Jets ticket holder files $184M suit against Pats, Belichick
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., by Carl Mayer of Princeton Township, N.J., stems from the Patriots being caught illegally videotaping signals from Jets coaches in New England's 38-14 season-opening win Sept. 9.
"They violated the integrity of the game," Mayer's attorney, Bruce Afran, told the Associated Press. "This is a way of punishing Belichick and the Patriots."
Mayer, 48, is seeking more than $184 million in damages for Jets ticket holders.
Belichick was fined $500,000 by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and the team was fined $250,000 for violating a league rule that prohibits clubs from using a video camera on the sidelines for any purpose -- including recording signals relayed to opposing players on the field. New England also must forfeit a first-round draft pick next year if it makes the playoffs or a second- and third-rounder if it doesn't.
"They were deceiving customers," Mayer said. "You can't deceive customers."
The lawsuit maintained that because other teams found illegal videotaping by the defendants, Jets ticket holders should be compensated for all games played in Giants Stadium between the Jets and Patriots since Belichick became head coach in 2000.
The two calculated that because customers paid $61.6 million to watch eight "fraudulent" games, they're entitled to triple that amount -- or $184.8 million -- in compensation under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.
"How many times have the Patriots done this? We find it hard to believe they did it just once," Mayer said. "We just want to get to the truth of the matter of what the Patriots did to the Jets. I think the ticket holders are genuinely concerned about it. This is a type of misrepresentation."
Patriots spokesman Stacey James declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Mayer and Afran, who consider themselves public interest lawyers, have been thorns in the side of New Jersey politicians for years, filing lawsuits and demanding investigations to advance their grievances. They are well known in the state but generally have had little success in their causes.
Both have lost bids for elected offices, and Mayer once served as a presidential campaign adviser to Ralph Nader.
Their demand in March for a probe of Gov. Jon S. Corzine's gifts to a former girlfriend was rejected by a federal prosecutor. In 2006, a judge vetoed their effort to block Corzine's appointment of Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., to fill the governor's seat in the U.S. Senate.
They also failed to get a court to order a special election to replace Gov. James E. McGreevey when he resigned in 2004.
Now, they're taking on the Patriots.
Their latest lawsuit asserted that the secret videotaping violated the contractual "expectations and rights" of Jets ticket holders "to observe an honest match played in compliance with all laws and regulations."
The actions of Belichick and the Patriots violated federal and state racketeering laws, as well as the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and New Jersey Deceptive Business Practices Act, according to the lawsuit.
"Having been a lifelong Jets fan, as soon as I heard this, I was completely outraged," Mayer said. "The NFL just slapped them on the wrist. I'm a consumer lawyer, and this is consumer fraud."
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Now we know how the Patriots, with a bunch of nobodies on their team aside from Brady have been able to win a bunch of superbowls over the past few years. They cheat!
They were talking about it on NFL Network tonight, it's basically a joke and won't really go anywhere. How could it really go anywhere... So sketchy. deceiving customers comeon, Jets customers paid to go see a football game, they got exactly what they paid for, a football game!
Phokus wrote:Jets fans should be suing the Jets for putting such a shoddy product on the field :
They should be sueing Mangini for knowing what Belicheat was doing buy not taking any action to change or disguise his signals better. Idiot.
If that suit were to be heard legitimately in a court of law, what would happen to Goodell? You know, since he had the evidence destroyed. I just don't get why he did that...unless he was trying to hide something. It just doesn't make sense.
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moochman
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Phokus wrote:Jets fans should be suing the Jets for putting such a shoddy product on the field :
They should be sueing Mangini for knowing what Belicheat was doing buy not taking any action to change or disguise his signals better. Idiot.
If that suit were to be heard legitimately in a court of law, what would happen to Goodell? You know, since he had the evidence destroyed. I just don't get why he did that...unless he was trying to hide something. It just doesn't make sense.
Exactly. I know you said it in another thread but I also am rather surprised at how a non-story Goodell's destruction of all the evidence was.
It was basically just stated by news outlets that he "destroyed all the material sent to him." There was hardly any commentary, analysis, thoughts on it, not a single question raised by anyone important... Nothing really talked about on the radio, newspapers, online etc.
SniperShot wrote:Exactly. I know you said it in another thread but I also am rather surprised at how a non-story Goodell's destruction of all the evidence was.
It was basically just stated by news outlets that he "destroyed all the material sent to him." There was hardly any commentary, analysis, thoughts on it, not a single question raised by anyone important... Nothing really talked about on the radio, newspapers, online etc.
I find that rather shocking.
When you consider that the league will keep all the evidence of the Lions/Bears game today it boggles the mind that they would destroy anything. LOL.
Everyone gets a free pass if they're not a player or involved in HGH/Steriods I guess.
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