A State Supreme Court judge has denied a motion for civil contempt against Hempstead Town Supervisor John Ferretti and other defendants for failing to appear in court in an Open Meetings Law lawsuit.

Town officials had blamed their legal counsel, Town Attorney John Maccarone and outside counsel Steven Losquadro, for not informing them they had to testify on Oct. 8.

“Defendants claim good faith reliance on their legal counsel, which is a basis to deny civil contempt,” Justice Gary Carlton wrote in a decision Wednesday. Carlton wrote that the courts rely on attorneys and their clients to obey subpoenas, or else face contempt, but found testimony that the officials hadn’t been properly informed to be credible and that the plaintiff hadn’t met his burden of proof to prove contempt.

Carlton

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