{"id":81,"date":"2014-01-21T18:34:19","date_gmt":"2014-01-21T23:34:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/?p=81"},"modified":"2014-01-21T18:34:19","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T23:34:19","slug":"from-politico-com-class-action-suit-filed-over-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/from-politico-com-class-action-suit-filed-over-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"From Politico.com: “Class-action suit filed over bridge”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Class-action suit filed over bridge<\/strong><\/p>\n

By JOSE DELREAL
\nPolitico.com<\/em>
\nJanuary 9, 2014<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2014\/01\/chris-christie-bridge-lawsuit-101991.html<\/a><\/p>\n

A class-action complaint has been filed in federal court against top government officials connected to the George Washington Bridge scandal, the Fort Lee, N.J., attorney behind the move said Thursday.<\/p>\n

The complaint \u2014 filed in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey by attorney Rosemarie Arnold<\/a> \u2014 takes aim at key players in the controversy, naming Republican Gov. Chris Christie, his formeraide Bridget Kelly, former Port Authority officials Bill Baroni and David Wildstein, the state of New Jersey and the Port Authority as defendants.
\nAs a class action, the exact number of members has not yet been determined, but according to the filing, it \u201cincludes any and all individuals and business owners\u201d who were inconvenienced or hurt by the lane closures between Sept. 9 and Sept. 13. According to Arnold, the plaintiffs work or live in or near Fort Lee or New York City and are citing economic damages by the lane closures.<\/p>\n

The complaint follows a whirlwind week for Christie, who said in a press conference Thursday that he was blindsided by a report in The Record that said senior members of his staff were connected with the lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.<\/p>\n

Arnold, who officially filed the complaint Thursday, said she was first contacted by potential plaintiffs about suing back in September when allegations surfaced that the closures were politically motivated. At the time, however, she was hesitant to move forward because of a lack of evidence. Following the revelation that top Christie aides were connected to the closures, she now feels confident moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, I said, \u2018You know, you have to be able to prove it. You can\u2019t have these unsubstantiated allegations,\u2019\u201d Arnold said. \u201cNow I think we have what we need. This is not a situation that complies with the 14th Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving forward, the class listed in the complaint has to be certified by meeting certain criteria; Arnold said she is \u201c100 percent\u201d certain those steps will be cleared.<\/p>\n

Arnold also stressed that her clients were not merely \u201cinconvenienced\u201d by the road closures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a client that suffers from panic attacks. And while she was stuck in this traffic, she started to have a panic attack. She and her husband were just trapped like rats,\u201d Arnold said. \u201cShe walked out of the car, she threw up, and then she just wanted to leave, but she couldn\u2019t walk home. The traffic was disastrous. And this was a deliberate attempt. This was the desired result of the political motivated closure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Class-action suit filed over bridge By JOSE DELREAL Politico.com January 9, 2014 http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2014\/01\/chris-christie-bridge-lawsuit-101991.html A class-action complaint has been filed in federal court against top government officials connected to the George Washington Bridge scandal, the Fort Lee, N.J., attorney behind the move said Thursday. The complaint \u2014 filed in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,1],"tags":[31,32,34,33,36,35,30,29,13,14,37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82,"href":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/82"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rosemariearnoldreviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}