at the Monumental Baptist Church on January 26th.
Filipowski was removed from the church by Jersey City police officers prior to the start of the event.
The other is from the February 20th Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, which Stack is the chair of, pointing out that Sarlo asked him to stick to the bill and Stack tried to have him removed after he kept alleging corruption in Union City.
“Even if Plaintiff had alleged underlying constitutional violations, which he has not, the individual defendants would be entitled to qualified immunity. The doctrine shields officials unless existing precedent placed the statutory or constitutional question beyond debate,” Wigenton also wrote.
” … The individual-capacity claims are therefore independently dismissed with prejudice on qualified-immunity grounds.”
She concluded that the dismissals are with prejudice, or dismissed permanently, “because amendment cannot cure the legal bars.”
The other case, a two-count lawsuit Filipowski filed against Stack, the board of commissioners, and the local police department, as HCV first reported, saw the Union City Board of Commissioners and Police Department dismissed in March.
A motion to reconsider was denied last month and now counsel for the defendants are seeking $8,218 in attorneys’ fees, which counsel for Filipowski, Blanch, has opposed.
“A reasonable fee award for the actual work performed on the motions to compel and enforce should not exceed $1,500-$2,000, reflecting approximately 10-15 hours of reasonable attorney time at appropriate rates for this type of work,” Blanch wrote in a September 11th motion.
“I reviewed the opinion and I had reviewed the motions they were filed and the premise is based on the immunity law, the argument is that certain immunities are given to government agencies. I’ve sent the opinion over to the client and we’ll see what happens next,” he told HCV.
Reached over the phone, Filipowski said he was disappointed with the state of both cases, but he plans to pursue both legal actions with new counsel.
“I am of course extremely disappointed that justice was not served here at all. I have not just one instance of a major violation of our constitutional rights … It’s shocking that any judge would throw this out, given that I’ve been attacked over 41 times over the last 22 months, all documented on video,” he said.
” … I was initially very happy to have the representation of Mario Blanch … However, I have lots of questions because there were deadlines missed in the federal lawsuit and there were also deadlines missed in the state lawsuit. The judges seemed very reasonable in giving him extensions for the deadlines, but Mario refused to call or text me back for months, at least two months.”
The criminal charges against Filipowski related to the board of commissioners meeting were also dismissed earlier this year.
