(Updated) Has Priano's "Mapp" video exposed him to a lawsuit?

Screenshot of video from Priano's "Queen City Pride"
Facebook page. This ... is a smocking gun?

Priano also posted this photo ... but
what does it "prove"?

NOTE: Post updated at 9:46 AM to include the photo from the Facebook page.

It is no secret that Timothy Priano is not a fan of Plainfield Mayor Adrian O. Mapp.

Priano is a regular at City Council where he berates the members over an old performance bond issue with the duCret Art School property.

(First, duCret has no claim or standing in relation to the performance bond put up by a developer who went bust; and second, the Council has no authority or role in settling the dispute. Oh, did I mention that his comments are captured and broadcast by PCTV? Silly me.)

Priano's latest escapade, though, seems to have crossed a line that would leave him exposed to a lawsuit should Mayor Mapp wish to pursue one.

Apparently on Sunday (December 16), he posted to his "Queen City Pride" Facebook page (see here) a photograph and a brief video (6 seconds long) with the tag --

"Mapp's house using a DPW worker to decorate his house!"

The grainy, low-quality video is shot from a car driving by the mayor's house, in the rain. The quality is so low that all that can be made out is a person with their back to the street futzing with something near the shrubs at the front of the house.

You cannot tell if it's a man or a woman, nor see a face or any identifying features. It appears the person is wearing a yellow rain slicker (it was raining, after all).

The photo, though of better quality, shows a person obscured by a ladder -- I could not even tell if they were facing the camera.

That is all that can be said with any certainty.

So, for Priano to allege that the Mayor was using a DPW worker to put up Christmas decorations is waaaaay over the line.

Using city workers to provide services to an elected official on the city dime is an indictable offense.

Joey Torres, the former mayor of Paterson, went to prison for using city workers -- who were paid overtime -- to perform work at his home and the business of a relative (see more about Torres here).

That was after NBC Channel 4 ran an exposé based on camera footage obtained by a private investigator.

It seems that Priano may have followed his usual ready-shoot-aim mantra, where he jumps to conclusions before investigating matters thoroughly.

If you're going to accuse Mayor Mapp of breaking the law, you damn well better offer better video and photo than this and identify an employee by name.

Further, if the video was shot on a Sunday, as the Facebook page suggests, you would also have to prove that the person was not only an employee, but was on the clock at the time.

All this seems a bit too much for Priano to bother with.

And Mayor Mapp has to suffer an unjust accusation based on flimsy "evidence" -- with more than 600 views of the accusation.

This is hardly a confidence builder in Priano, someone who puts himself forward as a champion of the community.

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 -- Dan Damon [ follow ]

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