A magistrate Monday dismissed a small claims lawsuit Sam Rizzitelli brought against Joseph Bomba and the Republican Town Committee.
Rizzitelli, chairman of the local Democratic Party, filed the lawsuit in April, claiming Bomba, the chairman of the local Republican Party, orchestrated and participated in the theft of hundreds of signs that urged residents to vote “no” in an April referendum.
Bomba, however, said he brought evidence to Superior Court on Elizabeth Street Monday proving he could not have been personally involved in the thefts because he was on crutches — and was scheduled to have knee surgery the day after he allegedly stole the signs.
Rizzitelli skipped Monday’s court date, but had asked the court for a continuance.
Bomba appeared without a lawyer and told Magistrate Joseph Nucera that Rizzitelli had months to prepare for the lawsuit.
“I’m ready to go, your honor,” Bomba said. “If he had evidence, if he was so prepared, he would have been here today.”
Nucera then dismissed the case.
Total court time spent on the case Monday — eight minutes.
The referendum, by the way, was about local government issuing low-interest loans to spur development downtown. Voters rejected it.
The small claims case has become a political issue in November’s mayoral campaign, which pits Republican incumbent Anthony Staffieri against Democratic challenger Dan Foley, Jr.
The Democrats have said the Staffieri administration has the city involved in too many lawsuits.
The Republicans counter that the chairman of the Democrats filed a frivolous small claims lawsuit over political signs.
“The opposition is saying they will remove the City from all lawsuits if they win the election yet the chairman of their own party is busy filing frivolous lawsuits about missing signs,” Ken Hughes, a Republican Alderman running for re-election, said in a prepared statement.
“The rumor is Mr Rizzitelli will be the new City Attorney. Maybe he is trying to prove his meddle in court.”
In his own prepared statement, Rizzitelli reacted to the dismissal and brushed off Hughes’ remarks.
“We asked for a continuance that apparently was not granted. That’s fine. This case arose during the referendum last April when voters rejected Staffieri’s attempt to sell city backed bonds for private developers,” Rizzitelli said.
“The voters properly rejected that proposal and Derby’s political parties should let this go so voters can focus on the upcoming election,” Rizzitelli said.
“Derby has a very important decision to make in (November). The Republicans should not be trying to distract voters from the legal complication they have created in the long-stalled downtown redevelopment. Derby voters are smart and they can see through such political tactics,” Rizzitelli said.
Rizzitelli said he’s not interested in becoming Derby’s corporation counsel.
“First of all, Mr. Hughes is the only one spreading rumors and he should be helping make Derby politics more polite and not so disrespectful,” Rizzitelli said. “Second of all, while I agree that Derby needs new corporation counsel because we are spending a fortune in legal fees to get deeper into legal trouble, if asked to serve by anyone, I would decline such a position.”
Bomba, meanwhile, said he felt justice was served.
“(Rizzitelli) sent me letters saying he wanted to settle, but by settling this, I would have admitted doing something wrong. I did nothing wrong,” Bomba said. “I didn’t do anything.”
