file photo by Boyd Loving
Mike Sedon Election Issue
September 5th ,2014
Anne LaGrange Loving
Anne LaGrange Loving
Ridgewood NJ, At the Wednesday night Village Council Work Session, Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld announced, in the form of “breaking news,” that she had just that afternoon received an update about the “Mike Sedon Election Issue,” as she called it. Readers will recall that this past Spring, someone sent an anonymous e-mail to Councilman Mike Sedon’s employer. The purpose of the e-mail was to derail Councilman Sedon’s campaign, suggesting that he could not serve in a public office and also work as a reporter for The Staten Island Advance. After Councilman Sedon filed a complaint with the Ridgewood Police Department, the matter was referred to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s office for investigation.
At the September 3 Village Council Work Session, Ms. Sonenfeld said she had called the Prosecutor’s office for an update, and has learned that the matter has been transferred to the State Board of Elections. She will be getting a name from the State Board, will be following through on this important matter, and will keep us updated. Although Councilman Sedon was elected by a wide margin and is now serving as a member of our Ridgewood Village Council, the fact remains that someone tried to prevent him from being elected. The victim of this malicious act was not just Councilman Sedon; it was our entire community and our clean election process. When the coward who sent this e-mail is revealed, the stain on our Village’s reputation will be erased.
And if the individual is aligned with one of the incumbent Council members? Someone may be going under a bus.
Looking forward to any report or update on this matter from the Village Manager should prove interesting.
When the coward who sent this e-mail is revealed……
Could it be one of the cowards who post on this blog…..hmmmmm
if we had the IP i could tell you in two minutes , but my sense would be that it was someone who had gotten away with this behavior before , like the soccer coach incident
I think someone is starting to sweat bullets now. Stay tuned.
Never mind going under a bus, the individual might be going under a parking garage.
It is time for that person to admit what he/she did.
The investigation costs money. The person will ultimately be identified, why not come forward? It will not get any better and cooperation will work in his/her favor.
Roberta has nothing….nothing to see here, please move along.
this is election fraud , and as the article says perpetuated against the whole Village
Unless they were posting from a public Wifi such as starbucks
very good point
Here is a starting point. Whoever is suggesting that we just move along is possibly the guilty party.
Roberta does not have any info because she is not the investigator. But the computer and email account of the editor at the Staten Island Advance has information on where it was sent from. And even though it was declared “anonymous” by the editor, he might just have opted to protect his source. Or the email might have had some crazy name, but still could be traceable. Let’s see what the Elections Board comes up with.
Although I voted for Sedon and certainly suspect a Valley-aligned source for the e-mail, I don’t see how that amounts to election fraud. While cowardly and unseemly, the email does not appear to have stated anything false. What law was broken?
For one thing election tampering , coercion , also it “anonymous emails” to employers in NY state is highly illegal and the state could also press charges on the emailer as well as the company for acting on it
I still don’t see any illegality with an anonymous email that is neither false nor libelous. I would love to find out the identity of the sender but I would not expect any criminal prosecution from this.
the intent of the email was clearly to intimidate , since we only know what was reported on this blog I am not sure how you come up with the email was not “false nor libelous” . It dose not have to be once again election tampering , coercion , are crimes and as I said “anonymous emails” to employers in NY state is highly illegal and the state could also press charges on the emailer as well as the company for acting on it.
And by the way, how do you (#15) know that the email was neither false nor libelous????? Did you write it? I thought the only person to see it so far, other than the author, is the editor of the paper.
Maybe there will be no criminal prosecution, but maybe there will. Tampering with elections is a pretty serious situation. Why do you keep downplaying it?
This blog has anonymous posters who could be charged with election tampering with the posts that have been made here. Be careful what doors you open it might be yours.
lol good luck with that ,nice try by the way
#18 – Are you for real? Everyone should be outraged by what happened during Mike’s campaign. Anyone who argues otherwise is suspect. Wooo hoooo I am sure the posters are really scared by your stupid warning.
There is a big difference between expressing opinions as we do here and contacting a candidate’s employer with the objective of forcing him to drop out of a political campaign.
