Talk:Fort Lee lane closure scandal

Local traffic was "diverted"?

The lede now has "Traffic from Fort Lee was forced to divert to major roadways." That sentence was formerly phrased as "forced to divert to state and interstate expressways."

I put {{cn}} (Citation Needed) on the older text back in May, and restored {{cn}} onto the new text today.

To me, "divert," and especially "forced to divert," mean that some authority is actively detouring traffic (involving cones, signs, waving officers, or something tangible), not merely that commuters look at Google Maps and choose an alternate route, and certainly not merely that there was gridlock.

The closest thing that I have seen to "diverted" anywhere is in "Port Authority cop offered to reroute GWB traffic" (formerly cited in the Timeline) where PAPD Lt. Thomas "Chip" Michaels suggested to Fort Lee Police Chief Keith Bendul that he "send" traffic to the Center Avenue entrance.

This suggestion was rebuffed (Bendul asked for the regular lanes to be restored), so no "diverting" happened here. Even if this had been done, the Center Avenue entrance is still so close to the toll booths that the traffic would have entered the portion of the (one) "main line" under the jurisdiction of the PA (marked blue on the NJDOT map), for which "roadways" (plural) would be a poor description. But again, that suggestion was rejected by Bendul, so no "divert" happened on that account.

Does anybody else have a cite for any actual accomplished "divert" onto alternate roadway(s) of any description? JackGavin (talk) 19:58, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

I'll take that as a "no," and remove the line.JackGavin (talk) 23:32, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

Deleted Text Messages

This article mentions nothing about the deleted text messages between Christie and his chief of staff, Regina Egea, sent during a hearing of testimony related to the scandal. This subject has been covered by numerous important sources and remains unresolved.96.234.63.174 (talk) 14:12, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Some sources: http://www.wsj.com/articles/gov-christie-says-he-cant-remember-bridge-text-messages-1406942848 http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/12/christie_bridge_scandal_report_asks_why_were_texts_between_governor_aide_deleted.html http://www.wnyc.org/story/why-did-christie-delete-12-bridgegate-text-messages/ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/nyregion/lawmakers-subpoena-cellphone-records-of-a-top-aide-to-christie.html?_r=0

Thanks for this. I agree that it should be mentioned, but not at great length. Coretheapple (talk) 14:15, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

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Class action lawsuit pending 2016

Largely removed in October 2015 because editor POV found it uninteresting:

Lawsuits In most cases of government caused traffic delays, lawsuits would not be possible. Under government immunity, governments are usually immune to lawsuits for their actions done in good faith. Secondly, under tort law, generally one can sue for personal injury or property damage, but not for economic loss, as many parties only tangentially related to a case could legitimately claim such losses. Those restrictions usually only apply to negligence. In both situations, restrictions do not apply if the plaintiff could show that the defendants acted in bad faith. New Jersey is also more open to economic loss claims than other states.

In January 2014, a federal lawsuit, seeking certification as a class action, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, on behalf of six Bergen County residents, claiming that they arrived late for work and lost pay, or suffered other adverse effects, and several businesses, who lost revenue, due to traffic jams caused by the lane closures. The lawsuit alleges that the lane closures were the result of a civil conspiracy and "willful, wanton, arbitrary, and egregious official misconduct". Christie, Kelly, Wildstein, Baroni, Stepien, the Port Authority, and State of New Jersey are named as defendants. Wildstein and Kelly failed to respond, and were declared in default on May 4, 2015. The case was dismissed on June 30, 2015, by U.S. District Court Judge Jose Linares, as "failing to allege the personal involvement of any Defendant as is required," but his ruling allowed for certain of the claims to be re-filed. The plaintiffs planned to file an amended suit, with added details taken from the Baroni and Kelly indictments and the Wildstein plea.

On January 13, 2014, six Bergen County taxicab companies filed a class action lawsuit in New Jersey Superior Court in Hackensack, claiming their cab employees lost money based on lost time and extra gas consumption, and suffered emotional harm due to the deliberately caused traffic jams. The lawsuit named Kelly, Drewniak, Wildstein, Baroni, and Christie's gubernatorial campaign, along with Stepien.

In March 2016 the group including livery services, taxis, transportation firms and other individuals, filed a 157-page brief in federal court bid to get court approval of a class action against the state, the Port Authority, Christie's re-election campaign, ex-Port Authority officials David Wildstein and Bill Baroni, Bridget Anne Kelly, and former spokesman for the governor Michael Drewniak.

References

Very unclear

Even after reading this in some detail, I can't see why they wanted to close the traffic lanes. What was the point of it? Equinox ◑ 17:17, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

Proposed section Chis Christie legal representation, Christopher Wray

Christopher Wray was Chris Christie's attorney but is missing from the article. Seems that the representation and familiarity of the "affair" by Wray should be present. Any concurrence? Also, during Wray's confirmation hearing ; the broadcast on MSNBC was interrupted by Brian Williams when a senator asked Wray about Christie. --Wikipietime (talk) 17:35, 12 July 2017 (UTC)