Battle sparked by $348 legal bill costs ex-Cape prosecutor $900,000

A $348 legal bill will now cost Cape May County’s former prosecutor $900,000. While prosecutor, Robert Taylor three times has then-Wildwood Mayor Gary DeMarzo and solicitor Samuel Lashman indicted, claiming the legal fees paid to Lashman on DeMarzo’s behalf were illegal. Taylor had the men indicted three times between July 2011 an d 2012, all thrown out. After Taylor lost an appeal to the Supreme Court, DeMarzo and Lashman sued for malicious prosecution in 2014. “(DeMarzo) went through hell for a period of 3½ years, that never should have happened,” his attorney, Lou Barbone, told BreakingAC. “I hope this is a loud and clear notice that you can’t lie to a grand jury.” The case was more than a decade in the making. It began when DeMarzo took unpaid leave of his position as a Wildwood police officer to become a city official. Commissioners argued he couldn’t have both positions. But he won in court. Then, he had the city reimburse him for Lashman’s legal fees, $348.75. Taylor had him indicted, saying the court ruled the city could not reimburse. Then-Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Albert Garofolo dismissed the indictment. An appellate panel upheld that saying that the court had not ruled the city couldn’t pay the money back but that the court couldn’t compel the city to do so, “a crucial distinction,” the appellate court wrote in 2014. An Atlantic County civil jury agreed this week that it was malicious prosecution, and awarded compensatory damages of $300,000 for DeMarzo and $275,000 for Lashman. But before they could decide on punitive damage, an agreement was made to pay out $900,000 total. DeMarzo will receive $470,000 and will get $430,000.