AUGUST 21, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY PETER J. SAMPSON
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
Two attorneys who were arrested and charged with simple assault in April after a heated dispute turned into a fistfight at the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack have persuaded a judge to dismiss the charges, a lawyer for one of the men said Thursday.
Costantino Fragale, 42, and Jeffrey Mandel, 43, were taking a deposition in a civil suit on April 29 when the dispute erupted in a fourth-floor jury deliberation room that doubles as an attorney conference room.
More than a dozen sheriff’s officers quickly responded and broke up the fight, authorities said.
“We worked it out,” Fragale’s attorney, Miles Feinstein, said Thursday.
Both parties agreed to drop their respective complaints, and Judge Louis Denise of the Central Municipal Court in Hackensack granted their request to dismiss the charges, Feinstein said.
“They are attorneys, and it is the best result for them to not have anything on their record,” he said.
Mandel was questioning Fragale’s client when “it got very heated,” Feinstein said. Mandel threw the first punch and bloodied Fragale’s face and, when his client tried to ward off further blows, sheriff’s officers came in and stopped the fight, Feinstein said.
I suggest they pay “court costs” and the weight class they qualify for and start training.
I say Bull Shit! Lawyers taking care of lawyers. The judge should be charged with misconduct and fined along with both of these boobs. Why report a complaint about a lawyer to the NJ Bar? They will just sweep it under the carpet. The good old boy network.
It’s an Idiot Festival.
3:27 pm excellent comment.
This is the way most fistfights should be settled.
Fight.
Shake hands.
Move on.