A Hackensack police officer who sued the town’s former mayor and his campaign manager for defamation and had that case dismissed, may now be one of the first plaintiffs to be on the hook for his opponents’ legal fees based on a 2023 law that aimed to prevent frivolous lawsuits over free speech. Last Wednesday, Bergen County Superior Court Judge Gregg A. Padovano dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit from Hackensack Police Lt. Anthony DiPersia, who had brought claims of defamation, defamation per se with actual malice and false light invasion of privacy against former mayor John Labrosse and Zonie LeSane in March. DiPersia alleged that after he publicly stated his opposition to Labrosse’s mayoral re-election bid on Feb. 20, the defendants harmed his professional reputation through a letter to the editor written by LeSane and published on a local news website on March 8. Just over two weeks later, DiPersia, who also serves as the president of Hackensack Local 9A Policemen’s Benevolent Association, sued Labrosse and LeSane for defamation, due to the remarks made in the published letter to the editor. SLAPP can sometimes be used by both individuals and entities to silence their critics, and may lead to lengthy and expensive litigation. In an attempt to dissuade that trend, Gov. Phil Murphy signed the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act into law in September 2023. The purpose of the law, according to the governor, was to strengthen speech protections and “protect residents against frivolous, ill-intentioned lawsuits and insulate them from the financial hardships these cases can produce.” In the motion do dismiss DiPersia’s case, the defendants argued that the letter to the editor’s contents were free speech regarding a matter of public concern, and were thus both protected under the law and unable to be characterized as “defamation.” Padovano found DiPersia’s case did not rise to meet those standards or prove actual malice, and that the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act did apply to bar its claims. One crucial component of the Uniform Public Expression Act, and one which would likely serve to deter frivolous SLAPP lawsuits being filed, is that the losing party would pay the winner’s legal fees. Now, a member of Labrosse and LeSane’s legal counsel, Bruce S. Rosen, of Pashman Stein Walder Hayden in Hackensack, is pursuing just that, having filed a notice of motion for fee award and final judgment against DiPersia. Rosen seeks a total of $22,006.55 in legal fees from DiPersia, and has provided advance notice that motion will be officially filed on Dec. 5. “If the anti-SLAPP [suit] is determined to be frivolous, which is a pretty high bar, [one wouldn't be eligible to receive fees], but other than that, if you win it’s a mandatory fee shift,” Rosen said. The fees consist of 28.9 billed hours for Rosen at a rate of $715 per hour, totaling $20,663.35, and 2.3 billed hours for C.J. Griffith, general counsel for the New Jersey Press Association and an expert on public records cases, working at a discounted rate of $584 per hour, totaling $1,343.20. Also included is $100 in costs for filing fees. According to Rosen, the components necessary to prove actual malice were not contained in the complaint, and the remarks made by LeSane in the letter to the editor were based on previously-published information. “We knew it would be a matter of public concern and be covered by the law because it’s core political speech, it happened during a campaign. So the next question is, are all the elements in the complaint? And the elements weren’t in the complaint,” Rosen added. DiPersia’s counsel, Robert A. Tandy in Woodcliff Lake, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.