A developer from Remsenburg is breathing a sigh of relief after a judge threw out a lawsuit filed seven years earlier by Riverhead Town, alleging that he and his late partner illegally cleared land that they once owned in the municipality.
On April 23, Southampton Town Justice Deborah Kooperstein dismissed all charges against Laurence Oxman and his corporation, Riverhead Park Corp. In 2004, Mr. Oxman, 54, along with his business partner, Stanley Blumenstein, were slapped with 51 violations by Riverhead Town for clearing 13 acres that they owned at the time off Route 58, near Tanger Outlets, for agricultural purposes. The town also sued Mr. Oxman in New York State Supreme Court for allegedly violating the town code.
“It was a hard-fought victory, but a victory earned,” said Mr. Oxman’s attorney, Andrew Campanelli, this week. “Quite frankly, it was rather clear from the facts of this case that there was a vendetta against Mr. Oxman. Mr. Oxman has now been vindicated.”
Mr. Oxman explained that his legal troubles began when Riverhead Park Corp., a company in which both he and Mr. Blumenstein were the main stockholders, purchased the wooded property. The company was formed with the sole purpose of purchasing and developing that specific property; at the time, the men planned to build a storage facility or warehouse there.
But after completing the purchase the partners learned that the land was being rezoned from industrial to retail. Not wanting to build retail stores, they decided to clear the land so they could farm it and run an operation similar to the popular Anderson’s Farm Stand, also on Route 58 in Riverhead. The partners were looking for a way to offset their property taxes until they figured out how to develop the land, and agriculture was one of the permitted uses at the time of the purchase, Mr. Oxman said.
In October 2004, the partners hired a company to clear the land before the zoning was changed. The next day, Riverhead Town Police showed up at the property with stop-work orders and threatened to arrest both Mr. Oxman and Mr. Blumenstein.
“It was unbelievable,” Mr. Oxman recalled last week.
He explained that the case took so long because Riverhead Town tried to stall the process. Mr. Oxman also alleges that the town led him to believe that they could reach an out-of-court settlement, though that never materialized.
Robert Kozakiewicz, the attorney for Riverhead Town, did not return calls seeking comment this week.
According to a press release from Mr. Campanelli, the town sued Mr. Oxman and Mr. Blumenstein in State Supreme Court in an attempt to force the men to restore the property to its original condition. In October 2009, State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Farneti dismissed the case and denied an appeal in October 2010.
Mr. Blumenstein died in November 2010, before the violations case could be heard in Southampton Town Justice Court. In October 2011, the case went before Judge Kooperstein because both Riverhead judges recused themselves for unknown reasons.
After six months of testimony that included the calling of 11 witnesses by the town, Judge Kooperstein dismissed all 51 charges, ruling that Riverhead Town officials “failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt as required by law,” according to the release.
“All 51 charges have been dropped and the town representatives have accomplished nothing more than wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars in Riverhead taxpayers’ money for a personal vendetta,” Mr. Campanelli said.
Now, Mr. Oxman is taking the offensive. In November, he filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that his civil rights were violated by Riverhead Town. He said he is seeking $15 million in damages, even though the original litigation states that he is seeking $10 million. Mr. Campanelli explained that he plans to amend the dollar amount later this month.
“I said enough is enough,” Mr. Oxman said this week.
Over the past seven-plus years, Mr. Oxman said he lost the property in question after being forced to file for bankruptcy to pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. Now, he is awaiting his day in court.
“I have been waiting for many years to have my day in court and to be able to explain my side of the story,” Mr. Oxman said. “I didn’t say an awful lot in my defense—I was ridiculed and made fun of by the Town Board and the supervisor, but I always felt it was just a matter of time before I would be cleared of their allegations.”
Mr. Oxman pointed out that former Riverhead Town Supervisor Phil Cardinale was at the helm of the town when he and his late partner were slapped with the lawsuit.
Erin McKinley on May 2, 2012