An interracial couple claimed a councilman repeatedly called police and the code enforcement office to their home to intimidate them.
LINDENWOLD -- The borough has agreed to pay $110,000 to settle a 2012 race discrimination suit, court documents show.
Alfred and Deborah Patterson, a married couple, sued Lindenwold and Councilman Joseph C. Strippoli in July 2012, claiming that Strippoli used his position in town to harass them because they are an interracial couple.
The borough did not immediately return a phone call requesting comment on Monday afternoon.
In their lawsuit, the Pattersons claimed that after they bought a house that backed up to Strippoli's home in 2003, the councilman approached Deborah Patterson and asked "why she had to go and marry someone like her husband," who is black.
Over the course of eight years, the Pattersons claimed, Strippoli sent police officers to their house at least 17 times, and arranged to have code enforcement agents visit the house on 15 occasions. Eventually, the suit said, local police officers and employees from the code enforcement office began refusing to "do Councilman Strippoli's bidding" by going to the Pattersons' house.
One recurring complaint from Strippoli focused on the Pattersons' basketball hoop, which sat on the curb out front of their home. Although several non-interracial families in the neighborhood had basketball hoops on their front curbs, the Pattersons claimed that they were the only ones to be cited for a code violation.
A judge dismissed the suit in 2014, but an appeals court reinstated the claims against Strippoli this past February. That decision allowed action against Strippoli, but left the dismissal of their suit against the borough in place. The Pattersons responded by filing another lawsuit against the councilman and borough, which Lindenwold agreed to settle before the matter went to trial.
A settlement is not an admission of guilt, court papers note, but rather a decision to "avoid the cost of uncertainty of further litigation."
The borough on April 6 agreed pay $80,000 to the Pattersons within 30 days of settlement, along with another $30,000 to be paid after the couple moves out of town.
Andy Polhamus may be reached at apolhamus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ajpolhamus. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