It stinks of either Valley or one of the other special interests aligned with the 3 incumbent Council members
Perhaps the letter was not anonymous after all. Perhaps the editor just chose to tell Mike it was anonymous, realizing that this could have serious legal implications.
All will be revealed.
Come on, folks. The editor could not supply the email message because it didn’t exist. His instructions came via a phone call from Mr. Robo-Call himself, the guy who likes to pick up the phone and tell his political cronies to do what he will benefit from politically–yes, our mayor. Would not be the least bit surprised if Molinelli’s office came up “empty handed.”
I think the issue sounds in civil, not criminal law. This was tortious interference with a business relationship and the anonymous emailer should be facing a lawsuit for legal damages, which for the uninitiated, means $$$. But destroying Mike Sedon’s relationship with his employer was just a means to a nefarious end. The wrongdoer was trying to prompt the candidate to quit the race, or, failing that, wanted future would-be candidates eager to shine disinfecting sunlight into local elective politics to think once, twice, three times before deciding to tangle with the heart of darkness.
Quotes from Finley Peter Dunne
(Translated from the Irish brogue into modern English)
“Politics ain’t beanbag: ‘tis a man’s game, and women, children ‘n’ pro-hy-bitionists had best stay out of it.”
To the extent posters on this blog convey facts within their purview and express opinions building on those facts by establishing reasonable inferences about circumstances shrouded in uncertainty, they should be in the clear. If, however, one finds one’s anger driving the bus, particularly at the expense of rational thinking and full sentences, it might be time to take a break.
True libel, well, it is a thing to behold. Sort of like a sharp descent into temporary insanity, one person’s resentment, anger, humiliation, years-long disappointment, anguish and reactionary anger, combined and focused like the point of a spear as the person lashes out, seeking to take someone else down hard, always in a public fashion, in a baldly cynical bid to make them feel better about themselves, and show that they are powerful, a person of consequence, despite all evidence to the contrary. And always it begins with a lie, false witness borne against one’s neighbor, planted like a bad seed, but meant to grow over time to choke off the victim’s treasured relationships with friends, family, acquaintances, even potential future friends and colleagues who turn away, usually awkwardly, and usually without really knowing quite why. They sense the force of public opinion, often ruthless, and seldom purely rational in its conclusions–an unfortunate and undeserved circumstance for the libelee, whose options in response are limited, and rarely lead to full restoration of his reputation and overall standing in the community.
Isn’t it often said that there is a nugget of truth in all true humor? If so, then it might not be too far off to regard libel as humor’s opposite. Cain to humor’s Abel.
Libelors come out of left field and leave a tremendous amount of damage in their wake. This is why the common law courts in this country remain resistant to the modern, seemingly bloodless trend toward forcing libelees to allege damages, or limiting their recovery in the wake of a libel judgment to the amount of reputational damage they can prove by objective measure. Seasoned judges know that true libel, though not criminal in nature, is nevertheless a real poison to society that is damnably difficult to measure and merits the special treatment it has always received. The boundary between free speech and liable is not going the way of our southern border fence anytime soon.
All that said, there is a big difference between people who get under your skin and practitioners of true libel. Abusers of the public trust deserve to suffer the free speech of we the people, and should never have the repose they long for, or be permitted to use the threat of a libel suit as a cudgel to stifle public debate.
WOW!
#25, you were up late posting. Something was really under your skin, wasn’t it! And yet, hmmmmmm, your long lawyer-like sermon really had nothing to do with the Mike Sedon matter, did it. I love the lengthy sentence about lashing out. It seems that you are quite the lasher yourself.
Yes #25 the Deputy Mayor was on a roll last night. You should have heard him at Roger’s dedication. Truly over the top even for him. God help us.
#25’s description of a person taking someone down hard in a public fashion sounds exactly like what happened to Tom Riche, Bernadette Walsh, Marcia Ringel, Eleanor Gruber, and Police Chief John Ward in various Village Council meetings in the past year. Taking someone down to make them feel better about themselves, yes, the poster sounds eerily familiar.
#28 don’t you worry about God. Clearly God is on the Deputy Mayor’s side, based on his little religious sermon last night about doors.