— Officials have chosen William Lundsten to replace
David Corrigan as the borough’s attorney in the Brad Levitzki police misconduct
case, according to Borough Attorney Vincent Salvatore.
Lundsten
had previously represented the borough in 2011 during the hearings at borough
hall that found Levitzi guilty of six charges of police misconduct.
Levitzki,
a police officer with the borough, was fired retroactive to Oct. 29, 2010, the
date of his original suspension from the police department after being found
guilty.
Wunsch,
representing Levitzki, filed a motion in January to have Corrigan removed from
the case for a perceived conflict of interest.
"There
is no difference," Wunsch said of the attorneys handling the case.
"Lundsten’s not a witness so it makes more sense. It’s frustrating to me
that it took a judge’s order to open the eyes of a town that they should not
have been using a witness as their trial attorney."
On
Feb. 27, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Menelaos Toskos decided to remove
Corrigan from the case, citing a conflict between Corrigan functioning as both
a "necessary witness" in the case and an advocate for the borough.
Toskos gave the borough a month to select a new attorney.
"It
really doesn’t matter. Both are great attorneys," Salvatore said of
Corrigan and Lundsten. "We are certainly no worse off. We are in the same
position as we were before the judge made his decision. We entrusted Lundsten
to handle the hearing before Judge Guida and he did a great job."