$100K Cost of Wrongly Issued Warrant Against Former Judge

Union County taxpayers were left to foot the bill for a 2001 arrest warrant mistakenly filed against a lawyer and former judge—to the tune of more than $100,000, MyCentralJersey.com reported.

In 2012, Fanwood Borough and the City of Plainfield settled a multimillion dollar lawsuit brought years ago by attorney Paulette Brown, who used to serve as Plainfield's municipal court judge, the article said. Brown filed a criminal trespassing complaint in 1997 against a neighbor for cutting down privacy hedges on their property line. The neighbor then filed a trespassing complaint after Brown left a note in the neighbor's mailbox. Both complaints were dismissed. 

Then Plainfield—in error—issued a 2001 arrest warrant saying that Brown had not appeared for a court date. Brown filed a complaint against the city in Superior Court and federal district court in 2008, saying Plainfield did not tell her that it had issued an arrest warrant against her.