Paul Tessein, a public works inspector, also names the township in the suit, and contends that Meara misused his position as a member of the township council to undermine Tessein’s business standing.
Kevin Meara will step up as acting mayor for Hamilton Township after John Bencivengo, who was found guilty of corruption, extortion and other charges, stepped down.
HAMILTON — Acting Mayor Kevin Meara has become the target of a defamation suit by a township employee who says Meara portrayed him as a sexual predator in order to get him fired and to prevent people from doing business with him.
Paul Tessein, a public works inspector, also names the township in the suit, and contends that Meara misused his position as a member of the township council to undermine Tessein’s business standing.
He said Meara told his direct supervisor he was a sex addict.
Tessein said he reported Meara’s alleged conduct to township officials a year ago, but nothing was done about it.
The suit says that Tessein has been “shunned” and has suffered “severe and painful emotional distress.”
He is seeking an unspecified amount of damages and attorneys fees.
Reached by phone yesterday, Meara, who serves as council president, declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying he has not had an opportunity to review the allegations with township attorney Lindsay Burbage.
“I pray for Paul,” Meara said. “Clearly he has some issues, and if this is his recourse for addressing them, I’m sure that it will take its course. It’s a shame.”
According to the court filing, Meara and Tessein were friends for many years and founded an addiction recovery organization called City of Angels together in 2009.
Since then Tessein has disassociated himself from City of Angels and started his own addiction recovery organization called Nation of Angels.
The lawsuit says that when the two were working together, Meara praised Tessein publicly, but after Tessein has disassociated himself with City of Angels, Meara began “privately trashing his name, casting him in a false light, interfering with his employment and using his public office in a malicious campaign” to smear Tessein’s “good name and integrity.”
Also included in the suit is an e-mail dated Nov. 20, 2011, from Meara to an undisclosed recipient saying that several women from City of Angels have told him that Tessein had made unwanted sexual advances toward them, making them uncomfortable.
Yesterday, Meara confirmed that he wrote the e-mail.
“It was beyond me that Paul was using ‘interventions’ to move in and take advantage of women when they were in such a vulnerable state,” Meara wrote in the e-mail.
Also in the e-mail, Meara wrote that it bothered him that he couldn’t do something to help the women. “I have been personally tormented,” Meara wrote.
The lawsuit says that all of the accusations made by Meara are false and that Tessein “has not made unwanted sexual advances on vulnerable women.”
Tessein declined to comment, according to his attorney Matthew Wolf.
“He does not want to be in the media,” Wolf said. “He finds the allegations very offensive. They are not true.”
Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609)989-5717.